Body of missing Hooper woman found in field

WEST HAVEN — The body of a missing Hooper woman was found early Sunday morning in a field.

Police say the body appears to be 51-year-old Katherine “Kay” Doutre, who has been missing for a month.

According to a police news release the body matched the description of Kay Doutre, including the clothing she was last seen wearing.

The body was found near Doutre’s home, at about 3100 West and 4000 South, in anarea combed by dozens of searchers who also handed out fliers asking anyone who had seen her to come forward with information.

“According to the search director, they searched that area,” said Weber County Sheriff’s Capt. Klint Anderson. “She was not there.”

Searchers at the time included Weber County Search and Rescue volunteers, deputies, neighbors, friends and search dogs. The Utah Department of Public Safety conducted a helicopter search.

Anderson said, after some credible sources reported seeing Doutre at various locations nearby, he believed that she did not want to be located.

“She might have been camping in that area, still not wanting to be found by anyone,” Anderson said. “We were having a hard time finding her. ... We were waiting to see if she would turn up.”

Anderson said cold temperatures may have caused a problem for the woman if she was indeed hiding and camping.

“The medical examiner is wondering if that is what maybe caused her death,” Anderson said.

Knowing that she was not in the field days after she disappeared may help medical examiners determine when she died, Anderson said.

The press release states that the body showed signs of weathering and decomposition, which suggests she died at least several days ago.

Doutre was last seen by her husband the morning of Friday, Oct. 30. Her husband reported that she was distraught and had been known to disappear for a few hours at a time to compose herself.

She had been gone for 24 hours at the time she was reported missing, states the report. She had taken no wallet, car, or any other possessions other than the clothing she was wearing. Anderson said the family reported there were “family, personal issues going on that she might have been distraught over.”

Early Sunday and again later that day, detectives and CSI processed the scene where the body was found as they were treating the situation as a “suspicious death.”

The police report indicated that officers did not find any obvious indications as to what caused the woman’s death. Police were waiting on information provided by the state medical examiner.

“Our sympathy and condolences go out to Kay Doutre’s family and friends,” states the press release.

Officers reported having spoken with Doutre’s husband Sunday, bringing him up to date on the investigation and the discovery of what they believed was Doutre’s body.