Deceased/Not Found UT - Danny Gallegos, 35, Braden Emerson, 23, Levi Collins, 34, Salt Lake, 1 Nov 2014 *Arrest*

[LarkBunting]

If a group of grown men can't go out ATV-ing in broad daylight & be safe, how can anyone ever be safe?
This is sad and disturbing.

 

[m_brown]

That ATV is probably worth in the $10-12,000 dollar range. The trailer would probably be worth a couple thousand bucks....So.... a $14,000--$16, 000 pay day for a thief.

A few years back I was out running around the forest on my ATV there in Arizona, when I came across a couple of dudes dressing out an elk along a trail. The only problem was..........it was July.......no where near hunting season.

I came to a stop and let my ATV idle for a second........they eyed me up and down, and I eyed them up and down...................we could all see that everybody was armed with sidearms............mine was a 9mm with 15 bullets in it, holstered on my waist in plain sight. I slowly just backed up and got far enough away that I knew they were out of range, and then I flipped the ATV around and high-tailed it out of the area. I've wondered many times since then what might have happened to me had I not been packing heat that day. You spend time in prison for poaching elk there in Arizona. Those hillbilly poachers have no intention of spending time in the Big House.

I only got away that day because it was a fair fight, and nobody was gonna win it. Everybody was prepared to fill the other guy full of holes.

Many people have disappeared out in that same forest, and I think running into poachers and seeing something you aren't supposed to is a pretty fast way to get yourself "missing".

interesting angle! Similar situation here in northern CA "emerald triangle" and national forests.

 

[Sjm_qc]

"Salt Lake PD Detective Dennis McGowan told ABC4 News that the Tahoe's owner is an acquaintance of Gallegos who has been questioned and cleared of any involvement. Baca says the Tahoe belongs to her son.

"It was Kiko's car," Baca said. "There was a significant amount of blood and bullet holes in the car so we don't know that's all we know."


so confusing. http://www.good4utah.com/story/d/st...ng-for-five-days/32876/zwHVayCI20y4kSD_H-q7Ag

BBM: very confusing indeed , but I can see how the discrepancy might occur; sometimes people who don't (for whatever reason) have the cash to buy a vehicle outright, or the means to obtain credit, will enter into private purchase arrangements; thus the title owner may still be the seller, while family members/friends see it as the buyer's car.


(I can't seem to be able to multi-quote today): also agree that felons or not, they & family deserve answers/for them to be found. Whatever the outcome.

 

[Sjm_qc]

Both articles I have read say the ATV and trailer it was on have not been found.

The ATV is pictured, & listed as missing, on the "Missing" poster I can't seem to link to today .

 

[Tonia]

The trailer and the ATV are missing



I got the picture off of the missing page and i cropped KIKO out of it so you could see the ATV

 

[steelman]

Let's see here..................

What we know:
We have 3 friends that borrow an SUV and a trailer, with an ATV on it, from a friend.

The SUV is found with a bullet hole(s) and lots of blood on the seats. The ATV and trailer are nowhere to be found.

The owner of the SUV was not there, doesn't know anything about it, and has been cleared by the cops.

The three guys that are missing all have felony records for either drugs or burglary.

What we don't know: If they were planning to meet someone out on the trails to go ride with.


What better place to do a drug deal than out in the boonies with no prying eyes and no way anybody could sneak up on you.

Sounds like, and looks like, an ambush.......I doubt they were strangers to each other.

They meet up with somebody to make a deal, they get capped, robbed, and ambushed while they are sitting in the SUV grouped together.

The perps disconnect the trailer and re-hook it to their vehicle. The bodies are dumped out on the ground, and maybe buried, maybe not.

The SUV is driven to some pre-arranged location, or a random location and left while the driver hops back in with the other bad guy. Off they go with their new toy and their new toy hauler.
________________________________

I'd say they need to get out there and do some tracking for both tire tracks and human scent. The SUV may have been parked on pavement to act as a diversion and to eliminate tire tracks to the scene of the crime.

Of course, one of the three could have double crossed the other two, with the help of a friend and a vehicle.

Sounds like something right out of "The Sons of Anarchy" play book.

 

[m_brown]

Let's see here..................

What we know:
We have 3 friends that borrow an SUV and a trailer, with an ATV on it, from a friend.

The SUV is found with a bullet hole(s) and lots of blood on the seats. The ATV and trailer are nowhere to be found.

The owner of the SUV was not there, doesn't know anything about it, and has been cleared by the cops.

The three guys that are missing all have felony records for either drugs or burglary.

What we don't know: If they were planning to meet someone out on the trails to go ride with.


What better place to do a drug deal than out in the boonies with no prying eyes and no way anybody could sneak up on you.

Sounds like, and looks like, an ambush.......I doubt they were strangers to each other.

They meet up with somebody to make a deal, they get capped, robbed, and ambushed while they are sitting in the SUV grouped together.

The perps disconnect the trailer and re-hook it to their vehicle. The bodies are dumped out on the ground, and maybe buried, maybe not.

The SUV is driven to some pre-arranged location, or a random location and left while the driver hops back in with the other bad guy. Off they go with their new toy and their new toy hauler.
________________________________

I'd say they need to get out there and do some tracking for both tire tracks and human scent. The SUV may have been parked on pavement to act as a diversion and to eliminate tire tracks to the scene of the crime.

Of course, one of the three could have double crossed the other two, with the help of a friend and a vehicle.

Sounds like something right out of "The Sons of Anarchy" play book.

Thanks Steelman for putting that all out there. My thinking is that someone somewhere would notice that ATV, perhaps being towed behind something other than a white Tahoe. Unless of course, it was towed somewhere else at night and hidden in a garage or something. It is pretty "flashy" as far as ATVs go..(not an expert)

Investigators/family should be checking common sites for ATVs for sale..IMO

 

[steelman]

Thanks Steelman for putting that all out there. My thinking is that someone somewhere would notice that ATV, perhaps being towed behind something other than a white Tahoe. Unless of course, it was towed somewhere else at night and hidden in a garage or something. It is pretty "flashy" as far as ATVs go..(not an expert)

Investigators/family should be checking common sites for ATVs for sale..IMO

That's a good theory........unless of course the ATV and trailer found their way down to Mexico.

I think these three guys had some sort of a "big deal" cooking, and it backfired on them.

 

[m_brown]

That's a good theory........unless of course the ATV and trailer found their way down to Mexico.

I think these three guys had some sort of a "big deal" cooking, and it backfired on them.

So they load up one of their *pretty expensive* ATVs, (how many seats? ETA: four based on the picture) and pull up to a "meeting spot" in the Tahoe. OR ride out to a meeting spot in the ATV leaving the Tahoe somewhere else, are injured/possibly killed and their bodies put back into the Tahoe (blood). ??


Very Breaking Bad..

 

[steelman]

So they load up one of their *pretty expensive* ATVs, (how many seats? ETA: four based on the picture) and pull up to a "meeting spot" in the Tahoe. OR ride out to a meeting spot in the ATV leaving the Tahoe somewhere else, are injured/possibly killed and their bodies put back into the Tahoe (blood). ??


Very Breaking Bad..

Yep..........seems to be a likely scenario. They were obviously in the SUV either before, during, or after the shooting. There were bullet holes in the truck.....so I'm thinking they were sitting in it when the shooting started....like sitting ducks. Somebody was on the outside of that vehicle shooting in, the question is who was it ?

I think they were ambushed while sitting in the truck and then pulled out and dumped somewhere along one of the ATV trails out there. They WILL find them....all depends on how much they plan on searching. I'm doubtful that the ATV was ever even unloaded.

 

[steelman]

but on Monday morning, officers found the Tahoe abandoned on the west side of Salt Lake City, with a dog and a significant amount of blood inside it, according to a police news release.

Animal control officers were the first ones to find the Tahoe at 1800 W. 1500 South, in a secluded area near the Jordan River. The dog was not hurt, but when they noticed a significant amount of blood in the Tahoe, the animal control officers called police.

Homicide detectives connected the three men to the vehicle but have been unable to find them.

http://www.sltrib.com/news/1788045-155/police-tahoe-atv-lake-salt-brown


Put that pooch in solitary until he talks ..!! :laugh: :jail:

 

[m_brown]

oh right! I forgot about the bullet holes (we don't know how many (right?) just that there was damage likely caused by bullet holes from the video here). http://fox13now.com/2014/11/04/polic...-redwood-road/

Wonder if the bullet holes are from the outside or inside.

 

[hockeymom4]

This is an odd story for a variety of reasons. One though that there are three guys missing. That had to take, IMO, more than one offender. They don't look like scrawny guys.

 

[m_brown]

This is an odd story for a variety of reasons. One though that there are three guys missing. That had to take, IMO, more than one offender. They don't look like scrawny guys.

BBM. Absolutely. Or someone else was in cahoots with one of them, and they turned on the other two (not what I think happened..but ya never know)

 

[steelman]

I was going to try and make up a map of where the vehicle was found. Unfortunately, the way the streets are laid out and labeled in Salt Lake City makes you wonder if a totally insane person is responsible for naming the roads around there.

1800 W. 1500 S., (near 1500 S. Redwood) is the location noted in the news articles. Depending how I enter that address, I get directed to 3 or 4 different places, all of them in different areas of town

Bottom line though, it appears as if the vehicle was definitely found in a very populated area, not out in the wilderness somewhere. I thought that since they were hauling around an ATV, that they were found somewhere outside of the city limits, but that appears to not be the case.

Of course, it is very possible that the Tahoe SUV was driven back into town, wiped down for prints, and abandoned. Only God knows where the crime scene may be............or the three men.


Anyway, this is a link to the public Facebook site that has been set up for them.

https://www.facebook.com/missingcases1/timeline?ref=page_internal

 

[QueenMictlan]

Wouldn't they have hit the dog with the bullets if they were shooting at the car. They said they found the dog inside the car with the blood. I wonder if the bullet holes are from shooting from inside the vehicle or from outside the vehicle. That would put a better perspective of what went on.

 

[Desertwind]

I was going to try and make up a map of where the vehicle was found. Unfortunately, the way the streets are laid out and labeled in Salt Lake City makes you wonder if a totally insane person is responsible for naming the roads around there.

Actually, once you understand it, the roads are simple. Everything is on a grid in distance from Temple Square. So, 1500 S. is the Street name, and is about 15 blocks south of Temple Square(give or take a bit). 1800 W. is the same, thing. 18 blocks west of Temple Square. ( This is a general explanation, I haven't lived there in over 10 years).

On that side of town it's not too far to places in the desert that aren't very populated; as well as close to I-80. The area the vehicle was found in is industrial type, the ATV could have lots of indoor places to hide. I am curious too, about which direction for the bullet holes, or if they were new or existing.

 

[QueenMictlan]

Levi Collins facebook page has been deleted. So something is going on.

 

[QueenMictlan]

I am starting to feel that maybe these guys did something and then one of them got injured and they are on the run. Drug deal gone bad or something to that effect.

 

[Ragamuffin]

Comment on the public facebook above is interesting.