Update: Search efforts intensify for missing 5-year-old Logan girl; police drain irrigation canals near child’s home

Logan Police officials, joined by by experts from other agencies including the FBI, are conducting a search for 5-year-old Elizabeth Jessica Shelley (inset), who went missing on May 25, 2019. Photo: Gephardt Daily/Patrick Benedict; Logan Police Department
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CACHE COUNTY, Utah, May 25, 2019 (Gephardt Daily) — Renewed search efforts are underway for a 5-year-old Logan girl.

The child, Elizabeth Jessica Shelley, vanished on Saturday morning from the westside Logan home she shared with her mother and her mother’s boyfriend.

Her 21-year-old uncle, Alex Whipple, the prime suspect in the case, was last seen in the home about 3 a.m. but had vanished, as has the child sometime during the night.

Logan Police Department updated the search efforts on Facebook Sunday morning:

“The FBI and local agencies worked through the night finishing search warrants and following up on leads. The main suspect Alex Whipple continued to be uncooperative and was booked into the Cache County Jail on an FTA (failure to appear) warrant for absconding from probation.”

In the meantime, searchers are continuing to comb the neighborhood on Logan’s near westside, going house to house and yard to yard in hopes of finding the child, who investigators say has likely been “harmed.”

Searchers Sunday also drained a number of irrigation canals that criss-cross the neighborhood.

Officials also added they are grateful to the public for their cooperation staying out of the search area.

“Thank you again for your assistance in staying out of the area,” the post said. “We know there are many who want to help and there are some who think they are helping by posting their concern about the perceived lack of details of this investigation. They do not have all the information because we cannot release everything pertinent to this investigation.”

Elizabeth’s mother told police she last saw her at 2 a.m. Saturday. It was about 9:30 a.m. when Elizabeth’s mother and the mother’s boyfriend discovered the child missing. They reported her disappearance at about 10 a.m., a Logan City Police official has said.

At that time, Whipple also was missing, but had left his skateboard behind, the scanner transmission said. In addition, the door to the residence had been left open, the dispatcher said.

Logan Police officials initially put out a message asking the public’s help to find Whipple and the child, whose name had not been released at that point. That Facebook post went up at about noon on Saturday.

The post was updated at about 3:30 p.m. to say Whipple had been taken into custody.

According to multiple reports, law enforcement officials found Whipple walking in an area near Hyrum.

Talking live on Facebook, Logan Police Captain Tyson Budge said that Whipple is “not being that cooperative, so we are still searching for Elizabeth.”

Budge said police have found “some certain items of clothing that make us believe he was with her after (later than) he said he was.

“At this point, all we can really hope for is to locate her and find her OK,” Budge said. “The unfortunate thing is we have all the adults accounted for, so the obvious conclusion is she’s in a lot of danger.”

Budge said that search teams have now refocused on the area around the child’s residence and a few other specific sites, in part because Whipple has no access to transportation.

Agencies participating in the search are the Cache County Sheriff’s Office and Search and Rescue, Adult Parole and Probation, the Logan Police Department, and K-9 units.

The initial post described the child as as 3 feet 6 inches tall, with shoulder-length curly brown hair and with choppy bangs. She has brown eyes, and was believed to be wearing either a red top and blue jeans or a teal-colored plaid skirt.

Logan Police officials also posted on Facebook they are asking residents in the area between 300 South to 100 North, and 300 West to 600 West who have video surveillance, including smart doorbells, to check their videos and cameras for the hours between 2 a.m. and noon on Saturday.

Police want any suspicious activity to be reported to the non-emergency dispatch number 435-753-7555, not 911.

4 COMMENTS

  1. God, I pray for this child. Return her to us if that is in your will, take her into your loving heart and comfort her until we see her again.

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