Slain rail line worker’s truck found in Wyoming

Yellow ribbons and photos of Utah Transit Authority employee Kay Ricks line the UTA Trax Ballpark station in Salt Lake City, Wednesday, May 18, 2016. Law enforcement officials are looking for a possible conn…

Police say they’ve identified a body found in Wyoming as Kay Porter Ricks, a Utah Transit Authority worker who went missing last week. Ricks, a Utah train maintenance worker who disappeared amid a manhunt for a father and son accused of a freaky kidnapping, was found dead along a route that the suspects likely took authorities said Wednesday, May 18, 2016.

Several police vehicles were seen going in and out of a blocked off road about 16 miles south of Kemmerer and east of US 189 Wednesday.

The sheriff’s office in Lincoln County – which is adjacent to Sublette County – confirmed Ricks’ body was found just before 5 p.m. Tuesday, May 17, near the city of Kemmerer, KUTV reported.

Dereck James “DJ” Harrison, 22, of Centerville, and his father, Flint Wayne Harrison, 51, of Pinedale, Wyoming, are charged with luring a woman to a house in Centerville on May 10 along with her four teenage daughters.

Police are investigating how he died and whether Flint and Dereck Harrison were involved.

Thursday’s search efforts focused on Half Moon and Fremont lakes near Pinedale, where the Harrisons had been camping prior to their arrests by Sublette County sheriff’s deputies on Saturday. Law enforcement officials are looking for a possible connection between a missing Utah Transit Author… The 63-year-old Ricks had worked there since 2010.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – Searchers combing the Wyoming backcountry on Thursday found the truck a slain rail line worker was driving when he disappeared amid a manhunt for two suspects in a freakish Utah kidnapping case. UTA Police Chief Fred Ross said Wednesday it has been ruled a homicide.

The vehicle was turned over to the FBI and UTA as the investigation continues.

Wyoming police have been investigating a possible connection between Ricks’ disappearance and the Centerville case since Monday, at least.

The Harrisons were arrested over the weekend after a five-day search.

Meanwhile, the Utah Department of Public Safety sonar boat and dive team will spend the day searching Half Moon Lake in Wyoming, near where Flint and DJ Harrison camped out while on the run. Once there, the men allegedly led the women into the basement where police say they were prepared with a shotgun, a baseball bat, zip ties and pre-torn strips of duct tape. The family was able to break free and escape.

The men are being held at the Sublette County Detention Center and have each waived the extradition process and will be returned to Utah to face charges stemming from the incident in Centerville.

The motive for the Centerville abduction and assaults, Steenblik has said, appears to have been meth-fueled paranoia that the mother had informed police on their drug activities.

The spokesperson for Ricks’ family, Richard Massey, said details about how his body was discovered haven’t been released, according to the Deseret News.