A park ranger found the body of an 80-year-old Schererville woman Monday afternoon in a rugged, thickly vegetated part of California's Yosemite National Park.

Park rangers are investigating how Ottorina "Trina" Bonaventura died after she left a hiking group July 30 and didn't return to camp, said park spokeswoman Adrienne Freeman.

Rangers do not suspect homicide, and they did not find any clear evidence of how she died, Freeman said.

Daughter Pam Crnkovich, of Crown Point, feels relieved her mother's body was found. Crnkovich is also confused and sad, she said.

"We always had hope," Crnkovich said. "And now there's no more hope."

More than 150 people searched Yosemite in the days after Bonaventura left her group and said she would return to the Vogelsang High Sierra Camp. As days passed and Bonaventura's survival chances waned, massive canvassing turned to limited searching.

A ranger on routine duty ran across Bonaventura's body about 5 p.m. Monday near a dry creek bed, Freeman said. Bonaventura's body was far from the trail on which she was last seen, Freeman said. The park is the size of Rhode Island.

Park rangers are investigating, Freeman said. Pathologists will perform an autopsy today or Thursday, said Gail Sgambellone of the Mariposa County coroner's office.

"We will never know exactly what happened and we won't determine a cause of death until we conclude the investigation," Freeman said.

Bonaventura hiked a lot. The retired computer programmer worked out every morning at Omni 41 fitness center in Schererville, Crnkovich said, adding she doesn't understand how Bonaventura died.

"I don't know if I'll ever know," she said.

No funeral plans had been made Tuesday night.