Bodies of missing mother, son found near Superior
West Central Tribune, Minnesota
April 4, 2006
SUPERIOR, Mont.
A Minnesota woman and her teenage son who had been missing for
nearly a week were found dead late Monday, victims of apparent
hypothermia, an official said Tuesday.
The bodies of Niki Thomas, 51, a high school librarian from
Rochester, Minn., and her 15-year-old, Nicholas, were found in the
snow on a hillside. Sanders County Sheriff Gene Arnold said it
appeared the two had become stuck in their car on an isolated Forest
Service road and attempted to walk out.
Thomas was in Montana visiting her son, who attended the Spring
Creek Lodge Academy in Thompson Falls.
She rented a vehicle and drove him from Thompson Falls to an
orthodontist appointment in Missoula on March 27. The two were last
heard from the following afternoon when they called a family member
from a cell phone. They had just left Missoula and were traveling
west on Interstate 90, headed back to Thompson Falls, authorities
said.
Arnold said Tuesday it appeared Thomas tried to use a Forest
Service road as a shortcut into Thompson Falls.
"It's snowpacked and you can't get in there," he said.
A snowmobiler spotted their stranded vehicle.
Search crews from both Sanders and Mineral counties had been
looking for the two.
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