CONCORD, N.H.

— An autopsy was planned on the body of a woman found in a pond at a New Hampshire ski area, near where her car was found idling with her 14-month-old daughter sleep inside.

Meanwhile, the woman’s family released a statement saying they were devastated, and friends and family planned to gather for a candlelight memorial across the border in her Maine hometown.

Divers on Wednesday retrieved the body of Krista Dittmeyer, 20, of Portland.

The case was being investigated as a “suspicious death,” said New Hampshire Senior Assistant Attorney General Jane Young. The autopsy was planned for Thursday in Concord.

The pond where her body was found is a quarter-mile from where her car was found idling with its hazard lights flashing early Saturday in the parking lot of Cranmore Mountain ski area. Her sleeping daughter was inside, unharmed. She daughter is now being cared for by Dittmeyer’s mother.

“The family of Krista Dittmeyer is devastated but wants to thank everyone for their support and requests to be left alone at this time,” the statement said.

Residents in Bridgton, Maine, are going ahead with a planned candlelight gathering this evening at an elementary school as a show of support for the family. Dittmeyer grew up in Bridgton and graduated from Lake Region High School three years ago. She was living in Portland and working as a waitress at a South Portland restaurant when she disappeared.

The man identified as the toddler’s father was in prison in Maine at the time of the disappearance. Police said he and Dittmeyer were living together in South Portland when he was arrested last year on drug charges.


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