Mysterious Death: Woman Found In River A Mile From Her Crashed Car

(CBS4) - Investigators are puzzled over the death of a 20-year-old Longmont woman. Anglers found McKenna Fowler in the Big Thompson River on May 10. Bystanders tried to perform CPR and she was rushed to the hospital but doctors couldn't save her.

Eleven days later, authorities found her Toyota RAV4 nearly 200 feet down an embankment at a popular pull-off, by the Estes Park welcome sign, on Highway 36. The vehicle was heavily damaged.

"While locating the vehicle will aid in the investigation, there are still unanswered questions," Larimer County Sheriff's Office spokesman David Moore said in a statement released in early June.

To get from her car to the river, her family says she would have had to walk about a mile and cross a barbed wire fence.

"Along the way, she would have had clear views of Downtown Estes Park and had to walk by some houses," the Longmont Times-Call reported. "Authorities are questioning why she avoided both of those and continued on to the river in heavy snow, injured and wearing one boot, a sports bra and tight-fit leggings."

Fowler's family said they don't understand why she would have been in that area -- her brother claims she didn't have any connections there.

The cause of her death was still undetermined as of last week, the Times-Call reported.