Teller sheriff investigating mysterious drowning death

Teller County sheriff’s investigators are probing the mysterious death of a Divide-area woman whose body was found floating in a retaining pond a quarter-mile from her boyfriend’s home.

An autopsy determined that the woman – in her 30s – died of drowning. Her name hasn’t been released because investigators believe it could compromise an ongoing investigation into whether foul play was involved, Teller County Sheriff Kevin Dougherty said this morning.

Sheriff’s deputies are interviewing the woman’s boyfriend today in an effort to piece together the events leading to her death.

Dougherty gave the following timeline of the investigation:

A sheriff’s deputy was called about 10:15 p.m. Monday to check on the woman’s welfare, after her boyfriend called authorities from his Spring Valley subdivision home to report that she was missing.

While en route to the man’s home, the deputy found a pickup high-centered on Lake Drive and, while searching the area with his flashlight, spotted the woman’s body in a retaining pond just off the road.

The deputy waded into the water and attempted CPR until a Flight for Life helicopter arrived from Colorado Springs. The woman was pronounced dead at Memorial Hospital Central.

Investigators believe the boyfriend was driving the pickup Monday night but they still don’t know how the woman ended up in the water, Dougherty said. The man was interviewed at length on Monday and voluntarily returned to the sheriff’s office in Divide today to answer further questions, he added.

The couple may have spent the night in Cripple Creek.

The Colorado Bureau of Investigation is assisting in the probe.  They arrived in Divide Tuesday morning at the sheriff’s request.