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Searchers find truck belonging to missing Eagle County deputy

Tayler Esslinger (Photo provided by Eagle County Sheriff's Office)

EAGLE, Colo. — Authorities say they have found a truck belonging to a sheriff’s deputy and volunteer firefighter who has been missing since Tuesday.

The Eagle County Sheriff’s Office says Tayler Esslinger’s truck was found Friday morning in neighboring Garfield County. Esslinger is 26 years old and works as a sheriff’s deputy in Eagle County and a volunteer firefighter in Gypsum.

He was last seen early Tuesday driving a black pickup truck, and authorities believe he was headed into the mountains.

The Vail Daily reports that cell phone location data last showed Esslinger’s phone in a rural part of western Eagle County around 4 a.m. on Tuesday. Searchers have used helicopters and were joined later in the week by dozens of volunteers riding four-wheelers or walking the area.