An early evening call received by Mineral County dispatch on Friday, March 17, ended in tragedy. The body of Debra Ann Koziel was found by a search team on the following Tuesday afternoon. Her death was determined to be the result of exposure to the weather.

Koziel, a 56-year-old woman from Colorado, had called 911 around 6 p.m. and said “I need help, I climbed a hill from where my car was towed,” reported Mineral County Sheriff Tom Bauer.

Her phone then went dead. The signal only hit one tower, meaning searchers could not triangulate the signal and did not know where she was before her phone died. The sheriff’s office called the Missoula police and local towing companies to see if Koziel had contacted any of them, but she had not called anyone.

On Monday, March 20, a Fish Creek resident found Koziel’s vehicle, a Honda Accord all-wheel drive, near the cement bridge where it had slid off the road on the west side. It appeared that she had tried to get her vehicle out, because there were coat hangers under the tires.

A neighbor had picked up a suitcase on the main road, located 200 yards north of the vehicle, toward I-90, which belonged to Koziel. Four deputies, three game wardens, and a local resident who has a guide service began searching for the woman by that afternoon. However, she was not located, and so the search continued on Tuesday, March 21, at 7 a.m.

The day was rainy, and the conditions up Fish Creek were slushy with snow, ice and mud. The search team began their search on the west slope from the creek, because, if the woman headed east, she would have had to cross it and it was running high and fast.

In the afternoon, a member of the search party finally found tracks and medicine bottles belonging to Koziel one mile north of the vehicle, off the west slope, heading toward I-90. She had then climbed the hill, directly east of where the bottles were found. At 3 p.m., Koziel’s body was located 600 feet up the ridge line.

Bauer said there was not anything suspicious about Koziel’s death and concluded that she had died as a result of the exposure to the elements. Temperatures during the early morning of March 18 had dipped to 36 degrees in Superior. A Montana National Guard Black Hawk helicopter had offered assistance to retrieve the body, but the terrain and weather made conditions too dangerous.

The search party had to bring the body down to the main road and managed to do so by 6 p.m. They were soaked and tired after a long day of searching.

“I wish we had found her sooner, but thankfully we did find her,” said Bauer.

Koziel’s body was taken to Missoula, but no autopsy was done.

Bauer was not sure of the road conditions on the day when Koziel’s car had slid off, but while conducting the search, conditions were bad even with a four-wheel drive.

Koziel’s family was contacted in Colorado and they did not know why Koziel had ended up in Montana.

Koziel had filed for divorce from her husband in Nebraska, where the two had been living. According to family, Koziel was supposed to be heading home to Colorado Springs. She had been separated from her husband for about five months. Her car was full of items, including that suitcase and the coat hangers. Unfortunately, her family and friends may never know why she drove up Fish Creek on that ill-fated St. Patrick’s Day.