Authorities in Arizona have identified the off-duty police officer who was hiking with a Massachusetts woman before she was found dead of possible heat exhaustion.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, 31-year-old Angela Tramonte had flown to Arizona to visit a man her friends says she first met via Instagram. According to multiple reports, Tramonte had not previously met him in person. The pair went for a hike on Camelback Mountain on Friday, and the man told police that Tramonte felt overheated and turned around on the hike — while he continued on the trail without her. She was found dead hours later, after the man called police to report she was not at the agreed-upon meeting point when he finished the hike. A medical examiner is working to determine her cause of death.
Fire department officials in Phoenix told the Daily Beast that Tramonte was with Dario Dizdar, a police officer who was off-duty at the time of the incident. Documents obtained by the Daily Beast show that Dizdar faced disciplinary action for lying about his identity in a 2009 criminal investigation. The report did not provide further details about the nature of the investigation.
No one has been charged in connection to Tramonte’s death.
“At this time there is no evidence to indicate foul play is suspected,” Mercedes Fortune, a spokeswoman for the Phoenix Police Department, told The Daily Beast in a statement, adding that Tramonte did not exhibit any “traumatic injuries.”
Dizdar reportedly told police that neither he or Tramonte brought water on the hike. As previously reported, Tramonte’s friends have questioned Dizdar’s narrative and have insisted that Tramonte would not have failed to bring water. The temperature in the area on Friday reportedly reached 105 degrees.
“If anybody knew Angela, she wouldn’t go anywhere without a gallon of water in her hand and I heard she was found without any water,” Tramonte’s friend Melissa Buttaro told the CBS News Boston earlier this week.
Dizdar did not reply to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.
This is a developing story. CrimeOnline will provide further updates when more information is available.
