Mom still hoping to find daughter

It's been more than two weeks since Andrea Celina Roye, 18, entered the wilderness of northern Utah's Green Canyon after telling friends she was going hiking.

No one has seen or heard from the Henderson teenager since. There has been no sign of her presence -- no footprints, no scraps of clothing, no evidence of a shelter.

With no leads and scant understanding of Roye's motives, the Cache County sheriff on Monday suspended the search.

But her mother, Janice Roye, refuses to give up hope.

"My motherly instinct says she's still there. I felt her presence so strongly."

Roye said she and her son, Will, 27, "both feel her energy, her essence. He can't describe it either."

Roye and her son, left for Utah on Aug. 12 to join the search party, which targeted an area of 300 square miles, including parts of Wyoming, Idaho and Montana.

Cache County sheriff's officials believed Andrea Roye may have had tried to hitchhike to Yellowstone National Park, because of her affinity for wolves and a strong association with animals.

"She was trying to find herself out there," said Cache County sheriff's Lt. Matt Bilodeau last week. "We don't know where she went. She didn't tell anyone."

The Royes searched for a week, only once staying at a hotel. Although the search area was expanded, Janice Roye believes her daughter never left Green Canyon.

Officials interpreted one of her daughter's MySpace messages that talked about "being one with nature" as if the teenager wanted to stay in the mountains for an extended time, Roye said.

But that's how her daughter always talked about hiking and the outdoors, she said.

"I don't think she was trying to disappear or find herself or cause harm to herself. I don't think she meant to get lost. She wanted achievement."

Janice Roye believes her daughter was attempting to hike from the canyon into Idaho, which is about 20 minutes by car from Green Canyon. The teenager took only enough supplies for a few days.

She spoke highly of her camping trip in Idaho the previous weekend, Janice Roye said, but wanted to get away from the "pots and pans" style of camping. Because her daughter had never driven a car, she wouldn't understand how long a hike through the mountains to Idaho would take, Roye said.

"She probably thought she could do it. She wanted the natural camping experience."

Andrea Roye had been living in Utah for about five weeks and was staying with her boyfriend and his family. She left home on her 18th birthday with her 4-month-old dog, a German shepherd/wolf mix, which she took on the hike.

"That's all she wanted for her birthday, to go camping," Roye said.

Andrea Roye liked the area so much she had e-mailed that she was thinking of living there permanently.

"Her and her boyfriend were thinking of buying 'territory.' That's how she phrased it," Janice Roye said.

On the day her daughter disappeared, Roye said the girl awoke early. She mentioned something about "taking a hike" and asked her boyfriend's sister-in-law for a ride to the mouth of the canyon.

When she didn't come back the following morning, the boyfriend called police.

Police later learned from a group of campers that Andrea Roye had passed their camp and said she was planning on staying "one or two days."

A cold front then moved into the canyon, bringing significant rainfall, the mother said. When the search restarted on Friday, the scent and tracks had been washed away.

"She could have slipped. She could have fallen where it was wet," Roye said. "I'm sure she wasn't planning on staying more than two days."

Janice and Will returned to Henderson on Wednesday after the official search was suspended. They were discouraged, she said.

"I got back here and spent all of Wednesday crying," Roye said. "I said, 'What am I doing here?'"

She and her son agreed they would return to Utah and form another search party. They're determined to find something -- anything -- in that canyon.

"My biggest fear is we're going to find her and it'll be too late," Roye said.

Bilodeau said the search would be resumed if evidence is discovered. At this point, he said, searchers have used every resource available, from helicopters to tracking dogs and horse teams, and found nothing.

"Until it's verified, there's always hope. There's always optimists in each of us, especially about our child," Bilodeau said.

He said bow hunting season opened a week ago, which could be another resource in finding Andrea Roye.

"There's hundreds up here searching for deer. With posters everywhere, we hope they come across her," he said.

Roye said some people in Utah have donated supplies -- sleeping bags, tents and clothes -- for the upcoming volunteer search. They have the supplies, and all they need now is help.

"Even if there's only a 1 percent chance she's alive, we have to look," she said.

She's asking for anyone in Nevada who would be willing to help search to e-mail her son at willcomp@yahoo.com for more information.

Even if no one shows up, Roye is determined to search until she finds her daughter.

"I told them (in Cache County) not to come looking for me, because I might not be coming back."

Contact reporter Mike Blasky at mblasky@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0283.