PRICE Utah (ABC 4 News) – They simply vanished.
Two Colorado men working at a Carbon County pipeline company disappeared Saturday night and their families are pleading for help in locating them.
Mark Widegren and Brian Axe were last seen leaving the Silver Dollar Bar in Price.
“No activity, no phones it stops at 11:30 Saturday night,” says Rebecca Woorley, Axe’s sister-in-law.
Woorley says there were several other sightings of the two men Saturday including a restaurant and convenience store. One of the men even called his mother Saturday.
“They’re not the kind of guys to just go away,” says Woorley. “They always call home, their mother, their wife. They’re just not that way.”
Woolery lives in Colorado but she and a search and rescue crew from Grand Junction arrived Wednesday night.
Thursday they mapped out a search plan with the 20-volunteers they brought in from Grand Junction. Woorley and the head of the search crew spent the day in Price handing out flyers.
“We’ve put out posters from Green River to Helper,” says Connie Flukey of the Abby and Jennifer Recovery Foundation. “But the car is the key that’s what we’re looking for.”
Axe and Widegren were last seen driving a gold colored 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee. The SUV had Colorado license plates and the plate number is 724TDP.
The volunteers are not only canvassing Price but they’ve joined the Carbon County Sheriff’s office in searching the rugged terrain near Nine Mile Canyon.
“We don’t have any idea where to look,” says Wally Hendricks of the Sheriff’s office. “These guys were planning to return to the man camp (at the pipeline) because they have belongings there. So we’re starting from Price to Nine Mile. We’re hoping somewhere along the way they may be stranded or stuck and took a wrong turn that way.”
And after five days, family members are hanging onto that very thought.
“We have hope,” says Woorley. “They’re strong men. They can do it.”
