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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.