Missing Utah man’s bones found in Grand County desert

GRAND COUNTY, Utah (ABC4) — The human remains of missing Utah man Timothy Jordan Boone have been found in Grand County, according to the Grand County Sheriff’s Office.

Boone went missing over two years ago, around Aug. 4, 2021.

On Mar. 10, 2024, the Grand County Sheriff’s Office was notified of bones in the Book Cliffs area in northeastern Grand County.

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“Through the efforts of a recovery team composed of Grand County Sheriff’s Office Investigators and Search and Rescue, along with the assistance from Mesa County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue K9, human remains were located and retrieved. Those remains were subsequently sent to the Utah State Medical Examiner’s Office, which have been identified as Timothy Jordan Boone,” a press release states.

As of this time, the sheriff’s office said no foul play is suspected in the disappearance or death of Boone.

Boone’s case received some attention on social media last year after a Tiktoker posted a video of what were confirmed to be his tattered, sun-bleached belongings in a Utah desert.

On May 22, 2023, Ryan Moreau, an explorer and Tiktoker who goes by “ry_of_the_desert,” found some items out in the San Rafael Swell, located just south of I-70 in Sevier County. Among some of the items found were a guitar, a backpack, and a poncho, all of which Boone’s younger sister Shelby confirmed belonged to Jordan.

“The item you thought was a blanket was actually a poncho. The jacket, he’d bought at a thrift store and my mom mended the hem for him. The fake news patch… he loved to tease my dad about his love for fox news. And the guitar….. we thought someone had stolen it as it wasn’t in his room or his van,” Shelby said in a Facebook post.

About a week later, on May 30, Moreau found some more items, which he says were around 300 feet from the original find. Those items included a watch and phone, which Moreau says the detectives missed in their search of the site.

Shelby said Jordan had last been seen in Nucla, Co., on Aug. 16, 2021, having chatted with someone at a hardware store called Co-op Country on Main St. Shelby also said that a woman believed she saw Jordan and his dog, a Pitbull mix named Lily, on Main St. in Telluride, Co.

At the time, Shelby said that aside from his wonderful, kind spirit, Jordan struggled with mental health issues. “We can only guess how all of this came to be. We may never know for sure. All we can do is take his behavior and consider the symptoms accompanied with psychosis, bipolar disorder, and the beliefs he would cling to in his mania,” Shelby said.

Jordan reportedly experienced mania for the second time in 2018, and fell into a bout of psychosis during the episode. “There is a fairly wide range of symptoms you can experience with psychosis. His include, the belief that an ordinary event has special and personal meaning, racing thoughts, excitement, excessive wordiness, delusions, persecutory delusion, religious delusion, hearing voices, memory loss, hyperactivity, restlessness,” Shelby said.

Shelby noted that a person with this condition is usually unaware of their behavior. She said that in Jordan’s case, he believed that if he made it out to California, he would be able to “find a path to the other side of the world, where his daughter lives.” She said he believed the music he was listening to was telling him where to go find her.

Shelby also said she wants the world to know that he is not only his illness. “He is a whole person. Someone who is deeply loved. Someone who is a father, a son, and a brother.”

Within this context, Shelby said that Jordan’s struggles had gotten him into trouble in the past, and that leading up to his disappearance, she had reported him to his probation officer, referencing his mental state at the time.

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Here is a timeline of Jordan’s disappearance, according to Shelby:

• Aug. 1, 2021 — Took Cooper (his brother’s dog) and headed down to the San Rafael Swell.

• Aug. 3, 2021 — Picked up by a couple on an ATV, had Lily (his dog) with him. Checked out by EMTs. He was reportedly severely dehydrated, wearing a wet suit.

• Aug. 3, 2021 — Taken by and officer to the Village Inn hotel in Huntington, Utah. Left the hotel at some point in night or morning. Shelby believes he left after overhearing the officer on the phone with his probation officer.

• Aug. 4, 2021 — Chatted with woman working at BK’s Stop-N-Shop. Took a stolen garbage truck 300 yards behind the shop.

• Seen at Stewart’s market in Castle Dale, Utah. “Not sure if this was before he went out to the desert or after,” Shelby said.

• Aug. 4, 2021 — Ditched garbage truck in Carbon County, Utah, then took a Jeep Renegade.

• Aug. 4, 2021 — Tried to get a cell phone at a Verizon store in Moab, Utah. Had a confrontation with a man there. “Not sure what came first,” Shelby said.

• Aug. 4, 2021 — Stole water from a structure in Thompson Springs, Utah. Jeep Renegade was found off I-70 at mile marker 221 in Cisco, Utah.

• Aug. 10, 2021 — Lily believed to be seen on a trail alone near the Rimrocker Trail in Montrose County, Colorado. “Can’t find the name of this man,” Shelby said.

• Aug. 16, 2021 — Chatted with someone in Nucla, Colorado at Co-op Country on Main St. Shelby spoke with this person and believed they had contact with Jordan due to some of the conversation mentioned.

• Sometime in the last week of August, a woman believed she saw Jordan and Lily on Main St. in Telluride, Colorado. “They distinctly remember Lily’s ears,” Shelby said.

• Before Jordan left, he was excited about a Courtney Marie Andrews concert at Soiled Dove Underground in Denver, Colorado set for Sept. 19, 2021, Shelby said.

Cooper, the dog belonging to Jordan’s brother, was found alive 3 weeks after Jordan caught a ride on the ATV, Shelby said. This was within 30 miles from where Moreau found his belongings.

“I believe his guitar and other items became too much to carry and he had to leave them. Jordan loves animals and loved Cooper. I don’t know what happened or how he got separated from him but I don’t think he ever meant to leave him. He was manic and probably severely dehydrated. Who knows what was going on in his mind at that point,” Shelby said.

If you have any information about Jordan’s death or disappearance, please reach out to the Grand County Sheriff’s Office at 435-259-8115.

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