How Not to Get Rid of a Body S01E06 Needles in a Mineshaft
When a young couple goes missing in Eureka, Utah, detectives from neighbouring counties work together to track down their killer and, with the help of a highly trained dive team, recover their bodies in an abandoned mineshaft.
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00:00Your kid comes up missing, you're scared, you're worried.
00:12Without any information as to where Riley and Breezy went, it really was a needle in
00:18a haystack.
00:20This case took a toll, I mean, it consumed our lives.
00:25Whoever did this believed that he had done such a good job that the police would never,
00:31ever discover him.
00:33This person had a plan to get rid of the bodies.
00:35I mean, it was very heinous and very evil, and that was incredibly frustrating to us.
00:42Why would someone do that to two teenagers?
00:45It was a whirlwind of fear, and it unleashed something we never even fathomed.
01:15Riley Powell and Breezy Otteson were reported missing on January 3rd of 2018, and they
01:29were reported missing by Breezy's and Riley's families.
01:43The information that the family relayed to law enforcement was that Riley and Breezy
01:49were in a relationship, and that on December 29th of 2017, Riley and Breezy were at Breezy's
01:58family's house in Tooele County, and they had left later that night.
02:05They take about a 45-minute drive from Eureka on a very desolate highway in Riley's Jeep
02:15to return home to Eureka later that night.
02:19But from what their families had indicated, they never returned home.
02:32Breezy and Riley went to school together, and it was through that summer that Breezy
02:37and Riley had started to date.
02:41Riley had purchased a ring for Breezy with the intent to propose to Breezy.
02:50I knew that they were very young, but I supported them in whatever they needed to feel that
02:57completeness and have some stability in their life.
03:04Breezy kind of mellowed Riley out and brought him around to being a better person, and we
03:10haven't heard from them, and it just wasn't them, so you automatically knew something
03:17was wrong.
03:27We're thinking you've got two young kids that are traveling along this long, desolate highway
03:32trying to get back home in the middle of winter.
03:37It's cold, it's icy, and we're wondering if there's a possibility that they may have slidden
03:43off the road.
03:44They may have had car troubles.
03:49Eureka is a really small town.
03:52The population is less than a thousand people, and it's about an hour outside of Salt Lake
03:58City.
04:00It is kind of a ghost town.
04:04Eureka's kind of nestled in between these mountains.
04:07It's kind of in a canyon there.
04:09It was an old mining town.
04:12There are hills, there are trees, there are several offshoots, roads that go in all different
04:18directions, and without any information as to where Riley and Breezy went, it really
04:25was a needle in a haystack for us.
04:39We don't know if they're going to be able to survive, you know, a night or two.
04:43Do they have rations?
04:44Do they have food?
04:45Do they have water?
04:47So our sense of urgency was high.
05:05Time was against us, so we really felt the pressure on this one.
05:17We conducted searches throughout these different trails and in the mountains, utilized search
05:24and rescue to look for these kids.
05:32We were just kind of taken aback by the vastness of how big this was going to be.
05:39And it ultimately didn't turn up anything.
05:44So Riley and Breezy's photos and photos of the Jeep were put out to the media.
05:52Breezy's family made a social media account for the missing kids so that people could
05:58be aware.
06:02Both Riley and Breezy were active on Facebook, so cops subpoenaed the records for all of
06:09their social media accounts, wondering if just maybe it might help find where they were.
06:17But the process of obtaining information from Facebook is not something that occurs overnight.
06:24It actually takes several months, and so we have to press forward.
06:28We have to move on.
06:35There are no words to describe the despair, the helplessness in not knowing if the teens
06:45had gone off the road and they were stranded somewhere and it is the middle of winter.
06:52The helplessness in not being able to just find them, help them, bring them home.
07:01All kinds of things were going through our mind at the time.
07:05We weren't sure.
07:07Breezy and Riley's relationship had its ups and downs.
07:11Breezy had recently broke up with a long-term boyfriend, and although the relationship was
07:16over, there was a lot of insecurity between both Breezy and Riley.
07:22We were scared that there may have been some kind of a fight or altercation between Riley
07:30and Breezy where they could have, you know, gotten off the side of the road.
07:34One of them could have walked off or they split up or something.
07:56On January 9th, we were able to locate the Jeep in an area called Cherry Creek.
08:03It's approximately 15 miles from Eureka out in this vast desert off the side of the road.
08:12A search and rescue member went up in a helicopter searching the area, and they spotted the Jeep.
08:21When they found the Jeep and there was no Breezy or Riley, everybody was confused.
08:36Our hope was that in finding the Jeep, we would find the kids.
08:41The Jeep was the key, so when the Jeep was found and there was no Breezy and Riley, there
08:50was for a whole new loop.
08:53Who's to say if we would find them or not?
08:56It was a whirlwind of unknown and fear, and it unlocked and unleashed something we never
09:12even fathomed.
09:2017-year-old Breezy Otteson and 18-year-old Riley Powell had been missing for 10 days
09:36before Riley's Jeep was found abandoned at the Cherry Creek Reservoir.
09:43But there was no sign of Breezy and Riley.
09:47It made no sense that either one of them would just abandon this vehicle.
09:52Investigators wondered what could have happened.
09:55Why did they disappear?
09:59When we looked inside the Jeep, we noticed that all of the belongings, their clothing,
10:07the blankets, Breezy's overnight bag, they were all thrown in the back in the cargo area,
10:15which struck us as odd.
10:18The obvious question is raised is why would you not take these with you if you're stuck
10:23and you're trying to walk somewhere in this cold weather or hell?
10:37Walking around to the back of the Jeep, we then noticed that there was a ratchet tie
10:41down strap that was camo colored.
10:44It was hanging in the back left leaf spring and was broken off.
10:52This led to a lot more questions.
10:54Were they used to tow the truck by Riley?
10:56Were they used to tow the truck by someone else?
11:02Who used those straps?
11:06The windows were down and both tires on the passenger side were flat.
11:11We observed slashes on the tire.
11:13They appeared to be from either a screwdriver or a knife.
11:18They appeared to be intentional.
11:20So when we put all this stuff together with the tires, the windows down in the cold weather,
11:25all the clothing identification in the back, and we're thinking that there could be foul
11:29play involved here.
11:39After reviewing the Jeep and the surrounding area, it was clear to investigators that whatever
11:47happened to Riley and Breezy, whoever did it, believed that they had done such a good
11:53job to hide the vehicle that they left things behind, believing the police would never ever
12:04discover it.
12:06When they found the Jeep and they weren't there, we put a reward out for them, a $5,000
12:15reward, and we posted the posters all around town.
12:19I was numb, but I didn't want to break down.
12:23I knew that we just needed to bring them home.
12:41Then within a few days, one of the neighbors in the community came forward.
12:47She stated that she saw a man named Lee Shepard towing Riley's blue Jeep right around the
12:55time of New Year's, right in the middle, when Riley and Breezy were reported missing.
13:01Interestingly, Lee Shepard was the boyfriend of Riley's biological mother, Misty, and he
13:11lived on the property that Misty owned.
13:20Riley wasn't quite one.
13:22He was taken away by the state because his biological mother and father were druggies,
13:28and so they were going to be adopted out.
13:30So Amoros took him over, and he lived with us.
13:34Riley and his mom, Misty, they had a complicated relationship.
13:41Riley had been taken from her, but being that they were in a small town and it's his mom,
13:47they did have a relationship, which really didn't make the rest of his family very happy.
13:53They felt that perhaps she was a bad influence on Riley.
14:00I'd definitely have her out of his life.
14:02She definitely wasn't a role model.
14:13So there were a lot of questions.
14:15Was there a family dispute we didn't know about?
14:20Was there some sort of argument that took place?
14:24Why would Lee Shepard be seen towing this vehicle?
14:39We asked Lee and Misty to come down to the Tooele County Sheriff's Office and speak with
14:44us and if they could help us get any information on finding Riley Ambrizzi.
14:51She said that she last saw Riley on the day he went missing.
14:56Misty said there had been some sort of an argument with Lee and Riley.
15:02There had been some words exchanged that got kind of heated.
15:08Misty's claiming that Riley owes Lee some money.
15:13That tells us, you know, there's a possibility of motive here.
15:18So law enforcement had the search warrant issued and that search warrant was executed
15:24on the property where Misty and Lee lived.
15:30When we were on Lee's and Misty's property, we found a ratchet tie-down strap that was
15:36camel colored that was similar to the one that was found on Riley's Jeep.
15:44After finding those straps, police wondered, would this be the evidence they needed to
15:53solve the case and find Ambrizzi and Riley?
15:57Did Lee and Misty murder Ambrizzi and Riley?
16:02So where are the bodies?
16:32Riley and Ambrizzi were still missing.
16:43And on January 16, 2018, we executed a search warrant on Riley's biological mother's house
16:50and her boyfriend, Lee Shepard.
17:02We found tie-down straps matching those found attached to Riley's Jeep.
17:25That along with the reports of a possible argument or debt and we're thinking we need
17:31to dig into Lee further to see if maybe there was some involvement.
17:48Lee did state that he towed a vehicle on the day that Riley went missing.
17:54However, it was a Nissan and it had a shell on it.
17:59It was his girlfriend Misty's sister's vehicle and it did resemble the vehicle that Riley
18:07drove.
18:08However, it wasn't Riley's vehicle that he was towing.
18:13And he says he got a ratchet tie-down strap that was camel colored in the same store as
18:19Riley and that's why they were similar to the ones that were found on Riley's Jeep.
18:28In addition, Lee said he knew nothing about Ambrizzi and Riley's disappearance.
18:34He said in no way, shape or form was he involved in anything that had to do with the missing
18:40teens.
18:47So after the search warrant and speaking with Lee and Misty, we determined that there just
18:54wasn't enough evidence to prove that Lee and Misty were involved in the disappearance
18:58of these kids.
19:00So we had to move on and look for more clues.
19:15At this point, the police are basically at zero.
19:19They have no body, no suspect, no real solid evidence of a crime that happened.
19:28They're literally starting over.
19:31This case definitely took a toll, I think, on all of us.
19:36I mean, it consumed our lives to where that's all we thought about 24 hours a day.
19:44I have spent thousands of hours on this case.
19:49It really made me question, you know, whether I wanted to continue a career in investigations
19:58because it took so much out of me.
20:03Because it's been a couple of weeks and we're thinking, okay, that's a long time.
20:07Maybe they aren't alive.
20:10And we thought whoever did this really, really went to great lengths to hide the bodies and
20:16not get caught.
20:32Eventually after a few weeks, investigators got the results of the subpoena for the social
20:36media information for Riley and Breezy.
20:40And when they reviewed it, it showed that the last message Riley had sent was to a 34-year-old
20:50woman named Morgan Henderson.
20:55We learned that on December 29th, Morgan reached out to Riley.
21:01She said, hey, I'm here alone at my house in Mammoth.
21:05You can come by if you want.
21:08This was the last conversation that Riley had with anyone as far as we knew.
21:15I never knew who Morgan was at all.
21:18No idea.
21:19You can have older friends, I guess, but that was the last person that they had talked to.
21:25So that raises some flags there that, you know, something wasn't quite right.
21:41We were familiar with Morgan and her boyfriend, Jared Baum, who she lived with.
21:51Morgan had a checkered past.
21:54She had been in and out of jail a couple times, and she was a known drug user.
22:01We also knew Jared Baum.
22:07He had been in jail longer than he had been free in his lifetime.
22:14He is a drug user.
22:16We know that he likes weapons.
22:21We didn't really know what the relationship was between Morgan and Riley.
22:27And so we felt that we needed to go to Morgan's house and ask her more questions as to what
22:33happened.
22:34You know, did Riley show up?
22:49So I remember going to the house.
22:52Jared and Morgan are outside.
23:01We're talking back and forth.
23:02Both of them stated, no, we've never talked to Riley and Breezy, never met them.
23:07But Morgan was always looking to Jared before she answered.
23:10She would look up at him, then look back at us, and then look back at Jared, almost as
23:16if she was, is that the right answer you want me to give?
23:21But when we confronted them with a Facebook conversation, she begins to say, yeah, I spoke
23:28to him, but he never arrived.
23:30He never got here.
23:32And I don't know where he went since.
23:40That was a big red flag for the police.
23:43They didn't know what was true.
23:46We ultimately decided that we didn't have enough evidence to arrest them or to even
23:51bring them into the police department.
23:53And so we let them go.
24:04The police were running out of theories, and they were desperate for some sort of lead
24:09that could be a break in the case.
24:12They also looked into Breezy and Riley's financial background, reviewing bank statements, basically
24:21looking to find any clues to turn their focus a different direction.
24:28Several months into this investigation, we found that the last transaction that Riley
24:35had on his account was purchasing fuel from a gas station in Tooele.
24:44We went to that gas station, and we found surveillance video.
24:52The footage showed Riley pumping gas, going in, paying for it.
24:57What was interesting was that there was no Breezy.
25:03When Riley left the gas station, instead of heading towards Eureka, which is where Breezy
25:09and Riley had said they were going to go, he headed the opposite direction.
25:15Where's Breezy?
25:18We thought, was there some kind of a fight or an altercation between Riley and Breezy?
25:26Could Riley be involved in hurting Breezy?
25:33In reviewing the CCTV, detectives saw that Riley left the gas station.
25:53Instead of heading towards Eureka, he headed towards Mammoth, where Morgan Henderson lived.
26:02The last person Riley ever sent messages to in social media before the teens disappeared,
26:09and there was no Breezy in the CCTV footage, where could she be?
26:20The good thing about getting that surveillance was it gave us somewhat of a time frame of
26:24when they were last seen.
26:26That night, Riley and Breezy went missing.
26:30But we weren't able to prove exactly where Riley was going.
26:36Investigators wondered, what does this mean?
26:38Did Riley actually go to Morgan's?
26:41Were police maybe on the right track with their suspicions of Morgan?
26:46And at this point, everybody really wanted to understand what the relationship was between
26:50Morgan and Riley.
26:54We had learned that Riley had met Morgan that summer before Breezy and Riley had started
27:01to date.
27:02And Riley and Morgan started hanging out and had a relationship.
27:11The dynamic of their relationship was really odd.
27:15Considering she was in her 30s, he was a teenager.
27:21At this point, does that mean Morgan has something to do with their disappearance?
27:26Did Morgan and Riley do something to Breezy?
27:31Then, on March 25th, 2018, a traffic stop was conducted on Morgan.
27:58Police found some weapons in the car she was driving that included some knives.
28:05And so they were able to take Morgan into custody.
28:13We felt like this was our opportunity to be able to get more information out of Morgan.
28:29So when Morgan was being interviewed again by investigators, she sticks to the same story
28:36initially.
28:43But she eventually starts to break down a little bit.
28:51Morgan revealed a lot of information to us about her relationship with her boyfriend,
28:56Jared Baum.
28:58She said Jared pretty much controlled everything in her life.
29:01He controlled her time, all her money.
29:05She wasn't allowed to have friends that he didn't approve of.
29:10Nobody was allowed to come to the house under any circumstance.
29:16We also learned that during the time that Jared was in jail, Jared found out Morgan
29:23had a relationship with Riley.
29:26That did not sit well with Jared.
29:34As Morgan's rapport developed with the police, she began opening up more and more.
29:41And she admitted that she had lied to the police when she said that Breezy and Riley
29:47hadn't come to her house.
29:48They did go to her house.
29:53And while they were there, Morgan said that Jared came home and he flew into a fit of
30:00rage.
30:01He tied up Breezy and Riley's hands and he put them in a vehicle and he drove away.
30:09And Morgan says that's the last time she saw Breezy and Riley.
30:18According to Morgan, that's all she knows.
30:19She doesn't know if they're alive, if they're dead.
30:26But we knew that we were really close to finding these kids.
30:30And we knew that Morgan was the key to find them.
30:34So we had Morgan in my patrol vehicle.
30:39And as we're going through, we're talking to her about, you know, what do you know?
30:45Where, you know, do you know where they are?
30:47You say Riley was a friend of yours.
30:49Let's try and get him home.
30:53So I noticed as we got near what's called the Tinnick Standard No. 2 mine, and as we
30:59drove past there, Morgan's demeanor changed greatly.
31:04She became very, very emotional.
31:06She instantly started crying, visibly shaking.
31:10And to me, I'm kind of keying up on that, like this is where something might have happened.
31:16This is something that she's telling me without telling me that, you know, something's here.
31:25This change in her behavior was a big red flag for the police.
31:29They had to find out what it was about that area that was getting Morgan so worked up.
31:46On March 27, 2018, we conducted a search of the area around the Tinnick Standard Mine
31:58No. 2.
32:04That whole area is just full of different mine shafts.
32:08But the Tinnick Standard No. 2 mine is not your typical, you know, hole in the ground.
32:13It's a massive hole.
32:15It's about 30 feet across, about 112 feet deep.
32:21The whole mining system is about 1,800 feet deep.
32:26We brought in a truck that had a remote camera on it that was able to be dropped down into
32:33this mine.
32:37And it goes down about 110 feet.
32:45So as we're trying to see anything we can in the bottom of this, and we're just like,
32:50OK, nothing's here.
32:51Now what?
32:52And we're looking and we're just kind of deflated, you know, and we're just looking as hard as
32:56we can.
32:58And then we just freeze.
33:02It's a shock.
33:03We're like, oh, my gosh, what do we do from here?
33:15We are searching the Tinnick Standard No. 2 mine.
33:26And we maneuvered the camera around the bottom of the mine shaft based upon Morgan's odd
33:31behavior in the car.
33:34I was getting ready to leave when one of the guys go, I got a body.
33:41It's just like plain as day.
33:43It appears to be a male.
33:45You could definitely see the clothing matched what Riley was reported to be last seen wearing.
33:53And so it was an emotional moment to be able to finally have that much closer.
34:00But then at the same time, we're like, we still got to find Breezy.
34:04Where's Breezy?
34:09So then we decide to try and swing that camera back and forth on this line to look down into
34:17these other shafts.
34:20And we can see another body.
34:26And it appears to be female wearing this outfit that was reported to be what Breezy was last
34:35wearing.
34:37And so I don't know quite how to describe that emotion or what that felt like.
34:46But it was, it was amazing.
34:54The whole time we were thinking, I'm moving again.
34:57This is definitely a murder.
35:01We were fortunate enough to be able to watch them bring the bodies up as we stood there.
35:08I was sick to my stomach.
35:09I was heartbroken.
35:10I was empty.
35:14There aren't words that can describe that feeling.
35:20After you find out what actually happened, the sadness and everything like that, but
35:24I was just wondering why someone would do that to two teenagers.
35:33Now that we found them, we need to know who did this and why this happened.
35:39So we had two investigators that were with Morgan.
35:43The investigators let her know that, hey, we found them.
35:48It's time to come clean.
35:49We know you know what happened.
35:51It's time for you to tell us the truth.
35:55Finally she agreed to tell us what had happened, basically reenact a scene.
36:01She describes the night that Riley and Breezy were there.
36:11They came to the house.
36:17They left.
36:18She believed before Jared had came home.
36:24And then the next thing she knows, Jared's barging in the door saying, I told you not
36:28to have people here.
36:29How come you lied to me?
36:34We know that Jared was very controlling and did not allow Morgan to have outside friends.
36:41So for Jared to find out that Riley and Breezy were there did not sit well with Jared.
36:51He says, get ready.
36:52You're coming with me.
36:57So she walks out, finds Riley and Breezy, duct tape on their mouths, duct tape around
37:04their wrists, duct tape around their feet, and they're in the very back of the Jeep.
37:10And Jared instructs her, you know, get in.
37:32Morgan says they went to the Tintic mining shaft.
37:41There the teens were forced out of the vehicle.
38:01Jared begins to hit Riley and he stabs Riley in the chest three times.
38:24And at that point, Riley is silent.
38:31And Morgan knew at that point he was dead.
38:38Then he threw him in the mine shaft.
38:44Morgan says, Breezy's just sitting there terrified, but Jared down behind Breezy and kind of puts
38:53his arm around her and he says, it's okay, darling.
38:56And then he just slits her throat and just lets her die right there.
39:07After he did that, he threw her into the pit too.
39:13We strongly believed the Morgan story.
39:16So we wanted to speak to Jared.
39:20During that time, Jared was in jail on different charges.
39:24So we put him in this room.
39:27Jared denies any involvement in the murders.
39:32But based upon everything that Morgan had told us, we felt that there was enough probable
39:39cause to charge Jared with these murders.
39:45On August 15th, 2022, Jared was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility
39:51of parole.
39:52Morgan was charged with obstruction of justice.
39:56She struck a plea deal with prosecutors and would spend three years in jail.
40:02And as much as I don't like to admit it, Jared was clever.
40:09What's really interesting about this is the bodies were found on a ledge.
40:15Had they not been on this ledge and landed at the bottom of the mine shaft, they might
40:22not have ever been discovered.
40:25I also do feel that because of Morgan and her willingness to assist in the investigation,
40:32that brought justice to these families.
40:40In my mind, there's no such thing as a closure.
40:43Jared's still living, still breathing.
40:45There'll never be closure as long as he's alive.
40:48And I'm pretty sure he'll make it longer than I do.
40:50So maybe there'll be closure when I run into Riley, because I miss him.
40:58And I talk to him about it every day.
41:05I miss Breezy.
41:06I miss her personality.
41:12And I would give anything to be able to just tell her that she's loved and that she's touched
41:21so many lives, more than she could ever imagine.