Cathleen Allison/Nevada Appeal Washoe County Sheriff's officials investigate the scene of an accident near Wadsworth, where Brenda Scott's truck was located down an embankment near the Truckee River.
NIXON - Searchers apparently found the body of a missing Fernley woman Wednesday afternoon, 100 feet down a steep embankment and near the wreckage of her vehicle 10 miles north of Fernley.
Brenda Scott, 44, is believed to be the deceased woman spotted near Scott's mangled Chevrolet Silverado along the bank of the Truckee River off Highway 447 in an area known to locals as Dead Ox.
The area where the body and truck are located is not readily accessible by road, making recovery difficult, said Lyon County Detective Rob Hall. Using binoculars, investigators preliminarily identified her as Scott.
The single mother was last seen by her 14-year-old son, Nick, at her Fernley home on June 3 when he left for school. Despite her preparations - including buying cake and ice cream and a gift in celebration - Scott never made it home that night to take Nick to his eighth-grade graduation at Fernley Intermediate School. She hadn't been seen or heard from since.
A Washoe County Search and Rescue crew discovered the truck on the Pyramid Lake Reservation about 1:30 p.m., just hours after Scott's family held a news conference in Reno to ask for the public's help.
"The family is feeling every emotion - anger, frustration and just deep sadness," said Aimee Eiguren, co-worker to Scott's daughter Desiree Veloz of Reno. Veloz asked for the help of her employer, Olsen & Assoc. Public Relations, to get the word out about her mother's disappearance.
Eiguren said Veloz and her siblings learned about the discovery of their mother's vehicle when they were at the Lyon County Sheriff's Department for a 1:30 p.m. meeting with an investigator.
"This isn't the outcome we'd hoped for," said Hall. "Obviously, we'd hoped she would come home safe and just have some explaining to do."
He said Washoe County will be in charge of the accident reconstruction to try to determine why Scott's car veered some 30 feet off the two-lane highway before sailing down the steep embankment. Hall said tire marks would indicate Scott was heading north, but it's not clear why she was coming from a road that ends at Pyramid Lake.
A positive identification and cause of death is pending an autopsy, Hall said.
A memorial fund has been set up to help with Nick's education, said Eiguren.
"He's on his own. His mother's gone," she said.
Scott is also survived by her three adult daughters, Desiree, 22; Alona Baugh, 24, of Carson City and LaWane Harwood, 26, of Round Mountain.
Contact F.T. Norton at ftnorton@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1213.