PORT ANGELES — A woman whose body was discovered with a vehicle near Hurricane Ridge on July 2 has been identified as Kathryn Grace Kennedy, Clallam County Coroner Mark Nichols said.
The 57-year-old was found with a minivan about 200 feet below Obstruction Point Road.
She had been reported as missing from Issaquah, park spokeswoman Penny Wagner said Tuesday.
“Next of kin has been notified,” said Nichols, Clallam County prosecuting attorney and ex officio coroner.
“We are awaiting autopsy results from the King County Medical Examiner’s Office.”
Park rangers rappelled down the embankment to recover Kennedy’s body after a visitor reported seeing what he believed to be trash down an embankment below the 8-mile dirt road that leads from Hurricane Ridge to Obstruction Point.
Kennedy’s body was one of three discovered in Olympic National Park on the weekend of July 1-2.
The body of William “Dave” Woodson, 60, of Kingston was discovered in a boulder field found near the Norwegian Memorial on the Pacific coast June 1.
Dr. Eric Kiesel, a contract medical examiner, performed an autopsy on Woodson’s body in Sequim on Monday, Nichols said.
The preliminary cause of death was listed as salt water drowning and the preliminary manner of death was an accident, Nichols said.
“There’s a contributing cardiovascular condition underlying that finding,” Nichols added.
The death occurred by “natural disease process aggravated by hostile environment,” according to Keisel’s report.
Cardiomegaly, or an enlarged heart, was listed under “other significant conditions.”
There were no evidence of injuries on Woodson’s body “except superficial injuries from floating in the surf,” the autopsy revealed.
Meanwhile, the body of missing hiker Zach Krull was found near Lake Cushman on the southeast side of Olympic National Park on July 1.
Krull, 20, of Livingston, N.J., was a student at The Evergreen State College who had been missing since early April.
While the results of a Friday autopsy were inconclusive, Mason County Coroner Wes Stockwell said Krull most likely died from hypothermia or the loss of core body temperature.
________
Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at [email protected].
