By Ruth Olson
Although the volunteer searches for missing scout Garrett Bardsley have been halted, he is still being thought of nationwide. Garrett”s family, including his two brothers and sister, appeared on the Oprah show Thursday night to remember him.
“Garrett was always the kid who had the most fun, he was the one that made us laugh,” said Garrett”s father, Kevin Bardsley, on the Oprah show.
Garrett, 12, of Elk Ridge, 12 miles south of Provo, Utah, was reported missing on Aug. 20. while on a scouting trip with his father in the Uinta mountains. Garrett was last seen heading back to camp from fishing with his father. A short while later, Kevin also headed back to camp, but thought he heard someone calling “Dad.” But after stopping and looking around, Kevin didn”t notice anyone and continued on. It was only then, he said, he noticed his son was missing. Searchers gathered within hours, and have have been ongoing since then, but there has been no sighting of the boy.
“It”s been very hard,” said Heidi Bardsley, Garrett”s mother, who also appeared on the show. “Every day it was hard to have night fall, to know it was one more day that we didn”t find Garrett. We would have grown men that would come back to camp just in tears, and say, ”I”m sorry we didn”t find him today.””
Kevin said there was a possibility Garrett had been killed by a mountain lion or some other wild animal, but he said the family and searchers believed he had crawled into a cave for shelter. They said they do not think he is still alive.
He said there was no evidence Garrett had been abducted.
“We were in two and a half, almost three miles back into rugged area,” he said.
He said an abduction would have been almost impossible to carry off, and there was no evidence that anything of the type took place.
Kevin said the past few months had been difficult, but he was trying not to blame himself.
“I don”t blame myself so much as wished I would have called out,” Kevin said. “I”ve also realized that I can”t do that. It”s not productive to do that to find my son. If I spent all the time doing that I wouldn”t get anything done in order to find Garrett.”
He said the volunteer searches are off right now because of the snow, but hunters would still be able to look for him for the last days of hunting season.
Several search groups have been scouring the mountain since Garrett went missing, and his disappearance prompted wilderness education programs for elementary schools in Summit County.
The family announced their continuing plans to travel to Ecuador in December to erect a school in Garrett”s memory, keeping up a family tradition of spending Christmas doing humanitarian work.
“He was looking forward to going to Ecuador to work,” Kevin said. “We never thought we were going to be building a school at that time.”
Heidi said the project was helping the family deal with the tragedy.
“I”ve learned that I can”t choose experiences I have in my life, but I can choose how I”m going to handle them,” she said. “We could have let this tear our family apart, break up our marriage, but we chose to make something positive of it. ”
She said the last few months had been difficult, but memories of her son have helped her.
“I know he knew that I loved him,” Heidi said, her voice breaking with tears. “The last time I saw him, he gave me a big hug. That”s what keeps me going through this. I can still feel him squeeze me.”
