How (Not) To Get Rid of a Body

Your kid comes up missing, you're scared, you're worried.

Without any information

as to where Riley and Breezy went,

it really was a needle in a haystack.

This case took a toll.

I mean, it, it consumed our lives.

Whoever did this believed that he had done such a good job,

that the police would never, ever discover him.

This person had a plan to get rid of the bodies.

I mean, it was very heinous and very evil.

And that was incredibly frustrating to us.

Why would someone do that to two teenagers?

It was a whirlwind of fear,

and it unleashed something we never even fathomed.

Riley Powell and Breezy Otteson

were reported missing on January 3rd of 2018.

And they were reported missing

by Breezy's and Riley's families.

The information that the family relayed to, uh, law enforcement

was that Riley and Breezy were in a relationship.

And that on December 29th of 2017,

Riley and Breezy were at, uh, Breezy's family house in Tooele County,

and they had left later that night.

They'd take about a 45-minute drive from Eureka

on a very desolate highway in Riley's Jeep

to return home to Eureka, uh, later that night.

But from what their families had indicated,

they never returned home.

Breezy and Riley went to school together.

And it was through that summer

that Breezy and Riley had started to date.

Riley had purchased a ring for Breezy

with the intent to propose to Breezy.

I knew that they were very young,

but I supported them in, in whatever they needed

to feel that completeness

and have some stability in their life.

Breezy kinda mellowed Riley out

and brought him around to being a better person.

And we haven't heard from 'em.

And, uh, it's just...

It wasn't, wasn't them.

So, we automatically knew something was wrong.

We're thinking, "You've got two young kids

that are traveling along this long desolate highway,

trying to get back home in the middle of winter."

It's cold, it's icy,

and we're wondering if there's a possibility

that they may have slidden off the road,

they may have had car troubles.

Eureka is a really small town.

The population is less than 1000 people,

and it's about an hour outside of Salt Lake City.

It is kind of a ghost town.

Eureka is kinda nestled in in between these mountains.

Uh, it's kind of in a canyon there.

It was an old mining town.

There are hills, there are trees,

There are several offshoots,

uh, roads that go in all different directions.

And without any information

as to where Riley and Breezy went,

it really was a needle in a haystack for us.

We don't know if they're gonna be able to survive.

You know, a night or two, do they have rations?

Do they have food? Do they have water?

So, our sense of urgency was high.

Time was against us.

So, we really felt the pressure on this one.

We conducted searches throughout, uh, these different trails

and in the mountains,

utilized search and rescue to look for these kids.

We were just kinda taken aback

by the vastness of how big this was gonna be.

And it ultimately, uh, didn't turn up anything.

So, Riley and Breezy's, um, photos

and photos of the Jeep, uh, were put out to the media.

Breezy's family made a social media account

for the missing kids so that people could be aware.

Both Riley and Breezy were active on Facebook.

So, cops subpoenaed the records

for all of their social media accounts

wondering if just maybe,

it might help find where they were.

But the process of obtaining information from Facebook

is not something that occurs overnight.

It actually takes several months.

And so, we have to press forward and we have to move on.

There are no words to describe the,

the despair, the, the helplessness,

in not knowing if the teens had gone off the road

and they were stranded somewhere,

and it is the middle of winter.

The, the helplessness

in not being able to just find them,

help them, bring them home.

All kinds of things were going through our mind at the, at the time.

We, we just, we weren't sure.

Breezy and Riley's relationship had its ups and downs.

Breezy had recently broke up with a long term boyfriend

And although the relationship was over,

there was a lot of insecurity between both Breezy and Riley.

We were scared that, you know,

there may have been some kind of a, a fight

or a, you know, altercation between Riley and Breezy,

where they could've, you know,

just gotten off the side of the road.

One of 'em could've walked off or they split up

or something.

Then on January 9th,

uh, we were able to locate the Jeep

in an area called Cherry Creek.

It's approximately 15 miles from Eureka,

out in this vast desert off the side of the road.

A search and rescue member went up in a helicopter

searching the area,

and they spotted the, the Jeep.

But when they found the Jeep

and there was no Breezy or Riley,

everybody was confused.

Our hope was that in finding the Jeep,

we would find the kids.

The Jeep was the key.

So, when the Jeep was found

and there was no Breezy and Riley,

it threw us for a whole new loop.

Who's to say if we would find 'em or not?

It, it was a whirlwind of...

unknown

and fear

and it unlocked

and unleashed something we never even fathomed.

Seventeen-year-old Breezy Otteson

and 18-year-old Riley Powell

had been missing for 10 days

before Riley's Jeep was found abandoned

at the Cherry Creek Reservoir.

But there was no sign of Breezy and Riley.

It made no sense

that either one of them would just abandon this vehicle.

Investigators wondered what could've happened.

Why did they disappear?

When we looked inside the Jeep,

we noticed that all of the belongings, uh,

their clothing, the blankets, uh, Breezy's overnight bag,

they were all thrown in the back in the cargo area,

which struck us as odd.

The obvious question is raised,

is why would you not take these with you

if you're stuck and you're trying to walk somewhere

in this cold weather for help?

Walking around to the back of the Jeep,

we then noticed that there was a ratchet tie down strap

that was camo colored.

Uh, it was hanging in the back left leaf spring

and was broken off.

This led to a lot more questions.

Were they used to tow the truck by Riley?

Were they used to tow the truck by someone else?

Who used those straps?

The windows were down

and both tires on the passenger side were flat.

We observed slashes on the tire.

They appeared to be from either a screwdriver or a knife.

They appeared to be intentional.

So, when we put all this stuff together

with the tires, the windows down

and the cold weather,

all the clothing, identification in the back,

and we're thinking that there could be foul play involved here.

After reviewing the Jeep and the surrounding area,

it was clear to investigators

that whatever happened to Riley and Breezy,

whoever did it believed that they had done such a good job

to hide the vehicle,

that they left things behind

believing the police would never, ever discover it.

When we found the Jeep and they weren't there, and...

We had put a reward out for 'em,

you know, $5000 reward.

And, uh, we posted the posters all around town.

I was numb,

but I didn't wanna break down.

I knew they...

We just needed to bring them home.

Then, within a few days,

one of the neighbors in the community came forward.

She stated that she saw a man named Lee Shepherd

towing Riley's blue Jeep

right around the time of New Year's.

Right in the middle

when Riley and Breezy were reported missing.

Interestingly, Lee Shepherd was the boyfriend

of Riley's biological mother, Mistie.

And he lived on the property that Mistie owned.

When Riley wasn't quite one,

he was taken away by the state

because his biological, you know,

mother and father were druggies.

And so they were gonna be adopted out,