Lincoln County Sheriff Shane Johnson and Star Valley Search & Rescue Commander Matt McMurdo both called into the Weekday Wake-Up on Tuesday, July 14. Sheriff Johnson and Commander McMurdo recapped the search efforts on the Snake River and Palisades Reservoir for Tory Raether, who’s body was found and recovered on Saturday. Sheriff Johnson also touched on the ongoing cases involving the death of Rita “Jamie” Gerondakis near Alpine and the death of two individuals found in a home in Opal.

The following transcript of the above interview is AI generated. Minor spelling errors are likely to occur.

(0:00) Monthly interview with Lincoln County Sheriff Shane Johnson this morning, (0:04) Search and Rescue, Star Valley Search and Rescue Commander Matt McMurdo. (0:07) We’ll be joining us here in just a few moments as well. (0:10) Sheriff Johnson, good morning.

How are you doing today? (0:13) Morning, Duke. Good. How are you doing? (0:14) Hey, doing well.

Appreciate your time as always. And, you know, (0:17) a couple of different things that we can talk about. We’ll start off here in just a few moments (0:21) with Commander McMurdo and the Star Valley Search and Rescue search, a week-long search (0:26) at the Snake River and Palisades that ended on Saturday.

And I wanted to just start there and get (0:31) your thoughts because here you have these volunteers that get that call right as their (0:36) big event fundraiser Ranch Rodeo is literally kicking off during the National Anthem. And they (0:42) rush off to the river and spend a week looking for an individual. That says a lot about that group.

(0:49) Yeah. Yeah. Well, as you mentioned, they’re volunteers.

They were (0:54) actively working on a fundraiser, the Ranch Rodeo, that’s very well attended. And I think that was (0:58) their third call of the day on that Saturday. Busy day for Search and Rescue.

As always, (1:03) they do a great job and are committed to what they’re doing. And in this case, they were out (1:09) every day since the incident trying to find Torrey in the river there. And there’s a lot of experience (1:19) on that unit.

So they know that the right places to look or the likely places to look and use all (1:25) the tools that they have available to them to bring the situation to a close. And luckily, Saturday, (1:31) we were able to do that for the family. But yeah, Search and Rescue, what a great job that they do (1:36) and the hard work that they put in.

Commander McMurdo is joining us live as well. Commander (1:40) Matt McMurdo, thanks for your time. I had a chance to join you on the river a couple of times and you (1:46) walked me through this search process.

But take us through, Commander, the very first moments of a (1:52) situation like this and the response that you guys do right out of the gate. So the very first moment (2:00) of this, we send everybody that we can get to the river as fast as we can get them. Because on the (2:06) river, for us, time is of the essence.

So we can try and catch them sooner and get them out of the (2:12) water quicker. So I mean, on this instance, you know, it happened at our ranch rodeo. So we had (2:19) pretty much everybody in Afton.

And we left 15 people at the ranch rodeo and we sent 25 people (2:30) down here to try and locate Tori. Now, of course, this is the situation where Tori was presumed (2:39) drowned pretty quickly when you guys got there. And so it turns into kind of a recovery operation.

(2:45) Walk us through all the different steps and everything you guys take. You’re working with (2:49) the Sheriff’s Office, deputies with drones, you’re working with the Forest Service and trying to map (2:53) out where things are. And take us through those maybe first few days of this search.

(3:00) The first few days entailed a lot of hours. We were on the water 10 hours a day for the first three (3:06) days. We had the Sheriff’s Office drone up, our drone up.

We had some personal drones. We had the (3:14) Forest Service. They were helping float down the river.

We had our guys floating down the river. (3:19) We also had our jet boats going up the river, jet skis searching down into Palisades. Plus we (3:26) had people walking the banks.

So in the first three days, we probably had over 500 man-hours (3:34) in just three days. And then, of course, the search just continues and goes on. And (3:42) it’s difficult because you know where the incident happened, but there’s so much water (3:49) after that.

And it’s hard to… I mean, you’re looking for a person that really could be (3:54) anywhere at that point, right? We are, yes. And so we realized that. And on Tuesday, we actually (4:01) brought in Wyoming canine search dogs to see if they could locate a scent of Torrey.

They picked (4:09) one up. So we brought in Swiftwater certified divers and Blackwater divers out of Bonneville (4:16) County from their search and rescue. They also came in and helped on Wednesday with no luck as well.

(4:24) Speaking with Star Valley Search and Rescue Commander Matt McMurdo. So, Commander, (4:27) you guys are searching for a week. And you get that call that some campers had located (4:34) a body in the Palisades area.

Walk us through what happened there and what takes place then. (4:40) So at that time, we were actually on the river still trying to locate him. We had guys out on (4:47) Palisades on the jet skis.

They were probably within quarter of a mile at the time. We also (4:54) had the jet boat. They had just pulled out from Sheep Gulch.

And we ended up launching the jet (5:00) boat right there in Alpine when we got that call. And when we get those kind of calls, it’s kind of (5:07) a relief to the group because we know we finally brought closure to the family. And that’s exactly (5:15) what happened.

So you’re able to find Torrey and recover his body. Anything else about that search (5:21) you’d like to mention, specifically that one that you’d like to mention, Matt? (5:26) This one, a lot of people don’t realize it. It takes a toll on the searchers because we’re (5:31) out there for so long, so many hours a day.

And everybody gets frustrated because we’re not able (5:37) to find them right away. And we want to bring closure as quick as possible. But these ones (5:42) are just a lot harder than our normal calls.

Yeah. And just looking at some of the other (5:49) searches and things that you go on, the amount of training and expertise, I was amazed. I’ll be (5:56) honest.

I was able to spend some time on the shore of the river with you and have you walk me through (6:00) maybe the process and some things that you guys are doing. And there’s a lot of training and time (6:05) and preparation that goes into this by the volunteers to make sure that when this happens, (6:09) you guys are ready to roll. There is.

So like for on the river, all of us have to be Swiftwater (6:15) certified. That’s a three day class. And we do nothing but spend three days on the river, (6:21) learn how to float, swim in the current and rescue people if we have to jump in after them.

(6:29) Plus there’s the jet boat training that the guys have to go out and run the jet boat on the river (6:37) nonstop just to keep their skills home because the water levels and the river is changing all the (6:43) time. So Star Valley Search and Rescue Commander Matt McMurdo, also Lincoln County Sheriff Shane (6:48) Johnson on the air with us today. Sheriff, Commander, anything else regarding this search (6:53) or similar instances that you’d like to mention today before we move on? (6:58) I’d just like to encourage everybody to wear your life jackets.

(7:03) Yeah, for sure. One thing that’s a little bit unique too, Duke, that I want to mention is it’s (7:08) not uncommon for the searches that they go on and ones that end up this way that the boat gets put (7:15) in, the raft gets put in in Teton County, the incident or in this case, you know, jumping off (7:21) or an overturned raft in some cases happens in Lincoln County. And if we don’t find quick (7:29) resolution, it’s not uncommon for to do a recovery in Bonneville County, Idaho.

So all those things (7:36) have to be managed as well as this incident goes on for a week. So it’s just a little bit of a (7:42) unique thing that we have here in Lincoln County. Yeah, working with all those different agencies.

(7:46) Absolutely. Well, Commander McMurdo, again, thank you to you guys and your crew for what you do. (7:51) And I guess on a more positive note, the Ranch Rodeo was a big success for you guys.

(7:57) It was. It was one of our biggest fundraisers of the year and it was a great success. We did (8:01) it really well.

We appreciate the community support. Absolutely. Commander Matt McMurdo, (8:06) I’ll start by the search and rescue.

Lincoln County Sheriff Shane Johnson, also on the air, (8:09) Sheriff, a couple other cases that I wanted to bring up today. You also had the case in Alpine, (8:16) a deceased body found along Highway 89, just south of Alpine. Yeah, this was called into us (8:23) on July 10th and we went into the area.

We were able to identify the person. She was a resident (8:33) of a nearby area. She’d been seen out in that area earlier and a 70-year-old female.

We were (8:41) able to recover that body, involve the coroner’s office, and of course, testing is going on. But (8:48) in all appearances, she had some health issues and it was hot out that day. And we believe that (8:55) this was a medical event, unfortunately.

And the heat, and you know how hot it’s been, that (9:02) played a role in this too, we believe. So very unfortunate. Glad someone was able to spot her (9:09) and so we could respond and take care of her.

Sheriff, one thing you’ve said is by the time (9:16) emergency response got to Rita, Jamie, I mean, it was apparent she’d been deceased for a while (9:22) and no life-saving measures could be performed. Do you know about how long she had been there (9:28) by the time she was noticed? I think it’s possible she’d been there a day. Yeah, (9:34) which is hard to believe on that busy road, but that’s based on what we saw at the scene.

That’s (9:43) the conclusion that we came to. Of course, the coroner’s office, they do further testing and (9:49) with labs and everything like that. So we’ll have some more information, but we’ve been on (9:54) enough of these that we can make a pretty good estimation that it did not just happen.

(10:01) Sheriff, you’re also working on a case out of the town of Opal (10:04) where there were two deceased individuals that were discovered, correct? (10:09) Yeah, we got called to Opal on a couple of deceased individuals in a camper trailer. (10:19) They hadn’t seen them for a few days. The people that lived nearby, they went and checked on them, (10:25) found Tracy Atkinson, a 50-year-old male out of Fruit Heights, Utah, and Angela Woolsey, (10:30) a 46-year-old female out of Lyman, Wyoming, that were in the camper deceased.

(10:37) We did an investigation there, also called the coroner’s office, and that investigation is (10:42) ongoing. Some of the items and what we found at the scene, we just believe that those deaths were (10:51) the result of a drug overdose. Of course, that’s still ongoing with testing of evidence and of (10:58) blood.

So we’ll have some more answers about that, but there was nothing at the scene that would (11:04) lead us to believe anything nefarious as far as violence or anything like that. (11:10) Thank you, County Sheriff Shane Johnson, this morning on the Weekly Wake-Up. Sheriff, (11:13) appreciate the updates on those.

It’s been a busy, busy for the last month for all (11:21) emergency responders across the county. Maybe just share your thoughts on that, (11:25) the amount of calls and some pretty tough calls to beat. (11:30) We’ve had a month that’s taxed law enforcement and EMS and fire, search and rescue.

We’ve all (11:39) been busy, and just a shout out to those services. They work hard. They show up when they’re needed (11:48) and do a professional job.

We’re very lucky here in Lincoln County to have the resources that we (11:54) do. I know some of them, particularly EMS has been a big topic of conversation, but they’re (12:00) invaluable and do a great job. So yeah, again, we talked about it quite a bit, but the first (12:07) responders that are out there when everybody is spending time with their family on the 4th of (12:13) July, there was all kinds of calls going on and first responders running everywhere in Lincoln (12:20) County handling situations.

So they do a great job. (12:23) Thank you, County Sheriff Shane Johnson. Starved by the Search and Rescue Commander Matt McMurdo.

(12:27) Thank you again for your time this morning, and we’ll talk again soon. Thank you. (12:31) Thanks, Duke.

(12:32) It’s all part of the weekday wake up this morning on SVI Radio.