A two-day search for the missing wife of a UB professor ended Sunday afternoon with the discovery of her body near a Newstead bike bath where she frequently jogged.
The search for Joan Diver, mother of four and wife of chemistry professor Steven Diver, included both the Erie County Sheriff's Department and over 200 volunteers.
"Her body was found at about noon, several feet off the path in a heavily wooded area," said Mary Murray, public information officer at the Erie County Sheriff's Department.
Diver was first reported missing on Friday after failing to pick up one of her children at day care at 1 p.m. Her blue Ford Explorer was parked approximately three miles from where her body was found two days later, according to The Buffalo News.
Murray said that there are no leads as of yet, but evidence shows that foul play was involved.
"The autopsy results have come back," she said. "She died by strangulation and blunt force to the body."
Many have also made a disturbing connection between Diver's murder and the chain of unsolved bike path murders and rapes in the 1980s and early '90s, including the slaying of UB student Linda Yalem, whose death is commemorated with an annual safety run on campus.
Murray, however, said that the investigation is still in its preliminary stage and it is too early to make any correlation between the two homicides.
"It's too early to tell, but we're keeping all options open," she said, "You don't just want to focus on just one (possibility)."
In response to the incident, UB Chief of Police Gerald Schoenle said that the UB Police Department has upped security on bike trails near campus.
"We've increased patrols in conjunction with the Amherst Police Department," he said.
Since the incident, the department has also sent out a security alert warning students not to travel local bike paths alone. The notice can be found in residence halls, around main halls on campus and online on MyUB (myub.buffalo.edu), according to Schoenle.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
