February 14, 2008
Utah Couple Was Resourceful

By Dave Maxwell, Staff Writer

LOST. Not the ABC-TV program, but the ordeal of Thomas and Tamitha Garner of Kearns, Utah. Stranded for 12 days with their dog in the deep snows of Modena Canyon in Utah, the pair was found February 6 by a snowplow driver. An intensive search effort by air and ground units had covered thousands of miles of snow-covered mountains and desert, but failed to find them.

Lincoln County Sheriff Kerry Lee said his office had received a call from the Iron County Sheriff’s Department requesting help with a search effort after relatives had not heard from the couple. Lee said units from the Civil Air Patrol and Nevada Air National Guard at Nellis Air Base were involved. Dr. Adam Levy of Dry Valley made some flights in his private plane as well. Search units even went into the Tule Desert area.

During the search, there was no reported use of the couple’s credit card or contact by cell phone with any family members. On February 1, after covering everywhere they could think of, Sheriff Lee suspended the search, saying, “The situation looked grim.”

Leroy Davenport, a rescuer involved in the search, died Sunday, February 3; authorities believe he may have been exhausted after having to dig his snowmobile out of deep snow on Saturday. Several hundred attended the funeral services February 6.

Experienced campers, the Garners knew what to do, although being helplessly stuck in the snow was not in their plans for the venture along the border of Lincoln County, Nevada and Iron County, Utah, the weekend of January 26. They were on a trip to photograph wild horses. They were last seen January 26 at McCrosky’s Y Service in Panaca. They had left their home in the Salt Lake City suburb of Kearns two days before.

After getting the truck so stuck in the snow that Garner said he couldn’t turn around, they managed to keep their heads about them and settled in for a while. They survived by rationing what little food they had, even resorting to eating dog food with their dog Medusa, and starting the truck periodically to keep warm. Nearly running out of food, they finally decided to hike out for help. Thomas Garner, 40, said he used the seat cushions from their Dodge Dakota pickup as snowshoes to break a trail in the sometimes waist deep snow for his wife whose only footwear was tennis shoes. Iron County Sheriff Mike Gower said that the couple was dressed in jeans and light coats.

They hiked for three days before coming upon the snowplow driver Wednesday afternoon. The area is about 42 miles north of Utah Highway 56, near the Nevada/Utah border, and is away from areas that were heavily searched.

Jordan Smith, a road maintenance worker for Iron County, stated that the Garners had ignored a “road closed” sign and had eventually gotten stuck.

Charles Morris, Iron County Emergency Services Director and Search and Rescue Commander, said they defied the odds, “I thought there was no way they could have survived spending those nights in the cold weather like they did.”