Police in Puerto Rico announced the recovery of a body during their search for a missing art teacher who disappeared from the Caribbean island last week.
Amanda Webster, 44, was reported missing on Wednesday after the landlord of her vacation home noticed she had not checked out leaving behind her belongings and rented car.
Detectives found a body “upside down floating in a rocky area” of the river in the Rio Blanco neighbourhood of the Sector Camino Viejo de Naguabo on Saturday.
They did not confirm whether the body had been identified as Webster nor whether foul play was suspected.
In a Facebook post announcing the discovery, the police said: “At this stage, it is not possible to identify the gender of the body or conclude if it shows signs of violence.
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“The CIC team of the Police, along with the Prosecutor’s Office and staff of the Forensic Institute, are working on the extraction and identification process of it.”
Despite no official confirmation from the police, Webster’s mother Pamela said the body recovered in the river was her daughter’s.
She wrote on Facebook: “They just found Amanda’s body in the river, she had been underwater for some time.”
Webster was last seen at the Casa Pacha guest house near the El Yunque National Park in Naguabo, a popular hiking spot with trails leading to La Mina waterfall and Mount Britton.
After the art teacher was reported missing, Puerto Rican police activated an Ashanti Alert, which is activated when people aged 18-64 with a proven disability or believed to be in danger go missing.
The Criminal Investigation Corps of the Police is conducting an investigation into her disappearance in collaboration with the State Emergency Management staff and the US Forest Staff.
Webster, who was vacationing alone, landed in Puerto Rico on Monday, October 9 and she was last seen two days later.
After she was reported missing, friends of Amanda took to social media urging anyone with information about her whereabouts to come forward.
One friend wrote: “Please share this post!!!! She is one of the most important/special people in my life and I know so many others can say the same because that’s how amazing of a person she is.
“Please pray she is found soon and please share this post to get it out there!!”
Another friend, Heather Clark, insisted disappearing without any notice was uncharacteristic for the elementary school teacher.
Clark told WTHR: “She was really good about checking in and checking out, letting people know, especially when she’s on her own, and she had told them she was going hiking there and she never came back.”
