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JACKSON, Wyo. (AP) — A Wyoming woman found dead on a church service trip to Nicaragua was an EMT and skiing instructor who had always been committed to helping other people, her father said.
The body of 37-year-old Karen Colclough of Wilson was found Monday in the town of Montelimar, according to Agros International, the Seattle-based non-profit she and a group from the Presbyterian Church of Jackson Hole were working with.
Douglas Colclough of Lynnfield, Mass., told The Boston Globe (http://b.globe.com/Qpneim) that his daughter "always was very helpful and very religious." He fears someone may have taken advantage of her nature and caused her death.
National police in Nicaragua have not released any details about her death.
Agros International said she and the group had spent a week working with families in villages in the Matagalpa region. It said she disappeared Friday after preparing to go for a run on the Montelimar beach.
"Words are not sufficient to express the grief we feel over Karen's death, and the pain and sorrow now felt by Karen's family and her close friends and church," Paul Moulton, chairman of Agros International's board of directors, said in a statement.
He thanked the Nicaraguan national police, navy, and Red Cross for helping search for Colclough while also responding to people hurt and displaced by recent earthquakes there.
Agros International helps farmers in poor regions of Central America and Mexico by buying land and building housing and sanitation services.
Colclough is originally from Lynnfield, Mass., but has lived in Jackson Hole for the last 10 years. Her father said she also worked as a guide in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks as well as teaching adaptive skiing at Snow King Resort.
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