CACHE COUNTY, Utah, Feb. 17, 2017 (Gephardt Daily) — A 14-year-old Cache County girl who went missing from her home Thursday evening was found early Friday morning injured in a dry canal, police said.
A news release from the Cache County Sheriff’s Office Friday morning said the girl had significant injuries that required transportation to a local hospital. She was then flown by medical helicopter to Primary Children’s Hospital, in Salt Lake City, for further treatment.
The news release stated that at approximately 6:30 p.m. Thursday, the CCSO took a report of the juvenile female from Amalga who had not returned from school. Amalga is four miles northwest of Smithfield.
“Deputies made contact with the girl’s parents and initiated a missing person report,” the news release said. “Deputies discovered that the female had been in contact with family and had planned to be home about 4 p.m. Deputies spent most of the night making contact with acquaintances and checking addresses that the girl frequented. By about midnight, deputies ran out of leads and the girl had not been located.”
An attempt-to-locate request was broadcast through Cache County and the missing girl’s information was entered into the National Crime Information Center database.
At approximately 12:45 a.m., Smithfield City Police officers were dispatched to a report of a medical situation involving a teenage female, who had been located in a dry canal east of Sky View High School in Smithfield.
Police learned that the girl found was the 14-year-old whom the CCSO was looking for. It was people familiar with the girl who were actively looking for her who located the teen, the news release said.
The Smithfield City Police Department is now leading an investigation into the circumstances surrounding this incident. No information on how the girl was injured or how she ended up at the incident location has been made public.
Investigators from the CCSO and the Logan City Police Department are assisting the SCPD.
“This incident is in the beginning stages of investigation,” the news release said. “There are not enough substantiated details of the extent of the girl’s injuries and the circumstances of her discovery to release yet. Further information will be released as it becomes available.”
This case is considered an isolated incident and there is no threat to the public, the news release said.
The name of the girl will not be released by law enforcement at this time because of her juvenile status and the fact that this is an active investigation.
Gephardt Daily will have more on this developing story as information becomes available.
