[1]Firefighters wait at the corner of Reynolds and North Tower avenues while detectives complete their scene investigation several hundred yards away.
Updated
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CENTRALIA – A woman’s body was found in the Skookumchuck River in north Centralia this evening but police don’t suspect foul play.
Centralia Police Department detective Sgt. Pat Fitzgerald said two kids floating down the river found her, went home and called 911 around 7 p.m. and then walked police to the scene.
She hasn’t been positively identified, but Fitzgerald said he suspects it is the same woman who called 911 on Saturday evening saying she was lost near the river.
Officers and firefighters spent about three hours that night walking both sides of the river and even using thermal imaging cameras but didn’t find her, he said.
Before the night was over however, authorities came across someone who had seen her and told them she was okay, he said.
Fitzgerald didn’t think the body had been in the water all that long, not since Saturday night. A chair and a couple bottles of water were found near her, he said.
There were no obvious signs of traumatic injury, according to police.
Detectives conducted their investigation tonight east of a pasture at Reynolds and North Tower avenues.
A car that belongs to the woman was found parked on the east side of the river off Central Boulevard and impounded by police, he said.
He described the woman he suspects it could be as in her mid-30s and local, someone who’s lived here for years. The coroner’s office is expected to confirm her identity and cause of death.