Updated at 6:21 p.m.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – The Lewis County Coroner’s Office said the woman who was found dead in the Skookumchuck River on Monday is 40-year-old Tina A. Thode of Chehalis.
She is the woman police suspected she was, Coroner Warren McLeod said this morning.
McLeod said he doesn’t yet know how she died.
A pair of teenagers floating down the river in Centralia spotted the body and contacted authorities on Monday evening. Centralia police said there were no obvious signs of traumatic injury or foul play, but that responders had spent several hours on Saturday night trying to locate Thode in the same area when she called 911 and said she was lost.
The search ended after responders got word someone had seen Thode and said she was okay, according to Centralia Police Department detective Sgt. Pat Fitzgerald.
McLeod described Thode as a Chehalis resident, although he could not pinpoint her current address. She has grown children, parents and siblings who live in the area, he said.
An autopsy was conducted today, but a determination about the cause and manner of Thode’s death won’t come until after microscopic studies are done and the results of toxicology tests come back, according to McLeod. The tests can take eight to 10 weeks.
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For background, read “Breaking news: Woman found dead in Skookumchuck River in Centralia” from Monday July 29, 2013, here [1]