|
|
| Blackburn died from accidental drowning, coroner says |
|
|
4/17/2015
By Tom Marshall
Senior Advocate writer
The state medical examiner’s office has positively identified the body of a woman found dead last week in a Mt. Sterling pond as missing woman Audrey Blackburn.
Preliminary autopsy results show she died from accidental drowning, Montgomery County Coroner Jimmy Adams said.
Blackburn, 28, was discovered by some fisherman in a pond at the intersection of the Bypass and Levee Road. She had been missing since March 17.
The Montgomery County 911 Center received a call of something suspicious in the water at 11:39 a.m. April 8.
Sheriff Fred Shortridge said two men fishing around the pond were walking around the dam area when they saw what they thought was a body.
The sheriff’s office, along with Mt. Sterling Police, the Montgomery County Fire Dept., Montgomery County Schools Police and later the Kentucky State Police all responded.
They found clothing, earrings and other items believed to have been worn by Blackburn prior to her disappearance, Shortridge said.
Investigators found no evidence of injury or foul play, he said.
Shortridge said the discovery of the body was tragic considering most missing persons reported to law enforcement are eventually found safe and returned home.
“We don’t normally get these kinds of results,” he said. “When we work them we don’t like them.”
Blackburn was last seen sitting on a bank at the Bypass and Levee Road near the pond. Investigators said they believed she was waiting for a ride.
Blackburn’s computer, tablet and phone were turned over to the KSP for examination.
Blackburn left behind her personal belongings. She told one friend she was leaving before her disappearance.
Authorities did an aerial search, but nothing out of the ordinary was found.
Prior to her disappearance, Blackburn was living with her father, Rick Blackburn, on Burley Way. She left her home with a can of coffee grounds, but never returned.
Rick Blackburn told the Advocate he found the coffee can and a shoe belonging to his daughter at the pond the day after her body was discovered and the water had gone down.
Blackburn said he believes his daughter, who was an excellent swimmer, got stuck in the deep mud at the pond and drowned. He speculated that she was attempting to feed the geese when she fell in.
“I’m sure that was definitely an accident,” the father said. “She was happy, she said she would be back in a few minutes.”
Audrey Blackburn was a graduate of Pikeville High School and Columbia University in New York, where she studied English. She had traveled to Europe twice and most recently had been employed as a teacher for underprivileged children in Brooklyn, N.Y., Rick Blackburn said.
She was a writer who had written a young adult book her father now hopes to have published.
He acknowledges that his daughter suffered from anxiety and depression, but she was doing better after being put on different medication, he said.
Her father said the loss is devastating, but is glad her body was found so the family can pursue closure.
“She was so bright,” he said. “She was just such a fantastic writer. It’s just such a waste to see something like that. She had so much more to say.”
|
|
|
|
|