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PAYSON — Deputies with the Utah County Sheriff's Office and the Uintah County Sheriff's Office say a 44-year-old man who has been missing for nearly 10 days was found dead Saturday morning.
According to a news release from the Utah County Sheriff's Office, Blayne K. Parkin was last seen on the evening of Wednesday, Sept. 11, in the Payson area. His vehicle was located the next day near Roosevelt in Uintah County.
According to a news release from the Uintah County Sheriff's Office, Parkin was found in a remote area of Uintah County.
On Sept. 14, deputies received information that Parkin may have been at an oil field location in Uintah County. After a camper shell that emergency personnel said belonged to Parkin was found in the area, search and rescue teams were activated.
On Sept. 18, Parkin's vehicle was located roughly 45 miles from the camper shell, in a remote area of Uintah County, near the Utah-Colorado border. Deputies said Parkin's body was found roughly 1.25 miles from his vehicle.
On Saturday afternoon, the Parkin family issued the following statement:
"On behalf of Blayne's family, we are extremely grateful for you, your faith, your prayers we believe that is what has created all the miracles and brought us all together. We love you. We would like to give a special thanks to Sgt. Sam Sorenson and detective Brinton and their respective teams.
"We would like to thank Utah County Sheriff for the amazing job they are doing and the professional manner in which they are doing it. We would also like to thank Uintah County Sheriff's Office, Uintah County Search and Rescue, the Utah Highway Patrol, Payson Police, the Civil Air Patrol, all the other officers of the law (who) have been working to find Blayne please thank them when you see them."
The investigation into what happened is still ongoing. However, deputies said there didn't appear to be any suspicious activity.
Parkin will be taken to the Office of the Medical Examiner to determine his cause of death.
