By  Seamus McGraw

December 12, 2006

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TOWANDA, Pa. (Crime Library)  —  A 45-year-old woman, an aide at a local nursing home with a recent arrest on a charge of prescription drug fraud, was found dead Monday, frozen and floating in the icy waters of the Susquehanna River.

The body of Karen M. Dye was pulled from the river by officials from the Pennsylvania State Fish and Game Commission, part of a team of searchers who had scoured the fast-moving and frigid waterway by air and boat since the woman vanished Thursday.

Dye, who was married and had no children, left behind no indication that she intended to harm herself, said Trooper James Kerrick, who is heading the probe into her death, nor has any evidence been uncovered to suggest that she might have been the victim of foul play.

Nor was it clear whether the recent problems arising from her alleged misuse of a prescription for morphine — a powerful and highly addictive narcotic usually reserved for patients in persistent pain — played a role in her disappearance.

Dye was last see Thursday morning at a CVS pharmacy just north of the quaint Victorian village of Towanda; a river town nestled along the Susquehanna River in northern Pennsylvania's Endless Mountains region. It was not immediately clear whether she had visited the drug store to pick up any kind of drug, authorities said, or whether her visit to the drug store contributed in any way to the events leading up to her death.

About three hours later, her maroon 2001 minivan was spotted near a boat ramp in a remote corner of Asylum Township, a small farming community. Scenic and secluded, the rugged riverbanks in Asylum have long been a haven for those seeking an escape from the pressures of the world. The river and the rocky outcroppings that loom above it were considered sacred by the Tuscarora Indians, and later, French nobles, fleeing the excesses that followed the French Revolution, built a small colony on a lush plain near the river at the invitation of Aaron Burr. The colony, which included a log palace built for but never used by Queen Marie Antoinette, was dubbed French Azylum, and ultimately lent the township its name. Authorities don't know whether the promise of that stillness and seclusion is what drew Karen Dye to the riverbank on that frigid afternoon.

It wasn't until the next day, after she was reported missing, that authorities learned that her car had been left at the boat ramp overnight. There certainly had been no indication that she had gone there for sporting purposes; she had no boat or no sporting gear. What's more, her keys and her personal belongings had been left on the front seat of her unlocked minivan authorities said.

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Contact Seamus McGraw at seamusm@ptd.net

Seamus McGraw

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