The strange disappearance and death of Jerika Binks on the Timpanogos Cave National Monument trail
Jerika Binks, disappeared February 18, 2018. Remains discovered April 14, 2019, Timpanogos Cave National Monument, American Fork Canyon, Utah.
Revised July 2024
Jerika Binks, 24, stayed at a residential treatment / integrated recovery center near North County Boulevard in American Fork in Utah.
On February 18, 2018, at around 9 a.m., she told a roommate she planned to run in the Timpanogos Cave National Monument. Jerika was a keen long-distance trail runner and often visited the park. She disappeared on that run after being captured by a trail wildlife camera.
Over a year later, in April 2019, Jerika’s remains were found. She had apparently slipped off the trail and broken her legs. Was it just an accident or something more disturbing?
What is the Timpanogos Cave National Monument?
Timpanogos Cave National Monument protects the Timpanogos Cave Historic District and a cave system on Mount Timpanogos. It is located in the Wasatch Mountains in American Fork Canyon, near American Fork in Utah.
The National Park Service manages the site. The 1.5-mile (2.4 km) trail to the cave is steep, gaining close to 1,000 feet (300 m), but it is paved and fairly wide, so the caves are accessible to most. The three caves of the system, one of which is specifically called Timpanogos Cave, are only viewable on guided tours when the monument is open, usually from May through September, depending on snow conditions and funding.
Jerika’s run in Timpanogos Cave National Monument
According to her mother, Suzanne Westring, Jerika left behind her ID and bank card and all her possessions apart from her cell phone, AirPods, and water, which she took on the run. She was 5-foot-4, weighing 120 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. She wore black five-toed running shoes and a two-toned hooded sweatshirt with dark grey on the back, light grey on the front, and dark green leggings.
It was common for Jerika to go running, but she would always return to the integrated recovery center at a reasonable time. She had been voluntarily living there for several months and had been doing well with her treatment (the exact issue is unknown).
Jerika was known to occasionally leave the center and meet with boyfriends. She used her Snapchat account to meet an individual approximately one week before she went missing, but detectives tracked down that man and determined that he was not involved in the case.
The disappearance
Her mother, Suzanne Westring, spoke to Jerika the day before the February 17, 2018 run. The two planned to go car shopping, but when the treatment center called and said Jerika hadn’t returned from Timpanogos Cave National Monument, she grew very concerned.
After Jerika’s disappearance, family and friends spent hundreds of hours walking routes she might have taken, reviewing drone and video surveillance footage from various businesses and homes. Using cellphone tower triangulation data, the family narrowed down the possible routes and areas she might have been in, including routes north of American Fork Hospital, along 4800 West/North County Boulevard, east along State Route 92, and trails and roads crossing the Cedar Hills Golf Course in between.
Using video footage from the Utah State Developmental Center that very possibly shows her running, the family extrapolated Jerika’s running speed at about an 8.8-mile pace. With that pace, she could not have made it to the American Fork Canyon by 10 am. But, if the ping data had a margin of error of about 10 minutes, then it is possible she could have made it there running. That timing could mean a difference in whether Binks made it to the canyon and possibly had an accident, or if she was perhaps attacked and carried there in a vehicle, or even if her phone was stolen and moved without her.
The sheriff's office and highly trained search and rescue teams conducted a major search of the park and surrounding area that lasted several days. The search included helicopters, drones, dog teams, and ground searchers rappelling through steep terrain. The family searched the area on weekends and evenings during fair weather in March and April.
Adjacent scree slopes, animal trails and other possible but unauthorised routes were also searched multiple times. The cave trail gate is locked from below but can be opened from above at all times, leaving open the possibility that she continued down the trail and left the park.
Despite the efforts of professional search teams, family and volunteers, there were no solid leads for detectives working on the case. Foul play has not been ruled out, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Trail wildlife camera footage
NPS camera which captured Jerika Binks 1.30 pm running February 18, 2018
In May 2018, three months after Jerika vanished, images captured by a wildlife camera owned by the NPS showed her running down the National Timpanogos Cave Trail and up American Fork Canyon on February 18th around 1:30 p.m. So, she had definitely made it to the Monument for her run.
This NPS camera was placed on the closed Timpanogos Trail in the fall of 2017 and retrieved on March 27th, 2018. The images were taken in an area that was closed to the public for the winter about halfway up the trail. When park staff downloaded the images, they recognized Jerika and reported their discovery to the Utah County Sheriff's Office.
In his post on the Finding Jerika Facebook page, Jed Binks, Jerika’s brother, said the family has been “waiting for a month to release these photos. Out of respect, and not wanting to step on anyone’s toes who are aiding in the investigation. That’s why our searches have been so dedicated to this area. They say it’s her coming down the trail, but there is no footage of her coming up, which leads us to believe she gained access to the trail elsewhere. Furthermore, that leads us to believe someone showed her an entrance prior to her run that day.”
According to County Sheriff's Sgt. Spencer Cannon, the family released the photos without the knowledge of investigators. Cannon said deputies believe someone in the family snapped photos with their cellphone while investigators privately showed them the pictures on a computer. The reason the sheriff's office did not want the photos released was to avoid compromising the investigation should Jerika’s disappearance turn out to be a criminal matter.
A cell phone ping registered in Saratoga Springs at the mouth of American Fork Canyon at 10 am, around the same time as she headed up the canyon. The family believes she may have accessed the trail elsewhere.
Remains found
The location of Jerika Binks’ remains were marked with a pink flag
On Sunday, April 14, 2019, a 70-year-old local hiker came across the skeletal remains of a body, along with several personal items, including shoes, running clothes, and a cell phone, in a ravine near Jerika’s last known location. Local police announced the discovery on Monday 15th and confirmed the body was that of Jerika Binks on the 17th after a completed medical examination.
The man who found the remains was an experienced local hiker who had explored the area for years but had never been to that spot before. She was located 850 feet in elevation gain (a distance of about 2500 feet) above the road in a wash/ravine on the North side of the canyon in an area above Swinging Bridge.
The area was well outside of those searched by Search and Rescue, the family & volunteers, and all drone searches. While searches covered lower parts of that area, it was easily 2000 feet outside of these search locations. It is an area that really does not have developed trails and is not a commonly used hiking route.
What happened to Jerika Binks?
Authorities did not confirm an official cause of death, but a statement from the Utah County Sheriff’s Office said Binks suffered “a serious break to both bones in the lower part of one of her legs.” Police do not believe foul play was involved in her death and the most likely theory remains that she decided to explore beyond the area’s manmade paths, and suffered an accidental fall.
The location of Jerika’s body helps to explain why the comprehensive search effort after her disappearance failed to find anything. Her body was located halfway up a steep ravine, away from any trails or manmade structures, around a mile northwest of the Swinging Bridge picnic area, which is half a mile down the road from the trailhead where she was last seen.
She was clearly alive and well at 1.30 pm when the wildlife camera captured the NPS pictures of Jerika running down the trail. What happened to her after that? Was it really a case of her venturing off the manmade path for reasons unknown or did something more sinister happen to her?
Another case of a runner who mysteriously vanished was Amy Wroe Bechtel in the Shoshone National Forest in Wyoming in 1997. Theories included that she was killed by her husband or the Great Basin Serial Killer, Dale Wayne Eaton. Read more at Link to Amy Wroe Bechtel story.
Jerika Binks remains location marked with a Star.
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Sources
https://www.facebook.com/findingJerika/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timpanogos_Cave_National_Monument
https://kutv.com/news/local/police-searching-for-missing-utah-county-woman
https://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/american-fork/jerika-binks-family-still-searching-for-answers-and-missing-woman/article_c769c480-f656-5c6a-b09a-d6ba353c67e0.html
https://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/american-fork/family-of-missing-jerika-binks-releases-camera-footage/article_c1c8cbf1-1796-5316-9d56-98171ae8490f.html
https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900018914/photos-raise-new-questions-in-search-for-american-fork-woman.html
https://fox13now.com/2018/09/04/mother-of-missing-utah-county-woman-pleads-for-publics-help-in-finding-her/
https://www.runnersworld.com/news/a27169088/jerika-binks-possible-body-discovery/
