A woman is dead after her vehicle allegedly drove off a cliffside on Friday night east of Prescott, according to the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office.
Around 5 p.m., YCSO deputies responded to the Thumb Butte Recreation Area, roughly two miles from Copper Basin Road, where they discovered a vehicle approximately 1,000 feet down the mountainside in the Prescott National Forest.
Deputies hiked down to the scene and found the vehicle’s occupant, later identified as 39-year-old Kristin Little from Prescott, deceased along the cliffside, according to YCSO.
Little reportedly was ejected from the vehicle about halfway down the mountainside where her vehicle landed.
An investigation into the crash initially revealed that Little was likely driving north on Thumb Butte Loop Road when she veered to the left and crashed down on the mountainside, according to YCSO.
Authorities used a drone and helicopter to look for other possible occupants but did not locate anyone else. The steep terrain was too difficult to for crews to navigate as darkness fell on the crash, delaying the retrieval of Little’s body until the following morning, according to YCSO.
The crash and death of Little remained under investigation, according to YCSO.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: What we know about a deadly crash off a mountain east of Prescott
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