Hope is fading fast that 10-year-old Joshua Dennis
can still be found alive after being lost four days in the rugged, cliff-laced mountains east of Stockton.Searchers, who now battle fatigue and despair, have crawled through a labyrinth of abandoned mines and combed through thousands of acres of brush-covered terrain, all to no avail.
"There are no tracks, no sign of him at all. It's like he vanished off the face of the earth," said Kevin Weaver, one of the adult leaders who accompanied some 25 Boy Scouts into the Hidden Treasure mine in the ghost town of Jacob City.
Search and rescue officers and deputies from Tooele and Salt Lake counties, were joined Monday by more than 100 volunteers in their search. Tuesday the search continued but was scaled back.
"You hike and you hope and then you hike some more," said an emotional Ron Van Sleeuwen, one of the adult leaders on Friday night's Scouting trip that ended with Josh's disappearance.
"You keep hoping for a sound, you keep listening for inspiration . . . anything. It hurts so much to find nothing at all."
According to Weaver, most of the boys, who ranged in age from 10 to 16 years, entered the mine tunnel shortly after dark Friday. Joshua was among them, carrying his own flashlight.
Joshua's father, Terry Dennis, remained outside with a visually impaired youth and another boy. After the main group had entered the mine about 1,000 feet, Terry Dennis and the other two boys entered the mine.
Joshua Dennis, who was feeling ill, decided to leave the cave and was accompanied by two older boys. They met Joshua's father and the two boys about 150 feet from the entrance to the mine.
While the two boys with Joshua decided to return to the main group, Terry Dennis took Joshua's flashlight to accompany the visually impaired youth out of the mine. Terry Dennis thought his son was with the two older boys returning to the main group; the two boys thought Joshua was with his father.
Joshua has not been seen since.
"They were together and all of a sudden Josh was gone," said Weaver. "It just doesn't make any sense."
Deputies say it would have been impossible for Joshua to move very far without a flashlight in the inky blackness of a mine shaft. The best he could have done was crawl on his hands and knees.
The main group of Scouts left the cave within five minutes of Terry Dennis. "The boy just couldn't have gone very far without a flashlight," said Sgt. Doug Broadway of the Tooele County sheriff's office. If he were still in the cave, the main group would have found him on their way out, he added.
After searching every inch of the mine from top to bottom, deputies are now certain Joshua is not in the mine. "I'm confident the boy followed his father out," said Broadway. "Even the blind boy remembers Josh was behind him at one point. I'm satisfied he is not in the mine, and have been since Saturday."
Deputies are investigating the possibility that Joshua fled from the mine after being terrified by other boys in the Scout group. Reports indicate the Scouts would turn off their lights and hide in side shafts, and then jump out at Joshua.
Crews with search dogs have been searching the labyrinth of tunnels and shafts that make up the Hidden Treasure mine, an abandoned silver, lead, copper and zinc mine with at least six levels, since very early Saturday morning.
As one crew of five men searched a tunnel, they would mark it with colored tape to show they had been there. Another crew would follow, searching the same tunnels and marking it with a different color.
Four different crews searched the mine Saturday and Sunday, and Monday, another team of Salt Lake County Search and Rescue officers trained in mine rescue searched the shafts once again.
"There's nothing left to search in the mine," said Broadway.
While searchers were covering every inch of the mine, more than 100 volunteers, many of them from Josh's LDS Ward in Kearns, began combing the brush-covered mountains around the mine. They were aided by one dozen search dogs.
Search dogs picked up Joshua's scent near the entrance to two other mines, but those mines have not been searched. One has deep pools of water, and the other has poisonous gases. However, deputies have confirmed that Joshua had been at those sites before entering the Hidden Treasure mine with the other Scouts.
"It would take us two years to explore all the tunnels and shafts in this immediate area," said Broadway, who added there are 100 tunnels and shafts, many of them vertical drops, within eyesight of the Hidden Treasure Mine. Many of those have been searched.
The abandoned mines east of Tooele have become popular destinations for dozens of Scout troops and recreational hikers. Most are posted "no trespassing," but few hikers are deterred.
While the search for Joshua Dennis was under way, one Scout group hiked over the mountain into Dry Canyon and began exploring a mine shaft only a few hundred yards from where Joshua disappeared.
Sheriff Donald Proctor said he has not ruled out foul play, but added he is not willing to call off the search to pursue a kidnapping when there is no evidence that foul play is involved.
Joshua was last seen wearing blue jeans, a T-shirt of some kind, tennis shoes and a blue and gray parka.