Sara Yorty's family believes she died from a fall.

The 30-year-old York woman's body was found in rugged terrain along the Susquehanna River Tuesday, two days after she left her parents' house saying she was going hiking.

An autopsy showed her cause of death was a broken pelvis and exposure.

But the circumstances surrounding the death of the York County teacher are unusual, and Susquehanna Regional Police are continuing their investigation.

"We know what the cause of death is. We just don't know what the manner of it is, how it was caused," said Susquehanna Regional Police Chief Ed Haugh.

Yorty was last seen by her parents at about 5 p.m. Sunday at their Annville home, where she had gone to drop off some things.

Yorty's mother, Eileen, said today that her daughter said she was going to go hiking when she left. Her mother assumed she would go to Chickies Rock County Park, because she had hiked there before.

Her family did not know anything was wrong until the next morning, when the Springettsbury Township woman did not show up for work at Red Lion Area Senior High School, where she taught English, drama, creative writing and public speaking.

Family members, police and Chickies Rock County Park rangers searched the park for her. Family members also drove around the York, Columbia and Wrightsville areas, looking for Yorty or her car, according to a story in the York Daily Record.

It turned out that Yorty's car was parked in a lot at the Falmouth boat launch, about a quarter to a half-mile from where her body was found.

Two Three Mile Island construction workers found Yorty's body at about 12:45 p.m. Tuesday, police said. They were walking in the area on their lunch hour, trying to spot an old barge that had washed up on the shore of the Susquehanna River.

It appears that Yorty had been hiking on a trail that runs between Route 441 and the Susquehanna River. To the east of the trail is a dry canal bed, then railroad tracks, then Route 441.

The area where Yorty's body was found features some challenging terrain.

"It's reasonably open but it's a tough area to walk in," Haugh said. "There are embankments and rock outcroppings."

Her body was found part way up an embankment, leading up to the canal bed, Haugh said.

Yorty was clothed and wearing outdoor shoes, he said.

Lancaster County Coroner Dr. Steve Diamantoni said an autopsy Wednesday showed Yorty had suffered a broken pelvis.

"A significant force would be necessary to sustain that type of fracture," he noted. "It's not something that would happen by twisting or slipping."

Yorty also had a sprained ankle and bruises on her arms and legs, the coroner said.

"The injuries would be consistent with a fall but it could be consistent with other things as well," Diamantoni said. "There is nothing to suggest foul play, but it's hard to look at her injuries and say this is the only circumstance in which it could occur."

When you break a bone, you can bleed internally, the coroner said. That, and her other injuries, would have made her susceptible to the elements. It was the combination of hypothermia and her broken pelvis that led to her death, he said.

Weather conditions from Sunday to Tuesday featured overnight lows in the low 30s and daytime highs near 50.

Yorty's roommate, Angeline Clark, told the York Dispatch that Yorty loved hiking, playing classical music on the piano and her three cats. She wrote poetry and was loved at her school, where an official said students and staff were grieving.

Her mother said today that her daughter also was a horseback rider who loved the outdoors.

Mrs. Yorty said she thinks her daughter's death was an accident.

"It was a fall," she said sadly.

Haugh said the investigation is continuing.

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