‘It was devastating’: Family of missing man found dead speaks out
SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — On April 2, the Rich County Sheriff’s Office announced that search teams and deputies had found the body of an unidentified person in Garden City, Utah.
On April 6, the sheriff’s office announced that the body had been identified as Tristen White, 27, who was first reported missing several months earlier.
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The day the sheriff’s office released the identity of the body they found on Tuesday, ABC4.com spoke with the family of Tristen White.
“My son, he was missing for a long time,” Ana said. “It was just reopening a wound that, deep down … it was just very hard to hear anyways. It was devastating.”
Family members Ana, Samantha and Cecilia White said the news from April 6 was news that no family wants to hear. Ana is Tristen’s stepmother, and Samantha and Cecilia are his sisters.
Ana described Tristen as being a great person who made the people around him better, in addition to being free-spirited, creative and hard-working. Samantha said Tristen was goofy and outgoing.
“It’s been really hard,” Cecilia said. “There would be times we’d have a lot of hope and think that he’s OK, that he’s just somewhere doing something, and then other times we’d think the worst and then we’d just go back and forth.”
His relatives said 27-year-old Tristen was in Garden City doing construction work, but no one had seen or heard from him since the end of January. Cecilia said when Tristen stopped communicating, they knew something was wrong.
“There’s still a lot of unknowns. We’re not quite sure what happened to him,” Ana said.
On April 2, they learned that volunteers and Rich County Sheriff’s Office found his body — news that the family said hit hard.
“It’s just really strange this had happened to him, and it’s just random and horrible,” Cecilia said.
At this point, with heavy hearts, their message is simple.
“I want people to be aware that he went missing. I want them to know what kind of person he was, and how much he was loved, and how much he loved people,” Ana said.
Tristen’s family credited a non-profit organization with helping find him, and letting family know where he was found.
The Rich County Sheriff’s Office is still investigating the cause of Tristen’s death.
“He’s going to be so missed, but never forgotten,” Ana said. “And we love him.”
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