Utah
Rancher, 21, vanishes while walking to work in ‘extremely rural’ Utah community
A 21-year-old rancher with a history of running away vanished last month while walking to her new job in an “extremely rural” part of Utah.
Elizibeth “Lizzy” Green was reported missing April 17 after she failed to show up to her shift at the ranch in the remote community of Callao, the Juab County Sheriff’s Office said.
“I’m kind of at the point where I think maybe she had somebody pick her up,” Vanessa Simmons, Green’s mother, told 2KUTV Monday.
“I just don’t know who that is, or if they actually picked her up, or if they didn’t come and then she went trying to walk through the desert.”
According to a search warrant, Green had a history of mental health issues and had run away from home in the past, but this instance proved much more distressing.
Green typically maintained an open line of communication with her family when she ran away, and usually returned within a day or so, those close to the young woman told cops.
This time, however, her phone and social media accounts have gone silent, and all attempts to ping her devices have turned up fruitless, the warrant states.
The sheer remoteness of the Callao community has also raised alarm bells for investigators.
Callao, originally part of the Pony Express, is located in northern Snake Valley. Less than 12,000 people populate the entirety of Juab County, according to the Census Bureau.
“This area of our county is approximately three hours away from any major cities and requires travel on dirty roads,” the warrant states.
Deputies descended on the unnamed ranch just one day after Green vanished but found no trace of the young woman.
The ranch owner told authorities she never arrived for her shift and that he hadn’t had any contact with his new employee.
Search and rescue teams also combed the walking route Green would have taken to her job, as well as the surrounding area, but were “unable to locate Elizibeth or anything to determine where she could have gone,” according to the warrant.
“Based on the information that we have received, we are concerned about the possibility that Elizibeth is in danger of serious bodily injury or death,” the warrant states.
“It is unknown if Elizibeth is in danger and lost in the vast desert, or if someone that she was communicating with met with her and is holding her against her will.”
Green was last seen wearing a pink tie-dye high-cut hoodie, a light blue pair of jeans and black Converse sneakers, according to a missing person poster. She was also carrying a white backpack purse.
She stands at 5’11,” has brown hair and “green or hazel eyes depending on what she is wearing,” her mother said.
SALT LAKE CITY — A California man in Utah, as part of his duties with the National Guard, is accused of trying to solicit sex from a young teenager.
Joshua Ruben Rodriguez, 29, of Fresno, was charged Tuesday in 3rd District Court with attempted rape of a child, a first-degree felony, and enticement of a minor, a second-degree felony.
The investigation began when an agent with the Utah State Bureau of Investigation posed as a 13-year-old girl on a “popular social media site … in an attempt to locate and apprehend adults attempting to have sexual contact with children,” according to charging documents.
On April 16, Rodriguez sent the agent a message — believing he was talking to a teen girl — that stated, “I’ll be direct with you, I would like to get to know you and (have sex with) your mind into a daze to where you feel like a woman,” according to charging documents.
When the “girl” asked if he had a problem with her age, Rodriguez replied, “I don’t have a problem with your age,” the charges state.
The agent told Rodriguez to meet at an apartment complex in Salt Lake County where the girl lived, claiming her mother would be gone. When Rodriguez arrived, he was taken into custody, the charges state.
“(Rodriguez) does not have ties to Utah. He is a resident of Fresno, California. (He) was in town as part of his military service with the California National Guard,” prosecutors stated in charging documents while requesting he be held without bail pending trial.
ST. GEORGE, Utah (KUTV) — One person was hospitalized at the St. George Regional Hospital after a car rolled and caught fire just south of the Utah-Arizona border.
The Beaver Dam and Littlefield Fire Department in Arizona said its crews responded to the crash near the Black Rock Road exit – roughly two miles south of the state border – on Sunday night.
Upon arrival, crews put out the car fire and found the driver had left the scene. A single occupant, who was able to get out of the car on their own, was transported to the hospital by a Beaver Dam ambulance.
MORE | Crashes
Their condition has not been publicly released.
Details on what led to the crash and the condition of the driver were not immediately available.
The Beaver Dam and Littlefield Fire Department said law enforcement investigated the scene.
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SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Jazz missed out on the NBA Playoffs, but still scored a big win thanks to a coin flip.
In Monday’s tiebreaker coin flip to determine who had the fourth-worst record in the league last season, the Jazz came out winners over the Sacramento Kings, who had the same 22-60 record.
Had the Jazz lost the coin flip, they would have been fifth in NBA Draft Lottery odds. Only the worst four teams are guaranteed to remain within the top eight of the lottery.
If Utah had fallen to fifth, there would have been the chance they could have dropped out of the top 8 teams in the lottery, and owed the draft pick to Oklahoma City, which was top-8 protected in a previous trade.
The Jazz now have an 11.5 percent chance to win the first overall pick in the NBA Draft Lottery, which is scheduled for Sunday, May 10.
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