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Johnson, Frank Sept 1961; St George UT 17 YO
Topic Started: Feb 21 2012, 01:00 AM (360 Views)
monkalup
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
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http://www.lvrj.com/news/officials-hope-dn...-138767224.html
Officials hope DNA, skull will solve 50-year-old Utah flash flood mystery

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Posted: Feb. 6, 2012 | 2:00 a.m.

ST. GEORGE, Utah -- Southern Utah authorities are hoping to solve a 50-year-old mystery over a deadly flash flood with the help of a human skull fragment found in the Virgin River several years ago.

The September 1961 flood caught a Boy Scout group and others by surprise and killed five people in the river's Zion National Park Narrows section.

Springdale Police Chief Kurt Wright told The Spectrum of St. George that only three of the bodies were recovered, and he thinks the skull fragment holds the answer to what became of one of two 17-year-old Salt Lake City boys whose bodies were never found.

The parents of Eagle Scouts Alvin Nelson and Frank Johnson have since died, but Wright was able to track down a living sibling for each and received DNA samples from them last week. Wright hopes the samples will identify whether the skull was from one of the boys.

Wright said he became interested when he learned of a free program at the University of Texas that matches DNA to identify skeletal remains. The skull fragment and DNA samples now are on their way to Texas for examination.

Doralee Freebairn, 65, of Holladay, the sister of one of the boys, said she hopes the DNA samples bring closure.

"It's a tough thing. Without that body, you don't really believe that they're gone," she told The Spectrum. "My feeling's strong that it's my brother Alvin. But the DNA will tell."

Past searches failed to turn up the bodies of Nelson and his best friend, Johnson.

The bodies of Scoutmaster Walter Scott of Murray; Steven Florence, 13, of Park City; and Paul Nicholes, 17, of Salt Lake City, were recovered.
Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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monkalup
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
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http://z13.invisionfree.com/PorchlightUSA/...0&#entry9857163
Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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monkalup
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
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http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/53466764...-skull.html.csp
Skull fragment could belong to one of two Scouts missing since ’61
1
45

By Erin Alberty

The Salt Lake Tribune
First published Feb 07 2012 07:16PM
Updated Feb 11, 2012 11:40PM

Police hope a skull fragment found in the Virgin River will confirm the death of one of two Boy Scouts who disappeared in a flash flood more than 50 years ago.

About 25 Scouts were in The Narrows on September 17, 1961, when the flood roared into the canyon, said Springdale Police Chief Kurt Wright. Five of the boys were presumed dead, but crews found only three bodies.

The families of Eagle Scouts Frank Johnson and Alvin Nelson have been left to assume the worst.

But in 2006, Wright’s neighbor brought him what appeared to be a fragment of a human skull. He found it near the Driftwood Lodge where two of the Scouts’ bodies were found buried in debris after the fatal flood so many years ago.

“At that time, I didn’t know what to do,” Wright said. “I didn’t want to disrupt the families with this when I didn’t have a way of knowing if it was one child or the other ... and it could be something totally unrelated to these two.”

The fragment went to the medical examiner’s office. In recent weeks, an investigator found the bone and told Wright of a free DNA analysis program offered by the University of Texas.

Wright set out to find relatives of both boys, whose parents have died. Johnson has multiple living siblings. A brother living in Bend, Ore., shipped a DNA sample to Washington County last week, Wright said.

Nelson has just one relative — a younger sister who is 65 and lives in Holladay. Her children were adopted, so she is “the end of the bloodline,” Wright said. Unified police officers took her sample. Wright said he is shipping the material from both siblings and the skull fragment to Texas on Wednesday.

“As we’ve told both family members, it could be from an old Indian grave or it could be another flash flood [victim],” Wright said. But a positive match for one of the Scouts could bring some much needed closure to one of the two families, he said.

“It’s a lot harder when you don’t have anything to say goodbye to,” Wright said.
Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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mimi
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Skull linked to UT scout missing since 1961 flood - Alvin Nelson
By Brian Skoloff, Associated Press

HOLLADAY, Utah (AP) — Doralee Freebairn remembers the day well. It was September 1961. Her older brother was on a Boy Scouts trip, hiking in the canyons of Zion National Park.

She was in the yard at home in Salt Lake City watering plants when news crackled over the radio. There had been a massive flash flood in the Narrows.

“I thought, ‘Oh, that’s where Alvin is,’” Freebairn recalled Friday. “Then it just turned into a nightmare.”

Five people were swept away and presumed dead, but searchers never found the bodies of Freebairn’s then 17-year-old older brother, Alvin Nelson, or his best friend, Frank Johnson.

This week, some 51 years later, Freebairn finally got the news she had been waiting for.

Authorities matched DNA to a skull fragment found by a man swimming in the Virgin River in 2006. It was Alvin.

“It’s kind of a nice birthday present,” said Freebairn, who turned 66 last month. “But after so many years, it really doesn’t bring closure. It’s been a long time.”

She sat in her home outside Salt Lake City on Friday flipping through old newspaper clippings about the search for bodies back then. She smiled and told stories about Alvin as she looked at graying photos from an album she pulled from a box in the closet.

“I’ll tell you, not finding a body was rough,” Freebairn said.

Her father left the family when they were young. It was just her mother and Alvin, the man of the house.

“It was really hard on mother. It was always a pain she carried,” Freebairn said. “She relied on him for so much.”

Her mother died in 1996, but not a week went by that she didn’t think about her brother.

“The pain was always there,” Freebairn said.

And hope.

“Maybe something else happened. Maybe they were able to get out. Maybe he hit his head on something and got amnesia,” she recalled thinking over the years. “Without a body, you always hope. It takes years and years before you actually believe they’ve got to be gone.”

Springdale Police Chief Kurt Wright grew up in the canyons of southern Utah. The story of that 1961 flood has been legend around the area.

“A lot of people still living in the canyon were involved in that search,” Wright said.

It had always been on his mind, too. What ever happened to those boys? Where were the bodies?

Then in 2006, a man swimming in the Virgin River found the top half of a human skull and brought it to police.
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Yun
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Case Information
Status: Missing
First name: Frank
Middle name: Wilson
Last name: Johnson
NCMEC number: 1200248
Date LKA: September 17, 1961 00:00
Date entered: 01/24/2012
Age LKA: 17 to 17 years old
Age now: 68 years old
Race: White
Sex: Male
Height (inches): 67.0
Weight (pounds): 120.0 to 140.0

Circumstances
City: Springdale
State: Utah
Zip code: 84767
County: Washington
Circumstances: 1961 flash flood in the Virgin River.

Physical
Hair color: Unknown or Completely Bald
Left eye color: Unknown or Missing
Right eye color: Unknown or Missing

Dental
Status: Dental information / charting is currently not available

DNA
Guidelines for Collection of DNA Status: Sample submitted - Tests complete

Fingerprint Information
Status: Fingerprint information is currently not available

Police Information
Title: Chief of Police
First name: Kurt
Last name: Wright
Phone: 435-772-3434
Email: chiefwright@infowest.com
Case number: 0607048SP
Date reported: July 26, 2006
Jurisdiction: Local
Agency: Springdale/Zion Canyon Police
Address: 118 Lion Blvd
City: Springdale
State: Utah
Zip code: 84767

Contacts
Case Manager
First Name Gina
Last Name McNeil
Phone 801-965-4686
Case Manager
First Name Jaclyn
Last Name Wofsey
Phone 8008435678
Regional Administrator
First Name Brenda
Last Name Galarza
Email namus@ncmec.org
Phone 703-837-6276

https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/13695/13/
"Here I stand; here I remain." - Duke Leto Atreides (Frank Herbert's Dune)
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