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By CAROLYN THOMPSON Associated Press Writer
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) -- A mother of four apparently struggled with her attacker before being killed while jogging on a suburban bike path, investigators said Monday as they waited for autopsy results to determine when and how she died.
The body of Joan Diver, 45, was found about 30 yards off the path in Newstead on Sunday, two days after her husband reported her missing when she failed to pick up their youngest child from day care.
"There were some signs of a struggle," Erie County Undersheriff Richard Donovan said Monday.
Donovan would not comment on the condition of the body, other than to say Diver had not been stabbed or shot.
Diver's body was found around noon Sunday by volunteers who descended on the 6 1/2-mile path a day after police suspended their search. Her body was found in an area that had been searched by officers and dogs, leading to speculation it may have been dumped there after police left.
Donovan indicated it was more likely that officers had overlooked the body in the thick brush. Odors from a nearby farm may have thrown off cadaver-sniffing dogs, he said.
"We may have missed it," he said.
Diver's car was found Friday at an entrance to the path, three miles from where her body was found.
Diver's death was compared Monday to the unsolved murder of a college student who met a similar fate on the same date 16 years ago.
The body of University at Buffalo student Linda Yalem, 22, was found along a bike path in nearby Amherst. She had been raped and strangled.
DNA evidence from the two cases would be compared, Donovan said.
"There are similarities between crimes that have happened in this area and this particular crime," he said. "There also could be copycats....This could be just an entirely independent-type situation."
Diver grew up in Salt Lake City, the youngest of seven children, according to her father, William Barney, who spoke with the Buffalo News, for a story published in its Monday edition. Barney told the newspaper his daughter attended the University of Utah and graduated with a degree in community health and nursing.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
