Remains found believed to be those of Utah woman reported missing months ago

KANE COUNTY, Utah — The remains of a woman reported missing in early December were reportedly found Monday in Kane County.

Courtney Townsend, 33, was last seen Nov. 16, when her mother reported to the St. George Police Department that her car had been stolen. Three days later, on November 19, the stolen car was found in Kane County, stuck on rocks and burned in the forest south of Duck Creek.

“When she went from daily contact with my parents to no contact with anyone, that's when we started to really worry,” said Dallas Jimenez, Townsend's sister.

A few weeks after she was last seen, on Dec. 2, Townsend's mother filed a missing person's report for her daughter.

According to Jimenez, the remains were found not far from where the car was discovered.

“There's a fence, I don't have to look for it anymore. There's this fence, I guess,” Jimenez said. “We know where she is, but now we have all the questions. The whys, what happened, and what was going through her head if she went alone.”

Officials said search efforts were hampered by snow in the area, making a thorough search impossible until it melted.

“If they had done the searches when they found the car, we might have found my sister,” she said.

Lt. Alan Alldredge said search and rescue teams found nothing when they approached the site in early May.

“Four hundred hours of work and a few hundred kilometers traveled, rails we searched in the area where the car was, trying to locate it,” he said.

On Monday, an individual told authorities he was riding his ATV in the Duck Creek Ridge area and found clothing on the side of the road.

A search team consisting of the Kane County Sheriff's Office, search and rescue members and trained human remains dogs was sent to search the area. That's when they found human remains.

“Evidence collected at the scene leads investigators to believe the remains are those of Courtney Townsend,” officials reported.

The remains will be transferred to the Utah State Medical Examiner's Office for further analysis and confirmation of identity. Officials told FOX 13 News that while they do not suspect foul play, the case remains under investigation.

“We think maybe she was just heading towards that road, maybe the car seemed to have centered on some rocks and caught fire. That's a possible scenario, it was just an accident,” he said. Alldredge said.

Jimenez said his sister's death was a “complete mystery” and “nothing matters.”

“We simply don’t have the answers that would truly turn the page,” she said.