Vanished softball players discovered in pond
By The Associated Press
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Published: November 4, 2009
Dickinson State senior Danielle Crawford, left, embraces Tony Branscum at a prayer vigil. AP PHOTO
DICKINSON, N.D. — Three missing North Dakota college softball players were found dead Tuesday in a Jeep that was pulled from a pond two days after the women disappeared.
Police Lt. Rod Banyai said police are "still investigating” the cause of the deaths and autopsies are planned.
Banyai said he believes the women were in the vehicle when they made two cell phone calls to friends for help, but he didn’t know whether it already was underwater when those calls were made.
Authorities had been searching since Sunday night for
Kyrstin Gemar, 22, of
San Diego;
Afton Williamson, 20, of
Lake Elsinore,
Calif.; and
Ashley Neufeld, 21, of
Brandon, Manitoba.
The
Dickinson State University students were believed to be in the white 1997
Jeep Cherokee when they were last heard from in the calls made to two friends on cell phones before lines went dead.
Banyai said searchers found vehicle tracks leading into the pond Tuesday afternoon, and searchers in an airplane flying over the site saw oil on top of the water.
The submerged vehicle was pulled from the pond about two hours later, police said.
Banyai said the vehicle will be checked for defects.
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