FOUND: 17-year-old McKenzie Scholzen found safe; 3 arrests made

McKenzie Scholzen, 17, was found safe in Enterprise, Thursday, Aug. 9, 2018 | Photo courtesy of Santa Clara-Ivins Police Department, St. George News

ST. GEORGE — Thanks to the power of social media and tips to the Santa Clara-Ivins Police Department, McKenzie Scholzen, 17, who went missing Monday night has been found safe.

Read more: MISSING: Santa Clara-Ivins Police, family seek help in finding 17-year-old girl

Scholzen was located inside The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints chapel on Main Street in Enterprise Thursday morning, said Sgt. Jaron Studly, public information officer for Santa Clara-Ivins Police Department.

Studly said the police department had received information that Scholzen went on a road trip to Eureka, California, with three adults.

“We couldn’t release (the information) because we weren’t 100 percent sure that she had gone on the road trip with the adults,” Studly said.

Detectives were able to track where the adults were through the use of a debit card from one of the three who had a joint account with a parent. Detectives were able to see GPS pins of where they used the card and when they were on their way back, something which Studly said was the result of online attention to Scholzen’s disappearance.

“They were on their way back,” he said. “They felt the pressure of the media, social media, friends and everyone was asking ‘Where are you?‘”

Officers from the department spotted the vehicle driving on state Route 18 Wednesday night, he said, and they made a traffic stop inside Snow Canyon State Park and found two of the adults in the vehicle: Diego Wellhoff and Luis Rockwood.

Studly said the men dropped off Scholzen and another woman, Lydia Probst, in Enterprise. Probst called her mom, who in turn called the police around 1:15 a.m. Thursday. A detective was then able to locate Scholzen inside the LDS church around 5:40 a.m.

Probst and Wellhoff were both arrested and charged with obstruction of justice and harboring a runaway juvenile. Rockwood was only arrested for a current warrant, Studly said, because he was “forthcoming” and assisted the officers in getting the information they needed to locate Scholzen. However, Studly said the police department will be forwarding charges to the Washington County Attorney’s office for review for harboring a runaway juvenile.

Scholzen’s father, Jeff Scholzen, posted on Facebook Tuesday asking for the public’s help in locating his daughter, who he said went for a walk around 10 p.m. Monday and didn’t return.

“She said she was going for a walk and didn’t come back and may not be in a good place mentally or physically right now,” the post read.

Studly said the police department is grateful for the public’s support in sharing posts about Scholzen missing.

“We got a ton of information on where people believed they were, and it helped us,” he said.

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @STGnews | @markeekaenews

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2018, all rights reserved.

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10 Comments

  • comments August 9, 2018 at 11:01 am

    Looks like a few of you people owe me an apology. Did I call it or did I call it?

    • sheepobserver August 9, 2018 at 1:31 pm

      It was through good investigative work, due diligence on the part of those concerned with her, and the pressure of someone finding them that got her back, unless I read the article wrong.

      I believe the comments left by comments suggested doing nothing, and riding it out? It was implied, anyhow.
      That’s not how she was found.
      People were arrested, and it was kind of a big deal.

      • comments August 9, 2018 at 3:47 pm

        Nope, it was an angsty teeny who ran off with some of her over-18 guy friends. It’s not a rare thing. It’s what 17 year old girls do quite frequently. The parents ought to keep a better eye on their rambunctious angsty teen if it’s gonna cause them so much grief. She’ll be 18 soon and they won’t be able to do a thing when she runs off next time. I’m still waiting for my apologies from a few of you. “you’re a monster”–too funny that one. I’m definitely awaiting my apology on that one. cheers all 😉

        Now the parents can rest easy for now, but wait till this girl turns 18. They don’t calm down at that age. Good luck I guess. 😉

  • Striker4 August 9, 2018 at 1:24 pm

    Nobody owes you anything ….get a job

  • Carpe Diem August 9, 2018 at 2:04 pm

    Great news. Don’t do that again!

  • Icomments2 August 9, 2018 at 8:22 pm

    My teen ran away and it was through social media that I found her within 4 hrs of her leaving the house!!! The police did absolutely nothing!!! No arrest no nothing!!! Not the second, or third time either!!! It was myself and her family going thru social media that we were able to find Her!!! The third time it was the help of the CA sherriffs dept that actually did help and still the police here did nothing!!! And people wonder why some teens haven’t been found, cuz they don’t care!!! Yes I said it!!!

    • comments August 9, 2018 at 10:36 pm

      As far as how seriously LE takes your missing person report, I think it might possibly help if the missing teenies are pretty and come from a well-to-do family. Also, it might help to be active in the church. Also helps if your teeny doesn’t having a record of running away or delinquent behavior already. I believe some of these teens are just plain bad no matter how good the parenting is, so I don’t always believe parents deserve the blame. Some of these little brats just need the @#$% kicked out of them.

      I remember the one awhile back where the teenage girl did the same sort of thing as this one and ran off with some guys while they were staying in vegas. The mother concocted this whole story about her daughter being “sex trafficked” when in truth her daughter was just a… Anyways, I don’t know what her motive was for concocting the whole thing overall, but claiming to the police that the girl was “sex trafficked” got the cops out looking. The little brat had run off to SoCal with some young men. I guess mommy didn’t want the whole world to know her teen was just a wild party girl, hence concocting the sex trafficking story. There are people that go missing for real, and then there are these brat undisciplined teenies, and I find it super irritating that these sort of events caused by ill-behaved children detract from searches for ACTUAL missing persons. And like I said earlier, if you’re going to go missing it helps to be white and good looking. That’s a fact Jack.

      😉

    • LunchboxHero August 10, 2018 at 10:17 am

      A few more exclamation points would really help drive your message home, I think. Also, you need to get a handle on that kid of yours. She sure does run away a lot. Why so often? Is it your excessive use of punctuation that she just can’t handle anymore?

  • as_if August 10, 2018 at 10:15 pm

    You know it’s interesting to me that this girl with mental health challenges was helped to run away by Diego Jasper Wellhoff. He is a such a piece of work!! This kid is a felon and had plead guilty to aggravated robbery on June 5th. According to KSL.com they wrote
    “Wellhoff pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery, a first degree felony, on June in connection with an April 9 case. Sentencing in this case was slated for July 31 but was moved to aug 28, records show.” Google it, look it up! Jasper is so known by police that all you have to do is say his name and they know right who he is. He is also known for beating up his own grandma and breaking her arm. He also has habored a juvenile runaway before for 3 months. I think he should get the book thrown at him because he helped manipulate a girl, again, with mental health challenges, to run with him. How is this right?! You can only do so much to help when you have someone like Jasper in the picture.

    • CaliGirl August 11, 2018 at 5:05 pm

      Mental health challenges? Sounds like your average girl who always gets what she wants and she likes the “bad boy image.” Since she obviously knows what is best, her parents should sign over custody or just give the ok to move out and live the life she chooses. She will be 18 soon and the folks won’t have any say so. She’ll run again. Hanging with the wrong people never turns out well.

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