:{ This is the ending no one was hoping for. Three college softball players found dead after their sport utility vehicle went into a pond on a North Dakota farm during a stargazing trip likely drove straight into a sinkhole pond in the dark, authorities said Wednesday.

Two days after Dickenson University students Kyrstin Gemar, 22, of Grossmont, Calif. , Ashley Neufeld, 21, of Brandon, Manitoba in Canada, and Afton Williamson, 20, of Lake Elsinore, Calif. went missing, police announced that the friends and Neufeld’s dog were found dead in a Jeep that was pulled from a local pond late Tuesday. The trio was last heard from on Sunday after they called two friends asking for help. Their phones went dead shortly thereafter.

Stark County Sheriff Clarence Tuhy said the women’s SUV was found resting on its wheels Tuesday in about 10 feet of water hidden by tall grass, with the doors and windows closed.

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