North Dakota College Students Found Dead In Pond
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DICKINSON, N.D. — The bodies of three missing North Dakota college softball players were found Tuesday inside a Jeep after authorities, aided by signals from the women's last desperate phone calls, spotted the vehicle submerged in a farm pond.
Police Lt. Rod Banyai said officers were investigating the cause of the deaths and autopsies were planned. He said he believed the women were on a stargazing trip in the Jeep when they called for help, but he did not know whether it already was under water when the calls were made.
"At this time, foul play is not suspected," Banyai said Tuesday night. Investigators were working to determine whether the vehicle had any defects or whether alcohol was involved, he said.
Authorities had searched since late 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 with California plates when two of their friends received telephone calls before the lines went dead. Police described the first as a "very scratchy" call for help in which one of the women said they were near a lake and water.
Banyai said the 12-foot-deep pond where the women were found is a couple miles off a road on a farm northwest of Dickinson, a city of 16,000 people about 100 miles west of Bismarck and 60 miles east of the Montana state line.
He said "pings" – signals sent from a cell phone to a provider tower, or vice versa – from the women's phone calls helped narrow the search area. Searchers on foot found vehicle tracks leading into the pond Tuesday afternoon.
"After that was located, the plane flew over the top and it could see that there was a white object in the water," Banyai said. The submerged vehicle was pulled from the pond about two hours later.
Kyrstin Gemar's parents, Lenny and Claire, said during an earlier news conference at police headquarters, before the bodies were found, that it was not uncommon for his daughter and her friends to go stargazing on the spur of the moment.
Hours later, Lenny Gemar was among parents of at least two of the women who attended a prayer service inside a packed Dickinson State student center ballroom.
"It's the worst day of my life. A parent shouldn't be burying a child. Kyrstin had such a bright future ahead of her," he said.
"We are just trying to be strong for Ashley," said Neufeld's mother, Bev Neufeld. "That's what she would want, and we have so much support here (on campus). We know how much Ashley loved this school. I would just like everybody to remember Ashley's smile and personality."
Dickinson State spokeswoman Constance Walter said the 2,700-student school planned to work with the families and students on campus in dealing with the tragedy.
"They will be greatly missed by their teammates and others," Walter said of the women.
The college listed Gemar as a senior business major who played third base on the softball team. Neufeld was a senior outfielder working on a degree in psychology, and Williamson, a junior, was a pitcher majoring in psychology with a minor in coaching.
"I'm sure it will be difficult for quite a while. But we know that they'll be there with us. They would want us to play," softball teammate Jessica Huseby of Hamilton, Mont., said at the prayer service. "We just know they're going to be the 10th, 11th and 12th players on the field with us."
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BLAKE NICHOLSON 11/ 3/09 11:23 PM ET Associated Press