Missing Utah Teens: Search Resumes At Utah Lake For Girls Missing Since Wednesday

Authorities in Utah continued their search for two teens that went missing on Utah Lake on Wednesday. Crews had worked to comb the area for the two until 4 a.m. on Friday, eventually taking a break to wait for daylight.

The two teenaged girls from Saratoga Springs, Utah — Priscilla Bienkowski, 18, and Sophia Hernandez, 17 — were visiting the lake for a vacation. According to Utah County Sheriff Sgt. Spencer Cannon, the teens had gone out onto the lake with floatation tubes more suited for pool use than a real body of water.

Eventually, there are believed to have been caught up in strong winds that kicked up significant waves on the lake. Both tubes have been recovered, but search crews have found no other signs of Bienkowski and Hernandez.

“People on horseback, people on foot are doing some searching in those areas,” Cannon said. “There is a possibility, however slim it might be, that they got off the lake either on their own or they got off the lake and somebody did something with them or to them. We don’t have exact information telling us one way or the other.”

The two were first reported missing around 8 p.m. on Wednesday. A fisherman near their belongings answered a phone call from a mother of one of the girls and said that he had not seen them on the lake. This prompted the mother to report the issue to the police.

Additional search and rescue crews were called in from nearby Wasatch and Weber Counties to help with the search. The Utah Department of Public Safety has also offered assistance. Boat owners volunteering their crafts to help with the search were turned down by the sheriff’s department, due to the types of equipment needed for the search.

“There are just no words,” Jimmy Hernandez, father of Sophia, said in an interview. “We couldn’t absorb anything — it was just too difficult for us.”

Bienkowski and Hernandez went missing near the Knolls, an area roughly 10 miles south of Saratoga Springs on the western shore of the lake. Saratoga Springs is located roughly 35 miles south of Salt Lake City.