Parents of Missing Boy Scout Seek Help

sfgate.com ^ | 6/20/05 | Associated Press

[SmithL]

Salt Lake City -- The parents of an 11-year-old Boy Scout missing in the Utah wilderness pleaded for continued help on Monday, a day after a fruitless search by thousands of volunteers, some on horseback or riding ATVs.

About 3,000 volunteers searched Sunday for the boy, Brennan Hawkins of Bountiful, who was last seen near a climbing wall at the 8,500-foot elevation Scouting site in the High Uintas, about 80 miles east of Salt Lake City.

"We look out into this darkness now and somewhere my son is out there," Brennan's father, Toby Hawkins, said Monday on NBC's "Today" show. "If you can find time to come up here and help us, please do. That's what we need now. We need people to come up and help."

Summit County Sheriff Dave Edmunds said searches of the rugged wilderness had turned up no evidence so far, but investigators remain hopeful that the boy is simply lost. Nonetheless, investigators were exploring the possibility of foul play.

"There has been quite a number of people up here over this weekend. There's individuals that came up to the Scout camp for training, there's people that have been camping in the general vicinity," Edmunds told CBS'"The Early Show.""I've got my detectives out there right now trying to ascertain exactly who was up here in the woods and make sure we didn't have a predator or something of that nature."

[SmithL]

I hope he's OK.

[Kentucky]

Prayers up for this Scout and his family.

[dead]

"I've got my detectives out there right now trying to ascertain exactly who was up here in the woods and make sure we didn't have a predator or something of that nature."

I heard on the news that this is the second boy scout to disappear in the area. That’s not a good sign. Hope they find him soon.

[Sacajaweau]

This is terrible and sadder because there was another kid last year that they never found. These kids have to learn to not go off alone, carry flares, some kind of communication. My little walkie talkies cost $10 bucks. Make them mandatory equipment.

My prayers to the family.

[yellowdoghunter]

Prayers for this family.....I pray he was not kidnapped.

[ghost of nixon]

two scouts missing the past two years - could be a psycho hanging out and kidnapping kids who wander off by themselves

[Blood of Tyrants]

I hope he is okay, too. But riding around on an ATV doesn't seem to make a great deal of sense because your sense of hearing is completely lost.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Unless he was snatched by a mountain lion. Or even worse, a two legged predator.

[MarMema]

Garrett Bardsley

[MarMema]

A sense of bewilderment is growing among searchers in the Uintas. This is not overly rugged terrain. The weather is warm and appears unlikely to drop below freezing any time soon. This land - used by Boy Scouts for generations - is filled with roads and trails, and having sustained a large fire a few years back is not overgrown. So why, searchers lamented Sunday as the sun set over the evergreen-lined horizon, has there been no sign of Brennan Hawkins?

Meanwhile, another point of speculation and concern grows. What if the boy did not become lost at all? It's a possibility that Summit County Sheriff Dave Edmunds says he must accept, though at this point, "we don't have any reason to believe there has been a kidnapping." Still, the sheriff says, he has ordered his detectives to begin a criminal investigation - to explore who was in this stretch of wilderness and when.

[Andy'smom]

That was my first thought - mountain lion. Full grown adults have been attacked, killed and then the victim is dragged away. An 11 year old wouldn't stand much of a chance.

[Blood of Tyrants]

I got to thinking about the mountain lion theory and I don't know if it was a big cat or not. Mountain lions will hide their prey, but it seems that it wouldn't drag the body too far.

[Andy'smom]

I don't know how far they are capable of dragging a body. But there was a situation in California where a couple were in a wilderness park with their 2 kids and a mountain lion grabbed their little girl without making a sound - no screams, no tracks, nothing. The only reason her parents were able save her was that the mother saw something out of the corner of her eye. The kid just disappeared into thin air. The parents started searching and couldn't find anything. They eventually heard a moan and tracked the sound when they found the cat with the girl still in it's mouth dragging her away.
Amazingly, the girl lived even though her skull was crushed. The lion was beaten off with a stick.
I know that after they feed on their prey, they cover the remain with dirt and debris to hide the body.

[Blood of Tyrants]

I have heard that on the safaris that they take you by elephant back in India through tiger country, they tell you to "STAY CLOSE TO THE ELEPHANT" and emphasize it over and over. There was a video where the party stopped, got off the elephant and a guy just went to the edge of the clearing 20 feet from the elephant to relieve himself when a tiger snatched him. Unfortunately, he did not survive.

[Andy'smom]

Weird, huh? I don't know but when I heard that they never found any trace of the child missing last year that's what occurred to me. Hopefully, the kid will turn up safe.

[mware]

Cute kid. Prayers up for him and his family.

[lsee]

Here's info about the boy who went missing last year, Garrett Bardsley, Missing child

[MarMema]

Brennan Hawkins

[Sacajaweau]

Oh, so sad....

Last year I bought 10 walkie talkie's...enough for my daughter, son in law, grandchildren and guests at their 100 acre camp. It's just a little helper to keep track of everyone. They're half the size of a cigarette pack and we button them in the kid's pants.

[MarMema]

Looks like they are scaling down the search now. I guess it has been three days.