A MYSTERY’S SAD CONCLUSION

Hunters Find Woman,

Dog Dead In Woods

By  LIBBY CUDMORE • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com

HARTWICK – Roxanne Shipman-Hull, 48, the Hartwick woman who went missing in late September, was found yesterday morning dead in her car in the woods in Plainfield, Sheriff Richard J. Devlin Jr. confirmed this afternoon.

According to Devlin, hunters on the state land near the area of Adams Pond Road and Mason Road on the Plainfield State Land came across a Honda-CRV sitting “a few hundred feet” back from the road on Sunday morning.

“They got on their cell phones and verified that the license plate was the woman reported missing and called the Sheriff’s department,” said Devlin. “When deputies arrived, they approached the vehicle and found a woman and a dog inside, both deceased.”

The woman was identified as Shipman-Hull; the dog was a female brown lab named Penelope.

Devlin reported that there was no visible trauma to the body, but that an autopsy was performed at Lourdes Hospital in Binghamton. No cause of death has yet been declared, but foul play is not suspected.

Previously, Sheriff’s Deputies, as well as friends and family, had searched the area after her cell phone pinged off a tower shortly after she went missing. Though Devlin had reached out to the State Police to conduct a “grid search” by helicopter, the dense fall foliage prevented the search.

“We were hoping this wasn’t how it would turn out,” said Devlin. “It’s a sad situation.”