A Montana horseback rider who disappeared from a recreational trail on Friday, leaving her horse and phone behind, was found dead on Tuesday afternoon.
Search and rescue divers pulled the body of 27-year-old Meghan Rita Rouns from the Missouri River about 100 feet from shore in 11-foot water at approximately 3:40 p.m., the Lewis and Clark County Sheriff’s Office wrote in a Facebook post.
The equestrian’s cause and manner of death have yet to be determined, the department wrote in its release.
Rouns had not been heard from since Friday, Oct. 4 around 2 p.m., when she took her horse out to a recreational area about 90 minutes from Bozeman, police said.
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The woman’s parents reported her missing around 8 that night, after she failed to return home; her horse and a saddlebag containing her phone were found the next day.
Although she was last seen around 2 p.m., Rouns posted a photo via Snapchat around 4:20 p.m., Sheriff Leo Dutton told KXLH.
Frantic foot and drone searches were carried out by multiple agencies and members of the community, the department wrote in a Monday Facebook post.
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Because Rouns’ horse was found on a hill near Hauser Lake, the sheriff’s office focused their search in and around the body of water, Lt. Willy Wegner told KTVH.
Foul play was ruled out in the woman’s disappearance, Dutton told the US Sun. The sheriff said that the woman may have fallen into the lake due to gusty winds in the area that day, the outlet reported.
“We believe something happened that spooked the horse to get it into the waters,” he said. “We just don’t know what yet.”
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On Monday, Dutton wrote on the department’s Facebook page that he was with Rouns’ family and husband, and that they had been searching a portion of the Missouri River.
