Husband finds missing wife dead in the snow
By LISA DEMER
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Published: 01/01/10 5:41 am | Updated: 01/01/10 5:41 am
An Anchorage man who reported his wife missing on Sunday found her Thursday afternoon, dead and lying in the snow next to her religious meeting hall. Police say their preliminary investigation indicates that she died of exposure and there are no signs of foul play.
Robin Rosario, 54, was last seen by her husband, Edgardo, the evening of Dec. 26, police said. When he got home from work around 4 p.m. the next day, he saw she had put pillows under the blankets so that he would think she was still in bed. He called police to report her missing. She was despondent and he feared she was suicidal. She had been drinking the night of Dec. 26, he told police.
The Anchorage Police Department's auxiliary search team checked the area around their home on Wesleyan Drive, as well as wooded areas nearby, but couldn't find her. Someone thought they'd seen her Sunday afternoon at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses.
Twenty-five people searched over two days; the search effort included five or six dogs from Alaska Search and Rescue, said Anchorage police spokeswoman Anita Shell.
Much of the search focused on the trails on which she loved to walk around University Lake near her home. Rosario was also an avid recreational runner. Her name shows up in published race results dating back for many years.
Her husband continued to search, and at about 1:30 p.m. Thursday he found her body on a snow pile in the Kingdom Hall parking lot. The hall, at 2520 Wesleyan Drive, is about a mile from their house. She was wearing a white coat, which Shell said may explain why no one spotted her earlier.
The state medical examiner will perform an autopsy.