Autopsy determines Ariana Taylor, missing Gary woman whose body was found this week, died in accident
GARY, Ind. (CBS) -- Authorities say Ariana Taylor – a young mother from Gary, Indiana whose body was found Wednesday after she had been missing for more than a week – died in an accident.
The Lake County, Indiana Coroner's office said forensic pathologist Dr. Zhou Wang conducted an autopsy on Taylor's body Thursday. The preliminary findings indicate she died from trauma from a motor vehicle accident, complicated with drowning.
The manner of death was an accident, the Coroner's office said. Other results of the autopsy are pending.
Gary Police Cmdr. Jack Hamady said during a search Wednesday morning, K-9 units found a woman's body in a shallow drainage ditch near the Bellaboo's Play and Discovery Center in the 2800 block of Colorado Street in Lake Station, Indiana.
The Lake County Coroner's office and Taylor's family confirmed the body was that of Taylor, 23, according to Hamady. The location where it was found is about two miles away from where Taylor's car was found last week.
The discovery of Taylor's body comes just days after an odd development in the case, when police announced Sunday they had found a body in a grassy area, but hours later said what they found was not a body at all, but rather a rubber silicone doll.
Taylor was last heard from around 1 a.m. on April 3, and was last seen by her family in nearby Merrillville. Police found her car two days later, crashed off I-65.
Her family had said they suspected foul play, but it was not clear how Taylor died before the autopsy.
