SPANISH FORK — The case of two missing Utah County teenage girls came to a tragic end Thursday afternoon.
Nine days after 18-year-old Priscilla Bienkowski and 17-year-old Sophia Hernandez were reported missing, search and rescue crews recovered their bodies from Utah Lake early Thursday afternoon, according to family members.
The Utah County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Thursday night that a fisherman found the first body at 1:40 p.m. “nearly” on the Lincoln Beach shore. The second body was located at approximately 4:40 p.m. by a sheriff’s office pilot in the south side of Goshen Bay, said Utah County Sheriff Mike Smith in an evening news conference.
The second body was approximately half a mile north from one of the inflatable pool tubes the girls had used — 8 1/2 miles from where the teenagers got in the water, according to Smith.
“One of the most important things that I want to say tonight is, on behalf of the sheriff’s office and all of the volunteers and everybody that has helped through this, is express our sincerest condolences to the families of these girls,” Smith said. “This has been hard on everybody involved. I want to thank the families for their patience with us. I can’t imagine and never want to imagine what they’re going through.”
Smith said searchers have put over a 1,000 hours into the challenging search.
While Justin Gordon, Utah County Sheriff’s Office search and rescue sergeant, noted harsh weather conditions as one of the biggest factors complicating the effort, he said the locations of the girls’ bodies is puzzling.
Searchers felt they had a good idea of where to look for the girls, yet they were found 6 miles east of that, Gordon said.
“It makes no sense. I don’t know yet. I have to digest this — figure out how I would handle a search differently in the future if one ever happened like this,” he said. “We worked in the right areas where our experience said they should have been, here we end up 6 miles east.”
The teens were last seen getting into the water on inflatable pool tubes near the Knolls shortly before 3 p.m. on May 6. The mother of one of the girls called police to report them missing after calling her daughter’s phone, only to have a fisherman answer it. When he told her that it was on the beach with some of the girls’ belongings, she became worried and called police about 8 p.m.
A vehicle belonging to one of the girls was found parked nearby, and police found their belongings on the beach. The tubes were found about three miles apart, several miles from where the girls’ belongings were left on the beach.
The day the girls disappeared, a heavy windstorm hit the area, creating large waves. Winds that night reached speeds of 40 miles per hour traveling north to south across the water. When search crews took to the lake the next morning, the water remained rough and temperatures had plummeted to 57 degrees.
Ty Hunter, Utah State Parks Clean Vessel Act grant coordinator, confirmed during the news conference that the girls were not wearing life jackets.
The teens’ disappearance sparked a massive search and rescue operation that shifted to a recovery operation on Saturday. The search included more than 60 people from several agencies, including Utah County Sheriff’s Office, Utah State Parks, and deputies from Wasatch, Weber and Sanpete counties.
Searchers have used four helicopters, two airplanes, 10 boats, and 12 wave runners to cover every part of the lake during the search.
About 100 people joined family and friends on the shore of Utah Lake Saturday night in a gathering of solidarity and support where they vowed to continue searching for the girls until they were found.
An online account was set up to assist Bienkowski’s mother, Nancy Sepulveda, with funeral expenses.
“Priscilla Bienkowski was quick to smile, had the voice of an angel, and brought joy to her mother’s life,” said the GoFundMe account set up to help her mother cover funeral costs.