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North Lake Tahoe Woman Missing Since Car Crash On Monday Found Dead

CARNELIAN BAY (CBS13) – A search and rescue has come to a tragic end. Crews found the body of 47-year-old Katherine Jones, or Lani, as her friends called her, Thursday afternoon.

California Highway Patrol says she was in a rollover crash on Monday but walked away from the scene. CHP says when an officer got the scene of the crash, Lani was nowhere to be found.

He says he tried following the footsteps, but with all the snow North Lake Tahoe has been getting, those footsteps disappeared quickly.

"It's very strange right? She crashed. She was rescued. Okay. She wandered off and now a couple of days later she's dead, so what happened?" one North Lake Tahoe resident, Peter Edmunds, asked.

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Officers say someone stopped after the rollover crash, broke Lani's window and helped her out of the wreck, but before emergency crews got out here, she took off.

CHP says if you can safely help someone, you should, but after someone helped Lani, where did she go?

"How can you just walk off? No one looks for you? Sees you? Nothing," a North Lake Tahoe resident asked.

Officers say they tracked down where Lani lived, went to her house, called her friends, and told people they were looking for her, but officers don't file a missing person report. Officers say, just because they can't find a person right away, doesn't necessarily mean they are missing.

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Once Lani's friends figured out what was happening, one of them called the sheriff's office. A missing person report was filed Wednesday night and a search rescue team was sent out immediately. Thursday morning, they were back out again.

The sheriff's office says her body was found a few miles away from the scene of the crash, and a few miles away from her home.

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