By Mark Havnes
The Salt Lake Tribune
PAROWAN, Utah — The two main reasons Leroy Shannon Davenport took off in his snowmobile and braved the deep drifts of southwestern Utah's backcountry — an exhausting venture that may have led to his death — were present Thursday at his funeral.
Their names: Thomas and Tamitha Garner.
The Kearns couple had gone missing for 12 days, and Davenport had hoped to find them.
Instead, the Iron County search-and-rescue volunteer got stuck Saturday and labored with a fellow searcher to free his snowmobile. By the time Davenport returned home, he was haggard and hurting. He died Sunday at age 37, leaving behind Tina, his wife of 7 1/2 years.
The Garners, who were found Wednesday, yearned to pay their respects to the searcher. So, after leaving a Cedar City hospital and before returning home to Kearns, they went straight to Davenport's funeral in nearby Parowan.
Their appearance gave comfort to the searcher's brother, David Davenport, who viewed the couple as living proof that his sibling "didn't die in vain."
Tamitha, still not feeling well, paid her condolences and left with daughter Krystal and the couple's dog, Medusa.
Thomas — along with his father, mother and several other relatives — stayed for the funeral.
"It's a bittersweet day," Thomas Garner said. "I didn't know Leroy, but he was a wonderful person."
And Davenport didn't know the Garners. But that didn't stop the veteran search-and-rescuer from going all-out to look for the couple — as he had for so many other missing people.
That's because Davenport loved people, mourners said Thursday, and he lived to help them.
"Be it serving food at a family reunion or going on search and rescue . . . Leroy was there," said friend Wayne EyreÂ. "What defined Leroy was [him asking], 'What can I do to help?' "
Eyre recalled taking Davenport on his boat and teaching him all about fishing — only to see his apprentice land the biggest prize.
"After that, I had two rules on the boat: I catch the biggest fish and if someone else does, then they walk home from the middle of the lake," Eyre said. "After that, Leroy always had a sharp knife to cut his line if he caught a fish bigger than mine."
Davenport was buried in the Parowan City Cemetery, but Steve Decker suspects his fallen friend isn't done searching.
"If there is a place in heaven where the best root beer is made," Decker said, "[that's] what Leroy is searching for now."
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