LeAnn Emry was 24 when she left for what she told her parents was a caving trip to Mexico in January 2003; that was the last time they saw her. A few weeks later her car was found abandoned in a remote area near the Book Cliffs in Utah with her purse and other belongings inside but her credit cards missing. Early family requests for a formal investigation were initially met with suggestions she might be a runaway.

In March 2009 human remains located in a remote, mountainous part of eastern Utah were identified by DNA as Emry’s. An autopsy later determined her death was a homicide. Investigators say Scott Lee Kimball, an FBI informant who had been traveling with Emry around the time she disappeared, led authorities to her body. A spent bullet found near the remains matched a gun Kimball owned, and prosecutors alleged he killed Emry after she became entangled in his criminal activities.

Kimball pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in Emry’s death as part of a deal to avoid the death penalty and was sentenced to 70 years. He gave shifting accounts of events and was to lead authorities to multiple victims’ remains; some locations he provided did not produce bodies. If anyone knew LeAnn’s travels or saw her car near the Book Cliffs in early 2003, please share what was observed.