DAGGETT COUNTY, Utah, April 20, 2020 (Gephardt Daily) — Officials believe they have found the body of a man who was last seen camping in the Brown’s Park area of Daggett County earlier this month.
Forty-four-year-old Leonard Corby “Corb” Fisher was reported missing April 4 after no one had seen or heard from him since April 1.
A sheriff’s deputy and two state Division of Wildlife Resources conservation officers went to the area on the morning of April 5 and found an abandoned truck that had been lent to Fisher. They also found his campsite with miscellaneous personal property, including firearms, the sheriff’s office said at the time.
The active search for Fisher resumed Saturday, April 18, with the support of sheriff’s office search and rescue crews from Uintah County in Utah and Moffat County, Colorado, a statement released Monday said.
Searchers, working with dogs, were unable to find Fisher on Saturday and continued the search Sunday, until inclement weather forced them to stop, according to Daggett County Emergency Management Director Travis Dupaix.
The search resumed Monday, again with the help of search crews from Uintah and Moffatt counties.
Shortly before 11:30 a.m., searchers found a man’s body about 2.5 miles from Fisher’s last known location, Daggett County Sheriff Erik Bailey said.
Fisher’s Colorado driver license was in a wallet found with the body, the news release said.
Next of kin was notified early Monday evening after the body had been recovered.
“Based on the location and the belongings found at the scene, we believe the body is that of Mr. Fisher,” Bailey said. “On behalf of my office and the searchers involved in the effort to find Mr. Fisher, I extend my sincere condolences to his family and friends.”
Investigators processed the area where the body was found. There did not appear to be any obvious evidence of foul play, Bailey said. The body has been sent to the Utah State Medical Examiner’s Office for autopsy to determine cause of death and officially confirm identity.
In Monday’s news release, it was explained that the active search earlier in the month had to be discontinued because of “the limited resources of the sheriff’s office and ongoing efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19.”
“Daggett County currently has no confirmed cases of COVID-19, but is surrounded by counties in Utah, Colorado and Wyoming where there are confirmed cases,” the news release states. “The county has no medical facilities and extremely limited EMS services. The sheriff’s office has four full-time deputies, including the sheriff, and its search and rescue team has only 10 active members.”
Sheriff Bailey expressed his gratitude to the search crews who volunteered to help with the search, and to others who had planned to assist on Monday before Fisher’s body was found.
