Body Of Missing Woman Found In Lake Zoar

OXFORD — A recreational scuba diver, who was swimming in the Lake Zoar section of the Housatonic River upriver of Stevenson Dam on July 17, found a submerged automobile, which state police later said contained the corpse of a Prospect woman who had been missing for nearly two years.

State police identified the body as that of Bonnie Thayer, 64. The state medical examiner determined by autopsy that Ms Thayer had died due to drowning, state police said.

A spokeswoman for the medical examiner said the death was a suicide.

“State police investigators have not determined any criminal aspect in this investigation. Upon recovery of the vehicle and victim from the lake, no signs or evidence of violence were discovered by detectives,” said state police spokesman Lieutenant J. Paul Vance.

On July 18, state police at Troop A Barracks in Southbury learned from a recreational scuba diver that while he was diving in Lake Zoar on the previous day, he had spotted a submerged automobile off the Oxford shoreline.

The state police’s dive team went to the lake, and at about 4:45 pm on July 18, found a submerged 1993 Mercury Cougar coupe. The divers raised the auto to the surface and brought it ashore in Monroe to investigate, after which detectives found a woman’s body inside the auto.

The woman’s body was transported to the state medical examiner’s office in Farmington for an autopsy to determine and manner and means of death, and to make a positive identification of the corpse, state police said.

Ms Thayer was reported missing to state police in late July 2005, after she had left a residence in Torrington.

All area police had been notified that Ms Thayer was missing. Ms Thayer and the automobile had not been seen since she had been reported missing, state police said.