A woman whose body was pulled out of the Cape Fear River has been identified as a Greenville teenager, the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office said Friday.

The cause of death for Kristen Lee Stone, 19, originally from Jacksonville, has not been determined, a Sheriff's Office release said.

Investigators don't know how Stone's body ended up in the river, but are hoping someone may have seen something that could help figure that out.

Stone's body was found about 5:30 p.m. Aug. 10. A fishermen on the riverbank and others in a passing boat spotted the body snagged in tree debris about a mile downstream from the bridge of the Outer Loop, which is the future Interstate 295. The site is off Carvers Falls Road, not far from the ZipQuest Waterfall & Treetop property.

The Fire Department launched a boat from Riverside Bait & Tackle at Campbellton Landing and headed upstream to make the recovery.

With the identity unknown, speculation swirled for a short time that it might be that of Heather Carter. She's the 32-year-old Fayetteville police say is still missing from a July 12 shooting and kidnapping incident at the Zip-N-Mart at 2413 Hope Mills Road.


The next day, lawmen ruled out the possibility it was Carter.

Stone's body was sent to the state medical examiner's office in Raleigh for an autopsy, which was performed Aug. 11. Lt. Sean Swain, a spokesman for the Sheriff's Office, said the results of that autopsy are "still pending further lab analysis."