Police fear a missing teenage couple whose abandoned truck was discovered ten days after they went missing may have been murdered, police have revealed.
Brelynne ‘Breezy’ Otteson and Riley Powell, both 18, were reported missing on January 2.
Relatives told police that they were last seen on New Year’s Eve in December last year when they left Tooele, near Salt Lake City, to drive to Eureka.
Their truck was on January 11 hidden among trees on a side road from the highway they would have taken but the teenagers have never been seen again.
On January 16, police searched the home where Powell’s mother Mistie Carlson lives with her boyfriend Lee Shepherd, her mother, Linda Powell, and her mother’s boyfriend William ‘Clubby’ Larson after being alerted to them by a neighbor.
Details of that search became public on Monday when the search warrant obtained by police beforehand was unsealed in court.
The neighbor said they had seen Shepherd towing a car similar to the one Riley often drove on January 2, the day they were reported missing.
No one has been arrested in connection with the youngsters’ disappearance but police seized several items of property including a camouflage tie strap which they described as being ‘identical’ to one found in the driver’s seat of the teenager’s abandoned car.
Slash marks on their tires also appeared to have been made deliberately, police said.
Brelynn ‘Breezy’ Otteson and Riley Powell, both 18, have been missing since December 30. Their truck was found abandoned on January 2. Police now say it was placed there and they ‘strongly suspect’ foul play
Officers who searched the house said they believed they wound find proof of desecration of a dead body and murder.
The items they seized included drug paraphernalia and letters addressed to Riley’s mother.
The search warrant, which DailyMail.com has viewed, describes detectives suspicions and why they were led to the house.
The condition of the Cherokee Jeep when it was found on January 11 raised suspicions.
‘It had two flat tires on the passenger side and a camouflage tie down strap stuck in the driver’s side rear leaf spring.
‘Upon further inspection the rear passenger tire had a puncture in the side wall that appeared to be straight in with a smaller flat shaped object. The front passenger tire had two punctures identical to the rear tire.
There was no tear in the side wall that would indicate that the tires where moving when punctured,’ Detective Tyler Johnson, of the Sanpete/Juab County Sheriff’s Office wrote.
Suspicion grew after a neighbor told them that they had seen a blue Chevrolet car similar to the kind owned by Shepherd towing Riley and Breezy’s car down the highway.
That neighbor told them the car being towed was ‘the one Riley is always driving.’
When officers arrived at the property, they asked the two couples to come to the police station to discuss the teenagers’ disappearance.
The young couple’s dark blue Cherokee Jeep was found among trees to the side of the highway on January 11. There was a camouflage strap on the driver’s seat and it appeared to have had its tires slashed. It is pictured after being brought back to police HQ
Riley’s mother Mistie Carlson and her boyfriend Lee Shepherd live together. They claimed Riley and Breezy were last seen driving away from Tooele on New Year’s Eve. Police searched their home on January 16 and found a camouflage strap which was identical to one found at the couple’s abandoned Jeep. Mistie, who pleaded to know where her son was on Facebook, spoke voluntarily to police but Shepherd refused
Riley’s mother, grandmother and her boyfriend all gave voluntary interviews on January 15 but Shepherd, his step-father, refused to speak to police and instead left the house to go into a trailer on the property.
‘Mistie, Linda, and Clubby came willingly to the sheriff’s office. Lee refused to come and stayed at the property.
‘I observed Lee entering a enclosed camp trailer to the north of the modular home above described,’ Detective Tyler Johnson wrote.
Riley’s grandmother Linda Powell also lives at the home that was searched as does her boyfriend, William ‘Clubby’ Larson
During her interview, Riley’s mother Mistie said she had been at home on New Year’s Eve with the rest of the family at a party, the officer said.
Clubby, her mother’s boyfriend, said she was not there at all and another guest who attended the event made no mention of her being there.
In their application for the warrant, police said they suspected they would find proof that the teens had been murdered during their search of the house.
‘Affiant believes the property and evidence described above is evidence of the crime or crimes of Obstruction of Justice, Desecration of a dead human body and Homicide,’ Detective Johnson wrote.
On January 16, Jaub County Sheriff’s Office touted the search warrant and the result of it as a significant development in the case.
In a press release, they said it had become ‘highly suspicious’. ‘The circumstances surrounding the recovery of the vehicle, its condition and general placement of the vehicle is determined to be highly suspicious.
The teenagers were last seen on December 30 when relatives said they were driving from Tooele to Eureka, a distance of around 55 miles. Their car was found after they were reported missing near Cherry Creek Reservoir but they have never been seen again
Breezy and Riley lived with his grandfather in Eureka, Utah, and were said to have been on their way home when they died
‘These factors, in addition to other investigate leads and pieces of evidence, have led investigators to believe that the Jeep was dropped off there by intention and not by the two missing individuals and foul play is strongly suggested.
Breezy’s relatives did not rush to judgement after the contents of the search warrant were made public.
‘The unsealed search warrant affidavit released today in regards to the disappearance of Breezy and Riley can appear to be a shock to all.
‘The information provided in this document can appear to be alarming and create a lot of accusations and assumptions.
‘We want to remind everyone that the information released today is part of the process and all leads have to be investigated,’ her aunt, Amanda Hunt, said in a statement on Facebook on Monday.
Neither Mistie, Lee, Linda nor Clubby have commented publicly since the search warrant’s contents became public.
On January 2, Mistie wrote: ‘Has anyone seen my son Riley L. Powell? He has been missing for like two days,’ on Facebook.
The young couple were last seen on December 30, according to relatives who reported them missing