OASIS, Utah, May 23, 2016 (Gephardt Daily) — The 52-year-old Oasis woman found deceased near State Route 6 nearly a week after her SUV was located in a remote part of southwest Utah County appears to have died from hypothermia, according to the medical examiner.
Sgt. Spencer Cannon from Utah County Sheriff’s Office said Stacy Jo Morrill, missing since May 15, was found Friday halfway between the Dividend Road and SR-6.
Her car was located near a mining pit on Dividend Road on May 15, about two miles away from where the body was found.
Morrill reportedly did not take credit cards or her cell phone with her.
A news release from Utah County Sheriff’s Office on May 16 said deputies were dispatched to a report of the abandoned vehicle on the Dividend Road at 7:23 p.m. May 15.
The statement said the road is in a remote area, a few miles east of Eureka.
“A man and woman driving in the area reported seeing a silver Jeep Grand Cherokee on Saturday evening with the doors open,” the statement said.
“They attributed it to someone being in the area sightseeing. The same couple, from Eureka, drove by the Jeep again Sunday evening and saw that the doors were still open. That is when they called dispatchers.
“Deputies collected information from the Jeep and identified the registered owners as a man and woman from Oasis, Utah, a few miles south of Delta in Millard County. At the request of Utah County deputies, Millard County Sheriff’s Office deputies made contact with a man at the home. Deputies with the UCSO also spoke to that man.”
The man explained that his wife left their home sometime between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. May 14.
When deputies responded May 15 they had assistance from Utah County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue and a helicopter with Utah Department of Public Safety.
Search efforts resumed the next morning with the Search and Rescue crew, the county’s Mounted Posse, a fixed-wing aircraft and a Search and Rescue helicopter.
Some items believed to belonged to Morrill were found in and near her vehicle — the silver Grand Cherokee — but there were no indications that she had been injured or that foul play is involved.
Cannon said last Friday night that police received a call Friday afternoon.
“Some family members of Stacie Morrill came back out here, looking for her,” Cannon said.
“We’d had search and rescue part of three different days, and one of those days included an extensive canine search, none of them turned up anything that had led us to where she was but the family members came through an area, they found her.”
Cannon said investigators did not see anything about the situation that was immediately suspicious.
“It appeared she walked there, and it does not appear that she suffered any violence,” Cannon added. “Her vehicle appeared to be in functioning condition and it didn’t appear that there was anything wrong with it.”
According to her husband and other family members, the spot where her car was left is in an area she hadn’t been to before.
“The area the body was found in was remote, with no trails, businesses or old mining operations,” Cannon said. “There’s nothing there, there’s no obvious reason why she would walk there.”
