DUCK CREEK VILLAGE, Utah — Human remains were located near the Duck Creek Village community in Kane County on Monday night.
2News confirming after tips were shared with 2News’ Brian Schnee that members of the Kane County Sheriff’s Office were in a specific area related to the disappearance of Courtney Lynne Townsend.
"On Monday May 27, 2024, Kane County Sheriff’s Office received a tip from an individual who was riding their ATV in the Duck Creek Ridge area about some clothing they had located on the side of a road. The individual was familiar with the Townsend case and thought the clothing might be important," KCSO wrote in a prepared news release. "Detectives and deputies from Kane County Sheriff’s Office, (KCSO), responded to the area. The investigation indicated the presence of human remains with the clothing. The KCSO staff was joined by Kane County Search and Rescue members, including dogs trained in location of human remains. Additional remains were located in area around the clothing."
"Evidence on scene leads investigators to believe the remains are those of Courtney Townsend. The remains will be transferred to the custody of the Utah State Medical Examiner’s office for further investigation and identification."
"How close were these items to the area where the car was found back in November?" 2News' Brian Schnee asked Lt. Alan Alldredge with the Kane County Sheriff's Office. "By straight line, I think it's about .6 miles from where the car was."
"Was this a matter of the snow impacted what your prior work had done? Was this an area that you already had looked and it had been covered?" asked Schnee to Lt. Alldredge. "To some extent, yes, we were up here I think two weeks ago, maybe three weeks ago, did an extensive search with our search and rescue folks, several dogs, to include dogs out of Iron County Search and Rescue as well, covered a lot of area, our people did get down in this area probably within a quarter of a mile of where this clothing was found."
According to court records, charges were filed against Townsend on November 16, 2023 for taking her mothers car and debit cards.
The records show the debit cards were used at a gas station, Home Depot and an Amazon charge on 11/16 and 11/17. Townsend was charged with theft of a motor vehicle and multiple counts of unlawful acquisition and unlawful use of a financial card.
Days after Townsend’s disappearance, a burned car was found near a water tower on Duck Creek Ridge Road in the Dixie National Forest. The car, believed to be the vehicle stolen by Townsend from her mother days prior.
"The vehicle Courtney was driving was located in in Kane County on November 19th in the forest south of Duck Creek," wrote KCSO. "The vehicle appeared to be stuck on some rocks and had burned. The car was traced back to her mother who had reported the car stolen to the St. George Police Department, (SGPD), on November 16, 2023. Courtney’s mother filed a missing persons report with St. George Police on December 2, 2023. Investigators from KCSO and SGPD have worked closely on the case over the last 6 months. Search efforts were hampered because of snow fall and a ground search was not possible until Early May when the snow had melted sufficiently."
On January 8, 2024, St. George Police Department shared a missing persons flyer with a description of Courtney Townsend. In the report, Townsend is listed as standing 4 feet, 11 inches tall, weighing approximately 110 pounds and having brown hair and blue eyes.
Kane County Sheriff’s Office conducted a search of this area in early May (11th-12th). The weekend after (19th), Townsend’s family organized a search.
"We treat everything like a criminal incident until we can rule otherwise, we start there and work our way down, so that's kind of where we're at right now," said Lt. Alldredge. "Nothing that we found right now would lead us to believe that it was any kind of foul play but again we're still sifting through a lot of evidence."
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