Arizona

Death of Saugus Woman on Arizona Mountain Leaves Loved Ones With Questions

Angela Tramonte, a 31-year-old woman from Saugus, Massachusetts, was found dead on Camelback Mountain in Phoenix, Arizona, where she was hiking with a police officer she met online

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Friends of a Massachusetts woman was found dead on a mountain in Arizona are looking for answers.

The body of 31-year-old Angela Tramonte of Saugus was found Friday on Camelback Mountain in Phoenix.

Friends say Tramonte went to Arizona to spend time with someone she'd met on Instagram. Authorities in that state confirm the man she was with is a police officer in Phoenix.

"She went out there so that they could get to know each other better," said Tramonte's friend, Melissa Buttaro of Saugus. "They went on the hike as, like, a date."

Tramonte was there for under 24 hours before she died, friends said.

Authorities say that the pair went for a hike, but that Tramonte couldn't finish due to the heat, so he went on without her.

"Why didn't you at least walk her back down?" asked Evelyn Doherty Trefry, another friend of Tramonte's from Saugus. "Why didn't you at least call somebody?"

The man reported her missing when he came back down, but hours later, police found her body.

Investigators in Arizona said she had been dead for a while when she was discovered with no water. It was 104 degrees at the time.

"It's hard to imagine she went out there, wearing the [improper] shoes, and with no water. That's just completely out of character for her," Trefry said. She wouldn't make those decisions, she just wouldn't."

Arizona authorities say that the man Tramonte was with is cooperating with the investigation and that no foul play is suspected.

"We just want him to be held accountable, because you just don't leave somebody half way up a mountain," Buttaro said.

Tramonte's mother tells NBC10 Boston she has been traveling to Arizona to help with the investigation.

An official cause of Tramonte's death has not yet been released.

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