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Authorities recover body of woman in Rio Grande, marking 6th person to die this month in CO rivers

Posted at 12:59 PM, Jun 25, 2019
and last updated 2019-06-27 11:37:45-04

MINERAL COUNTY, Colo. — Ten days after a Colorado Springs woman fell into the Rio Grande river, authorities have recovered her body.

On the evening of June 15, the Mineral County Sheriff's Office responded to a call about a woman who had fallen into the Rio Grande river.

The family of Roberta Sophia Rodriguez said she slipped on a rock and fell into the South Fork of the Rio Grande river near the town of Creede. Her fiance tried to save her but lost her in the rapids.

READ MORE: Family of woman missing in South Fork River warn others about raging rapids

After 10 days of searching for her, the sheriff's office announced Tuesday at noon that its search and rescue team had found her body around 10:45 a.m. that day.

One of Rodriguez's sisters, Gina Vasquez, previously told Denver7 that there was no chance even a good swimmer could have saved themselves from the rapids.

"Admire it from afar," she said.

Rodriguez is the sixth person to die this month in Colorado's river rapids. Her family has set up a GoFundMe for her for funeral expenses.

On June 6, a man died in a rafting accident on the Eagle River after the river flipped a raft with five men in it.

Early the following week, on June 10, a 42-year-old man from Texas died during a Boy Scouts rafting trip along the Arkansas River west of Canon City.

On June 20, a woman died during a guided trip on the San Juan River just north of Pagosa Springs.

The next day — June 21 — two people died on the Gunnison River. One woman lost control of her paddleboard and got hung up on a tree, authorities said. She later died at a hospital. That same day, officials with the National Park Service found the body of a person who had been in an apparent kayaking accident southwest of Gunnison.