2 found dead in Utah crash were missing Colorado couple

SALT LAKE CITY - Authorities say the remains of two people found in a wrecked car in a ravine in eastern Utah are those of a Colorado couple missing since October.

The Deseret News reports a highway worker found 38-year-old Matthew Batterton, of Pueblo, and 51-year-old Risa Johnson, of Colorado Springs, dead off the side of Interstate 70 near the Colorado border Feb. 18.

The Utah Highway Patrol says Batterton's cousin called dispatchers in late October to report that Batterton was headed to Las Vegas to pick up drugs and had been missing for three weeks. Because of the victims' criminal histories, including Batterton being a known drug trafficker, investigators will make sure that nothing criminal was involved in the crash.

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