DSU students, Gemar, Neufeld, Williamson, missing in North Dakota

[monkalup]

Three Dickinson residents are missing this evening. It all started when the missing persons report was called in yesterday.

The three women were driving somewhere in Southwest North Dakota when something happened.

According to police, they received a call from a woman around 11:45 Sunday night. The caller stated she had just received a frantic call from three of her friends. She told police the girls mentioned water entering. Police believe this woman was the last contact with the three girls, who have been identified as DSU students and softball players, Afton Williamson, 20, Ashley Neufeld, 21, and Kyrston Gemar, 22. The Stark County Sheriff says three planes are in the air currently searching for the three women.

Authorities said Gemar is from Grossmont, Calif., Neufeld is a native of Brandon, Manitoba, and Williamson is from Lake Elsinore, Calif.

"Right now, we don`t even know where we`re supposed to be looking at, we are trying a big area, an area where we think they might be at," says Stark County Sheriff Clarence Tuhy.

At least one of the planes in the air is equipped with thermal imaging. The police say they believe they`ve located their last call, but they will continue to search the entire Southwest portion of North Dakota.

Right now they`re not ruling out anything, but at this point, they don`t believe there was foul play.
http://www.kfyrtv.com/News_Stories.asp?news=35229

[Ell]

DICKINSON, N.D. (AP) _ AUTHORITIES SAY THE SEARCH FOR THREE MEMBERS OF THE DICKINSON STATE SOFTBALL TEAM WILL RESUME TUESDAY.

THREE PLANES SEARCHED SOUTHWESTERN NORTH DAKOTA MONDAY FOR 22-YEAR-OLD KYRSTIN GEMAR, 21-YEAR-OLD ASHLEY NEUFELD AND 20-YEAR-OLD AFTON WILLIAMSON. THE SEARCH WAS CALLED OFF AFTER IT GOT DARK OUTSIDE.

THE WOMEN WERE BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN DRIVING A WHITE 1997 JEEP CHEROKEE.

DICKINSON POLICE LT. DAVE WALLACE SAYS THE WOMEN CALLED A FRIEND LATE SUNDAY NIGHT, AND SHE CALLED 911 TO REPORT THEY NEEDED HELP. WALLACE SAID WATER WAS MENTIONED BUT THE CONTEXT WAS NOT CLEAR.

WALLACE SAYS AUTHORITIES SEARCHED LAKE PATTERSON, NEAR DICKINSON, ON MONDAY. THEY ALSO HAVE BEEN LOOKING AROUND A CELL TOWER NORTH OF DICKINSON WHERE THE WOMEN'S CALL CAME THROUGH
http://www.kfgo.com/regionalnews_Detail.php?ID=10181

[monkalup]

Police Seek 3 Missing College Students AOL / Wire Services
posted: 1 HOUR 5 MINUTES AGOcomments: 2filed under: National NewsPRINT|E-MAILMOREText SizeAAADICKINSON, N.D. (Nov. 3) -- The father of one of three missing college students said they often went star gazing near a lake in southwestern North Dakota and police don't suspect foul play in their disappearances.
Kyrstin Gemar's father, Lenny Gemar, told ABC's "Good Morning America" in a telephone interview on Tuesday that the Dickinson State University softball players would hang out by Patterson Lake. (You can see the ABC report here.)
Stark County Sheriff Clarence Tuhy told the Dickinson Press that the women called a friend for help Sunday night, but that the line apparently went dead. The friend then called police.
"From my understanding, when she got the call, they were talking something about water and some hysterical noises (were heard) in the background," Tuhy said.
Foul play is not suspected, authorities said.
The missing women are Kyrstin Gemar, 22; Ashley Neufeld, 21; and Afton Williamson, 20.
A search was called off Monday when it got dark. It was to resume Tuesday.
http://news.aol.com/article/police-search-...students/749184

[Ell]

:05 PM PST on Tuesday, November 3, 2009


Three missing college softball players, including an Inland resident, have been found dead in their vehicle, which was pulled from a pond northwest of Dickinson, N.D.

Police Lt. Rod Banyai said tonight that police are "still investigating" the cause of the deaths.

Authorities have been searching since Sunday night for 22-year-old Kyrstin Gemar of San Diego; 20-year-old Afton Williamson, of Lake Elsinore, Calif.; and 21-year-old Ashley Neufeld of Brandon, Manitoba.

Story continues below

Special to The Press-Enterprise
Former RCC softball player Afton Williamson
The Dickinson State University students were said to be in a white 1997 Jeep Cherokee with California plates when they were last heard from in calls made to two friends on cell phones before the lines went dead.

Williamson was a former Paloma Valley High School and RCC softball player. She and two friends had been missing since a Sunday evening drive.

According to a College News Web site report, the women were last believed to be in a rural farming area at the time of their disappearance. The Dickinson State University students made two phone calls to a friend asking for help. After the second call, the friend contacted emergency services.

"The (two) calls were very broken up. They were hard to understand," Lt. Rod Banyai said this morning from the police department in Dickinson, N.D. "All they could hear was something about a vehicle and a lake and that they needed help."

Categorized as a missing-persons investigation, the search area covered 13 square miles, including two-mile-long Patterson Lake.

Earlier in the day, Banyai said there was no evidence of foul play and no evidence that any of the women were suicidal or had planned to leave the area.

Williamson's varsity softball coach at Paloma Valley High School in Menifee said this afternoon before the news conference announcing the deaths, that she believed her former student would turn up safe.

"She's a fighter," Sondra Diaz said at an afternoon media briefing on campus. "She'll be able to fight through anything."

Diaz characterized Williamson as a hard worker and good student who always helped younger ballplayers improve their skills.

"She was great with the younger kids," Diaz said.

She also recalled Williamson, a pitcher, working through injuries her senior year before playing at Riverside Community College.

A man who answered the door at Williamson's Lake Elsinore home declined to comment this afternoon.

Lenny Gemar, the father of Kyrstin Gemar, told ABC's "Good Morning America" in a telephone interview that the Dickinson State University students would hang out by Patterson Lake near the city and "just look up at the stars and, you know, chat about the things that teenagers will chat about," according to an Associated Press report.

Dickinson Police Officer Thomas Grosz said the search for the women resumed this morning with at least three airplanes. He said members of the fire department also were taking a boat out on Patterson Lake, just southwest of Dickinson, a city of 16,000 people about 100 miles west of Bismarck and 60 miles east of the Montana state line.

Police also said they searched the women's rooms and were interviewing their classmates, friends and people near Killdeer, north of Dickinson.

"It's scary. It's just a numbing feeling that you have for those kids. There's just so many questions -- you're almost speechless because you don't know much," Dickinson State softball coach Guy Fridley said earlier in the day.

Williamson started playing at age 4, along with her older sister Erin. After high school, Williamson was set to give it softball. She was accepted to UC Santa Barbara but didn't have the money for college fees. She eventually found her way to RCC and back to the softball field.

Williamson played for Riverside Community College for two years before being recruited to Dickinson State. Last year, she was 11-2 with a 2.46 ERA. As a freshman, she went 13-5 with a 1.31. ERA.

Staff Writers Gene Ghiotto, Richard Brooks and news services
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories...ng.21a4878.html

Afton Williamson

[monkalup]

This is so incredibly sad...

[Pilgrim]

Sadly, it is all to easy to picture the final moments without even being there. I think this story is awful and that they had to go that way.

We had a similar case in the UK a while back. I wish they would fit all cars with manual window winders or at least a manual override because once you car ignition cuts out with automatic windows, you are screwed. I know from some programs I have seen that the weight of water against a door is impossible to oppose.

Very sad.