Missing Woman's Body Plucked From Pond

Authorities have positively identified a body found in a northeastern Pennsylvania pond as that of a woman missing for five months.

The (Scranton) Times-Tribune reports that the Lackawanna County coroner's office used dental records to identify the body as that of 56-year-old Diane Zavislak of Trucksville.

Police were called to a site near the Susquehanna River after the body was found Saturday. Zavislak's car had been found in November a few miles away.

Chief James Balavage of the Kingston Township police department said he doesn't know whether the death was a homicide or a suicide and that Zavislak's body was fully clothed and showed no obvious signs of trauma. The coroner's office says the cause and manner of death remain under investigation.

Zavislak faced a harassment charge at the time of her disappearance stemming from an incident with her husband, according to the paper. Her husband had planned on a protection notice.

“We know that there were problems with the relationship,” Balavage told the paper. “Whatever caused her to go that area -- which was basically unknown to her and her husband -- and why she was in that pond, only she and her maker know that.”

Copyright The Associated Press
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