High, fast Salmon River complicates search for Nampa women

It might never be clear what caused the crash that led to the presumed deaths of two women on U.S. 95, Idaho County Sheriff Doug Giddings said Friday.

Friends and family remember the two Nampa residents and former University of Idaho students.

Cayla Danenberg, 20, and Tiffany Maupin, 21 — best friends for years — were on the highway headed north to Moscow when their car went off the road and into the Salmon River Tuesday night.

Witnesses nearby couldn’t assist the two women because the river was too high and fast, Giddings said. But one witness told investigators they saw one of the women’s bodies in the river.

Investigators, using the tracks the car left, found where the driver may have overcorrected and where the car flipped over and shot into the river about five miles north of Riggins.

But where that car is now?

“The car’s gone. We can’t find it,” Giddings said. “A car in the water is not very heavy. The river will take it, and we don’t know where it will take it to.”

Snow is still melting into the river, making it fast, deep and too hazardous for any sort of recovery effort right now, Giddings said. So it’s unclear how soon a broader search and recovery can begin.

This story was originally published May 20, 2016 at 4:25 PM with the headline "High, fast Salmon River complicates search for Nampa women."