While police are working to solve the mystery of a local woman found dead in the Animas River, friends and family remember her as a loving mom and warm friend.

Police don’t know whether someone was involved in Karen Michelle Reyes death, and they do not have any witnesses, said Lt. Darrell Robertson the spokesman for the Durango Police Department.

However, the police believe the river trail is safe, he said.

“There’s nothing to indicate that there is a threat to public safety ... because there is nothing to indicate people are being targeted on the river trail,” Robertson said.

Reyes, 42, was found Saturday, after leaving her home Friday evening to walk her two dogs.

Spending time outdoors and river running were always her passions.

“She had an adventurous soul,” recalled her ex-husband, Mike Reyes.

She was also a loving mother, friend and teacher.

“Her number one love in life was her daughter,” he said.

She leaves behind daughter, Sylvia Reyes, 11, and step-daughter, Savannah Reyes.

Her friend Denise Pruett said Karen Reyes was always spending time on the rivers in the desert Southwest, and she was always confident navigating rapids.

“She taught many people, especially men, how to be tough on the water,” Pruett said.

She guided trips on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon for about 15 years, Mike Reyes said. Last year, she piloted a boat for a fish study.

She was born in Boston, and grew up in upstate New York. She moved to Durango in 2001, and, at one time, owned Forget Me Not Floral, he said.

Most recently, she worked at College Drive Cafe in town.

The police are waiting for an autoposy before saying anything definitive about her death, Robertson said.

An autopsy is scheduled for Wednesday because that is the earliest a pathologist will be available to work on the case, said Jann Smith, La Plata County’s coroner.

No cause of death was apparent to investigators who found her body in an eddy on the east side of the river, about a quarter-mile south of the foot bridge behind the La Plata County Fairgrounds. A man fly-fishing reported the discovery of the body to authorities.

Karen Reyes was last seen wearing a khaki baseball hat, a gray-and-blue long-sleeve fleece jacket, blue jeans and hiking shoes.

Her black-brown-and-gray, female border-collie mix, Gumbo, and her gray male terrier mix returned to her home on their own. The dogs were on black and red leashes, and the terrier was wearing a sweater, police said.

Anyone with information should call Detective Sgt. Deck Shaline or Detective Josh Newman at 375-4729.

mshinn@durangoherald.com

To help

A fund has been set up in the memory of Karen Michelle Reyes, whose body was found Saturday in the Animas River. Visit www.gofundme.com/lwazd8 to donate to her memorial fund. A date for her memorial service has not been set.