HYRUM RESERVOIR, Utah -Police confirmed the name of the victim who drowned in Hyrum Reservoir on Friday. 18-year-old Judd Joseph Miller died after cliff jumping, and never resurfacing.
"My stomach just dropped and I thought, I can’t believe this,” Miller’s classmate, Mercedes Call, said.
After he passed away the Friday before he graduated from Bear River High School, and the day after his older sister’s marriage, Miller’s football coaches said they had planned on having Miller help coach the football team this summer before he left to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Pachuca, Mexico.
Those who knew him said Miller was an example to all.
"He was one of those seniors that those freshmen just really wanted to be around, because he never condescended,” Head Football Coach Chris Wise said. "He was always just willing to give freely of everything that he’d learned in his life, football, basketball, track, he just wanted everybody to be great.”
Miller’s football teammate, Easton Payne, said they were best buds.
"He’d do just about anything for anybody. If you asked him even a favor, he’d be right over and he loved everybody unconditionally, no matter what," Payne said.
Even his seminary teacher, Ryan Olsen, said he loved seeing Miller walk by his class every day. "He would give me a high five, give me a hug and say, I love you Brother Olsen and then head off to his sixth hour.”
