DICKINSON, N.D. -- Three North Dakota college softball players were found dead inside a Jeep after cell phone signals from their last desperate phone calls helped lead authorities to a rural farm pond.

The vehicle was found submerged in about 10 feet of water in a rural stock pond northwest of the town where they attended college.

"When you're not familiar with an area like that it would have been very easy to drive into," said Stark County Sheriff Clarence Tuhy during a Wednesday morning news conference. "The area that we're talking about is a farming community. It's like an alfalfa field or hay field with a dugout which would be a pond."

"I did personally drive out there this morning about 2:30 or 3 to kind of view it driving with a pickup which is probably a little bit bigger than what the Cherokee was," Tuhy said. "The visibility -- and of course it's dark and when you're not familiar with an area like that -- it would have been very easy to drive into the pond."

The victims were Kyrstin Gemar, 22, of San Diego; Afton Williamson, 20, of Lake Elsinore, Calif.; and Ashley Neufeld, 21, of Brandon, Manitoba.

Police Lt. Rod Banyai said he believed the women were inside the Jeep when they called for help late Sunday night, but he did not know whether the vehicle was under water when the calls were made.

Police Lt. Rod Banyai said authorities do not expect autopsy results for a week or two. The autopsies will help determine the exact cause of death and whether the women were under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Authorities have said there is no indication they were. The North Dakota Highway Patrol also will examine the 1997 Jeep Cherokee to determine if the vehicle malfunctioned, Banyai said.

The Dickinson State University students were believed to be in the white 1997 Jeep Cherokee when the women made two phone calls about a minute apart at about 11:18 p.m. Sunday.

Frantic noises were heard during both calls and the women were asking for help, police said. One of the Dickinson State University students said they were near a lake and water.

Banyai said the pond where the women were found was about 3/4 of a mile north of 31st St.SW and 117th Ave.SW in Stark County. It is on private property.

Banyai said "pings" -- signals sent between cell phones and provider towers -- from the women's phone calls helped narrow the search area. Searchers found vehicle tracks leading into the pond Tuesday afternoon.

"After that was located, the plane flew over the top and it could see that there was a white object in the water," Banyai said.

The vehicle was pulled from the pond about two hours later. Family members of the women visited the site on Wednesday.

Bev Neufeld, Ashley's mother, told "Good Morning America" that the pond where her daughter's body was found is disguised by tall grasses.

"It's virtually hidden," she said. "The vehicle could be in that entrapment before you realize it."

Gemar's father, Lenny, had said it was not uncommon for his daughter and her friends to go stargazing on the spur of the moment. Tuesday night, Lenny Gemar was among those who attended a prayer service inside a packed Dickinson State student center ballroom.

"It's the worst day of my life. A parent shouldn't be burying a child. Kyrstin had such a bright future ahead of her," he said.

Bev Neufeld said her family was trying to be strong.

"That's what she would want, and we have so much support here (on campus)," she said. "We know how much Ashley loved this school. I would just like everybody to remember Ashley's smile and personality."

The 2,700-student university listed Gemar as a senior business major who played third base on the softball team. Neufeld was a senior outfielder working on a psychology degree, and Williamson, a junior, was a pitcher majoring in psychology with a minor in coaching.

"I'm sure it will be difficult for quite a while. But we know that they'll be there with us. They would want us to play," softball teammate Jessica Huseby of Hamilton, Mont., said at the prayer service. "We just know they're going to be the 10th, 11th and 12th players on the field with us."

The university cancelled classes on Wednesday to allow students to grieve. A memorial service is being planned for the girls, tentatively set for Thursday.

Dickinson, a city of 16,000 people along Interstate 94, is about 100 miles west of Bismarck and 60 miles east of the Montana state line.

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