Welcome to The Senate Site

By John L. Valentine
President of the Utah State Senate

As many of our friends know, the First Lady of the Senate (Karen) and I are are members of the volunteer search and rescue team near our home. The Utah County Sheriff Search and Rescue was called this week to assist Provo City in looking for a lost BYU student, Camille Cleverly.

She was last seen by her roommates on Thursday, August 30th. When she did not come home that night, concern was raised, and the Provo Police started an investigation. Her bike was missing, but she took little else with her.

Friday morning, her ATM card was used to buy two fruit drinks at a C-store. It is presumed that it was her since a pin was used to complete the purchase. Provo Police continued to proceed as a missing person investigation, with little in the way of leads. Due to press coverage, a couple of possible sightings were reported, but they had her in various parts of the community. Nothing solid.

We became involved in the search on Tuesday afternoon, when the Search and Rescue Team was called out for an agency assist, to help search for her in various locations, including Rock Canyon, Slate Canyon, and the various trails around the base of the Mountains east of Provo. Rain and darkness terminated the search until the next day.

On Wednesday morning, the First Lady and our search dog – a smart, sweet german shepherd named Chickory - were again out looking for her. (click here, then click on the small picture below the two people embracing).

I was not able to go out that day – had to work. (Yes, I do have a "real job" as a tax attorney and my clients actually like to see me once in a while!) Still nothing, no leads, no real new evidence.

Then, the first lead: someone found the bike chained and locked at Bridal Veil Falls, in Provo Canyon. The trouble was, that indivudual cut the lock and took the bike Saturday night or Sunday morning, thus delaying discovery of this piece of the puzzle until Thursday when he finally went to the authorities.

I was working in my office Thursday afternoon, meeting with clients and trying to catch up with the paperwork of a tax practice. I had just taken my next appointment who happened to be the DPS helicopter pilot who was on standby for the search, when my cell phone rang. It was the sheriff's department, looking for the pilot and me, to see if we could "fly the cliffs", to look for anything that would help resolve this case.

We dashed to the Provo airport where the helicopter was tied down and immediately took off for Provo Canyon. The next two hours were spent flying slowly back and forth on the face of Bridal Vail Falls and then slowly flying down the Provo River. Still nothing, but we did locate a lot of potential search areas for the next day.

The next morning at 6:00 a.m., Chickory and I were out, scouring the oak brush around the mountains near the falls along with 11 other dog teams from Utah County, Duschesne County and Rocky Mountain Rescue Dogs.

Here is tonight's report on KSL. As of this writing, we still have no word on the whereabouts of Camille. She remains in our thoughts and prayers. We are thankful that so many people want to help. We are grateful for the strong community spirit in Utah, to see so many rally when the call for help goes out. Our sincere thanks to each of you for who you are and the support you give each other.

1 Comments:

 President Valentine said...

We were saddened to find Camille's body this evening. Even though it brings closure to a family and our community, it is still not the end that we all wanted.

We had three call outs today. All resulted in deaths. Not a great way to spend a Sunday.

Thanks again to the community who put so much effort into finding her.

9/10/2007 6:18 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home