Two victims of fatal Fryingpan River crash identified

Two women who were found dead Saturday in an SUV in the Fryingpan River were identified by authorities Sunday as friends from Columbus, Ohio, who had been on a sightseeing tour of Colorado.

The victims were Kristina Herron, 64, and Yvonne Honeybrink, 71, according to Eagle County Coroner Kara Bettis. Family members said the women were driving around the West, Bettis said. They didn’t have family in the Roaring Fork Valley, she said.

A bicyclist spotted a 2016 Kia Sedona upright and submerged in the river Saturday afternoon about 4.2 miles east of Basalt. The Basalt Fire Department responded and declared the women dead on the scene. Bettis said she couldn’t make any conclusions yet about the cause of the deaths. An autopsy is scheduled for today.

“It wasn’t witnessed,” she said of the accident. “So we don’t know what time the vehicle went into the river.”

The Colorado State Patrol said the vehicle was northbound on Fryingpan Road. It went off the right side for 30 feet before plunging down a steep embankment and into the river. The bicyclist who discovered the SUV reported it around 4:44 p.m.