ST. LOUIS • The body of a missing St. Louis ballet dancer was found Wednesday morning in a rural Missouri lake.
Raffaella Maria Stroik, 23, was reported missing Tuesday after a state park ranger found her unattended vehicle at Mark Twain State Park, about 100 miles northwest of St. Louis. A search was launched for the woman, with more than 100 people, including air and water rescue teams, checking the area where the car was found about 9 a.m. Wednesday, according to Missouri Highway Patrol Sgt. Eric Brown.
A private plane pilot who was volunteering his time spotted what he believed to be a person in Mark Twain Lake, and Stroik’s body was found in the water about 9:40 a.m., according to the highway patrol.
The patrol said it was continuing to investigate the death, though no foul play is suspected.
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Highway patrol investigators did not yet know Wednesday why Stroik was in the park or if she had a connection to that area, Brown said.
A cause of death will be announced after an autopsy is completed, Brown said.
Family members participated in the search Wednesday but declined to comment.
Stroik became a dancer with the St. Louis Ballet in September 2017.
“She was a wonderful dancer and a beautiful person,” the ballet’s executive and artistic director Gen Horiuchi said in a statement Wednesday. “We extend our condolences to her family. We are so very sad.”
Stroik appeared in a St. Louis Ballet video profiling new dancers published in September.“I grew up watching the 1993 version of New York City Ballet’s ‘The Nutcracker,’” she said. “And so coming to St. Louis to dance with this person I had watched growing up was so exciting.”
Stroik was also a ballet teacher at Expressions Academy of Dance near Belleville, according to the studio’s website.
She studied dance at Indiana University where she performed principal roles, including the title role in “Giselle,” the Sugar Plum Fairy in “The Nutcracker” and the Swan Queen in Balanchine’s “Swan Lake,” according to her biography for the Metro East dance studio.
She grew up in South Bend, Ind., and was the daughter of Duncan Stroik, an architect and longtime professor of architecture at the University of Notre Dame, the South Bend Tribune reported.
Stroik was an active member of the St. Louis-area Catholic young adult group and attended Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, according to the group’s Facebook page.
She was last seen alive about 10:30 a.m. Monday at Whole Foods Market at 1160 Town and Country Crossing Drive in Town and Country.
Authorities asked anyone with information about Stroik’s death to call the Highway Patrol at 660-385-2132.