Drowning ruled an accident

SANDPOINT — Foul play has definitively been ruled out in the death of a Montana woman whose body was discovered in Lake Pend Oreille last month.

“This was an accidental drowning,” Bonner County Sheriff’s Lt. Doug Harris said on Wednesday.

Joan Lyons’ body was discovered in a boat slip at Kramer’s Marina in Hope on Oct. 22. A passerby spotted the 59-year-old Troy woman’s body and phoned authorities.

Toxicology results indicated Lyons was legally intoxicated at the time of her death, according to Harris.

Lyons’ blood alcohol level was measured at 0.25 grams of ethyl alcohol per 100 cubic centimeters of blood, meaning she was more than three times over the legal limit to drive.

Sheriff’s officials said Lyons was living on a sailboat at the marina on weekdays while working in the Sandpoint area.

Lyons’ death was the second drowning in Bonner County in 2009. A Kootenai County was swept downstream in the runoff-swollen Priest River on May 22. The Priest River discharges into the Pend Oreille River, where his body was found the following month.