California officials discovered the body of a Redmond woman on Thursday who went missing from a houseboat party near an island on Lake Shasta on Saturday night. They say the case is being investigated as a suspicious death.

Authorities conducted an extensive search of Slaughterhouse Island on Thursday and found 22-year-old Gina Zalunardo’s body at about 11 a.m. in an area overgrown with vegetation, said Capt. David Compomizzo, of the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office. The three-quarter-mile island had been searched twice before, but officials failed to find the Oregon State University student.

Zalunardo’s body showed no obvious signs of trauma, and there was no indication she had been in the water before her death, Compomizzo said. She was wearing the same clothing she had on when she was reported missing, and her body was found 300 yards from where she was last seen.

”This is a situation in which people don’t normally perish,” Compomizzo said. ”We discovered her body and now we have to pursue several avenues. … She could have gotten hurt, but we just don’t know right now.”

Zalunardo was last seen at about 6 p.m. Saturday after an argument with her boyfriend on one of 42 connected houseboats. She was reported missing Sunday morning by a friend, prompting ground and water searches.

Compomizzo’s office had identified no suspects in Zalunardo’s death on Thursday.

Dave and Cindy Zalunardo remembered their daughter as an adventurous woman and a gifted artist. Her mother said Gina painted a quote above her bedroom door, and refused to let them cover it with white paint when they converted it into a guest room.

”It says ‘Work like you don’t need the money, love like you’ve never been hurt, dance like nobody’s watching’ in bright purple and magenta,” said Cindy Zalunardo. ”I don’t know who said it, but that was her.”

The Zalunardos decided to stay in their Redmond home while the search for their daughter was conducted, trying to get out information to help find her and hoping she would return home.

”I always thought there was be a chance there would be a knock on the door and it would be her,” said her father on Thursday. ”There’s no way I wanted to not be here. Also, if the outcome was bad, which it was, we didn’t want to be that far from our son.”

Dave Zalunardo said he was thankful that Gina’s brother, Michael – who is a student at University of Oregon – decided to return home Wednesday night to be with his family.

Gina, a member of the Delta Gamma sorority, had been home in Redmond for the past several weeks, training for a firefighting job scheduled to begin on Monday. She had been hired as one of the 20-member Union Hotshot Crew stationed in La Grande.

Cindy Zalunardo said Gina had been running 10 miles a day, lifting weights and working with a personal trainer in Redmond to prepare for the job.

Her parents said they were both firefighters in college when they met, and Gina started working toward her career as a firefighter when she attended Redmond High School.

”Her very first job was working at the Redmond air center in the regional fire cache when she was 17,” said Dave Zalunardo. ”She was too young to be a firefighter so she worked with the equipment – refurbishing, restocking and resupplying – to get a foot in the door.”

Gina, who attended Redmond High School, was an honors society student, active in team sports and went to Uruguay as a foreign exchange student, according to Redmond High Principal Dan Purple.

”She was every parent’s ideal kid,” Purple said. ”One of our best. Just a really, really nice kid who excelled in everything she did.”

After graduating from Redmond High in 2001, Gina spent the next four summers working on an Ochoco National Forest fire crew, her mother said.

Kevin Donham, Gina’s boss for her last three seasons on the Ochoco crew, said she was the kind of firefighter that gave ”110 percent,” and always had a smile on her face.

Donham said Zalunardo’s consistently positive attitude was something the entire crew appreciated, particularly during difficult firefights.

Her father, who is still active in firefighting, said Gina was ”horribly adventurous,” and recalled her coming home from school with a skydiving video.

”She went one time and was planning on, when she got a job and some money, going again,” her father said.

Dave Zalunardo said Gina’s family spent the day on Thursday reminiscing and discussing what may have happened to her.

”We don’t know what happened but we think something suspicious happened,” her father said. ”There’s no way on that island, given all that she accomplished, that she wandered off and got lost.”

Her father said he had spoken with Gina’s boyfriend, who came to the house to visit, and he was not able to provide any information about what might have happened to her.

”He was as clueless as we are as to what went on,” Zalunardo said.

Gina’s father declined to give the boyfriend’s name, out of concern for him.

Her boyfriend and other witnesses told authorities they spent several hours trying to find her, but gave up figuring she had gone to sleep on another boat. When she didn’t turn up the next morning, the sheriff’s department was contacted.

Dave Zalunardo said the family wants to have a service for his daughter as soon as possible, most likely in Redmond. But first he plans to travel to Lake Shasta because he said he needs closure and wants to bring home her belongings.

”We are planning a service but we’re uncertain what that will be right now,” Zalunardo said. ”What I would like to do is have a celebration of life.”

In the meantime, Zalunardo said his family wants to thank the community and law enforcement officers for their support.

”You really find out how many people really care and think about you,” her father said. ”It has made this go from really terrifying to painfully bearable.”

Cindy Powers can be reached at 541-617-7812 or at cpowers@bendbulletin.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report.