This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The bodies of a man and a teenage boy have been found after they both fell in what look to be separate incidents at Bridal Veil Falls.
Members of the Utah County Sheriff's Office Search and Rescue team discovered the body of Brandon Reas, 28, of Springville, on Sunday morning. Reas had been missing since Saturday night, when the body of Kedi Chen, 14, was found in the same area of Bridal Veil Falls in Provo Canyon.
Chen was an exchange student from China but had been living in Nara, Japan. He had been scheduled to stay in Utah for only a few days after arriving in the state Saturday. Reas and his family were hosting Chen during his Utah stay, according to the Utah County Sheriff's Office.
Deputies were first dispatched to the area Saturday night in response to a report of an injured boy at the base of the falls toward the east side. When officers arrived, they found Chen with "significant injuries" after he had apparently fallen from a cliff above the falls. He and Reas had been hiking together, according to the sheriff's office.
A search for Reas was called off due to darkness but resumed Sunday morning. Reas' body was discovered at about 7:45 a.m. at the first level above the base of the falls toward the west. Based on the distance between the victims, investigators say they don't believe they fell together.
"The worst we usually have in that area are scrapes and bruises, maybe broken bones," said Sergeant Spencer Cannon of the Utah County Sheriff's Office. "But when you go up from the base of the falls, it's a technical climb, almost vertical cliffs. You really need to be prepared with necessary equipment. I don't know what their experience levels were."
The deaths are still under investigation, said Cannon.