SALT LAKE CITY, UT — For two decades, Axel Anderson carried the unanswered question of what happened to his father, Steve Anderson, after he disappeared in 2004. The mystery began when Axel was 15 and has followed him from his teenage years into adulthood.
Now, after investigators tied a vehicle discovered in 2024 to the missing man, Anderson has learned what likely happened at the end of his father’s life. The finding brought him a measure of closure, even though detectives still do not know exactly why Steve Anderson went off the road near Starvation Reservoir.
A father remembered as time for catch, bikes and weekend plans
Axel Anderson said his father was the kind of parent who always made time to do things together. He described Steve Anderson as someone who would happily head out for catch, bike rides or any other activity, no matter whether it was morning, afternoon or evening.
That memory made the disappearance especially difficult to live with. Steve Anderson had come to pick up his son for a trip to the family cabin on the day he vanished, but Axel had forgotten about the plan and turned him away at the door. For years, that final interaction weighed on him and fed a painful question about whether he had somehow caused the distance between them.
The missing person case stalled after detectives could not determine his fate
Steve Anderson was reported missing in 2004, and Salt Lake County sheriff’s detectives pursued possible leads without finding a clear answer. Detective Ben Pender of the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office cold case unit said investigators simply did not know where Anderson had gone…