Students find body near trail in state park

A group of Columbia eighth-graders stumbled upon the body of a woman while on a field trip Monday near Devil’s Icebox at Rock Bridge Memorial State Park.

The West Junior High School students and some parent chaperones were at the park for an orienteering activity — an exercise involving mapping and terrain — when five students discovered the body just off the Sinkhole Trail, said Jeff Beiswinger, West Junior High assistant principal.

The body was found in the woods, about 100 yards from the parking lot near Devil’s Icebox cave, said Missouri State Park Ranger Calvin Crandall. A handgun was found near the body, but no information about how the woman died was available Monday evening. All questions were referred to a Missouri Department of Natural Resources spokeswoman, who did not return calls Monday, which was the state holiday of Truman Day. The park is in the department’s jurisdiction.

When the students found the body, they initially thought the woman had fainted and they went for help, Beiswinger said.

“At first I thought it was one of our parents or kids — that somebody was hurt,” he said.

Boone County Fire Protection District personnel, Columbia Police, University Hospital paramedics, Boone County Sheriff’s deputies, the Missouri State Highway Patrol and Capitol Police were on the scene.

After the students were loaded onto a school bus and had left the park, police began to search a black Pontiac Sunfire with one red door and a Texas license plate in the parking lot near the trail. As police examined the car, a backpack bulging with notebooks and textbooks could be seen on the car’s front seat along with clothes, shoes, a wallet, boxes of medication and a bag from a pharmacy. A sheriff’s deputy photographed some written pages in a notebook retrieved from the front seat of the car.

A bottle in a paper sack was also taken from the car and placed on the car’s roof where a sheriff’s deputy took a photograph of it. What appeared to be a military-style uniform was removed from the trunk.

West Junior High notified a crisis team, and contacted the parents of the students who saw the body, Beiswinger said. The students each met with a counselor and did not return to classes Monday.

“We want to have a supportive place to help the kids through it,” he said.

The students who found the body seemed to be doing well on Monday, Beiswinger said.

“I believe the kids, overall, handled it really well,” he said. “They understood the gravity of the situation.”

Counselors will be prepared today to talk with students having difficulty dealing with the situation, Beiswinger said.

The Sinkhole Trail remained closed Monday afternoon. “At this point,” Crandall said, “it’s still a crime scene.”