Body of missing Hooper woman found

WEST HAVEN, Weber County — Family members of a Hooper woman who was found dead in a field Sunday believe police "slacked off" and didn't try hard enough to find her.

Authorities confirmed they found the body of who they believe is Katherine "Kay" Doutre, 51, shortly after midnight in a field near 3100 West and 4000 South in West Haven, but an Ogden woman and her boyfriend said they spotted the body 10 days before and called police.

Weber County Sheriff's Capt. Klint Anderson said the body showed signs of weathering and decomposition, suggesting Doutre died "at least several days ago."

However, Ericka Rountree said she and her boyfriend called 911 after noticing the body on Nov. 19, but despite their efforts with police, the call was dubbed "fraudulent."

A dispatcher told them to go home, and an officer would call asking for help finding the body if needed, she said on Sunday.

"(An officer) did call us. I gave him directions over the phone and told him it was on 40th South, in a field near the turn off for the road, an undeveloped one," the 27-year-old woman said. "He said he would call back and have us come meet him if he couldn't find it. We didn't hear anything after that."

Anderson said it was a Roy police officer who responded to the call.

"He was the one who went out and apparently didn't find the body, and closed (the case) out," Anderson said. "We did not find out about the body until about 30 minutes after midnight this morning."

Rountree searched through missing persons ads and looked through newspapers, finding no hint the body had been identified or even found. Finally, a friend told her about a woman from Hooper who was the aunt of a mutual friend, and Rountree returned to the field Saturday night, surprised to find the body still there.

"So we called the police and stayed there this time until they arrived," she said.

The body matched the description of Doutre, including the clothes she was last seen wearing. Anderson said officials searched the same area shortly after she was reported missing by her husband, who last saw her on Oct. 30.

"It does seem like there was a breakdown somewhere," Anderson said, referring to the failure to locate the body nearly two weeks ago.

"This last thing posed a surprise to us, too, and it shouldn't have happened," he said.

The victim's husband, Bill Doutre, who told police a month ago that his wife had been distraught, said officials were little to no help in finding his wife and he is very frustrated with how the search was carried out.

"If they'd have found her 10 days ago, maybe she'd be all right now," Bill Doutre told the Deseret News on Sunday. "I don't understand why they didn't do that. A lead's a lead. I think they just slacked off and didn't care. I don't think that's right."