A Rosario-area couple found a friend visiting from Seattle dead in their hot tub on May 14 at 1:30 a.m.

Coroner Randall K. Gaylord identified the woman as Molly T. Bailey, 65, of Seattle and Ketchum, Idaho.

Bailey had attended a SeaDoc Society board meeting on Orcas Island earlier in the evening. Back at her friends’ home, she went into the hot tub while her hosts went to bed. About an hour later, her friends decided to check on her and found her face down in the hot tub.

Gaylord said Bailey was found in the hot tub at about 1:30 a.m., and declared dead when resuscitation efforts halted at about 2:30 a.m. Gaylord said it appears she may have fainted upon standing up to get out of the hot tub. He said blood vessels dilate during prolonged stays in hot tubs, and can result in feeling faint when standing up.

The autopsy has been completed, and the toxicology report will be back in six weeks.

“I would call it an apparent drowning at this stage,” Gaylord said. “We have not determined yet why she lost consciousness.”

According to friends and family, Bailey was passionate about many things, but the SeaDoc Society – a non-profit organization that protects the sealife and ecosystems of Puget Sound and the Salish Sea – was the organization whose work she cared most deeply about. She was a board member and longtime advocate.

“Her tragic and untimely death was a real blow to me and the SeaDoc family,” said Regional Director and Chief Scientist Joe Gaydos. “She was a delightful, wonderful woman.”

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that remembrances be made to the SeaDoc Society at www.seadocsociety.org