The Metropolitan Police Department is investigating the death of a woman whose body was recovered from the C & O Canal.

At approximately 6:18 pm on Wednesday, March 26, 2008, emergency personnel responded to the area of the Chain Bridge and Canal Road, NW, for the report of a possible body in the C & O Canal.  Upon arrival, scuba divers from the Metropolitan Police Department’s Harbor Patrol Unit were subsequently able to recover the body of  an adult white female from the Canal.  Emergency medical personnel were unable to find any signs consistent with life and the decedent was subsequently pronounced dead on the scene by a representative from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for the District of Columbia.

At this time, the identity of the decedent in this case is being withheld pending positive identification and the proper notification of the next-of-kin.