05:46 PM CDT on Thursday, July 6, 2006

By CLARA TUMA / KVUE News

Investigators now say a boat propeller could have struck a woman after she went down a slide on the party barge and disappeared in the water.

Her death is now the subject of a different type of investigation.

Rescuers found the body of Mary Maiella, 23, Tuesday, after she disappeared Saturday night. State investigators still haven't determined exactly what went wrong.

Investigators have no way to check the boat's history, because the law doesn't require party boats that operate on lakes to undergo regular inspections or get special permits.

At first, Maiella appeared to have drowned after going down a slide on a party boat in Devil's Cove Saturday.

But now, investigators say the boat, rented from "Just for Fun," may have been backing up when Maiella hit the water.

"All we know is that she may have been struck by the propeller at this time. We don't know anything else for sure," said Alfonso Campos, Texas Parks and Wildlife Marine Enforcement Division. "Propeller injuries are a big issue. There's talk about propeller guards."

Though it may appear dangerous, party boat slides are usually at the rear of boats, near propellers, because that's the most stable area of a boat.

"That's why you have to extremely cautious and that your operator knows you're going to have people in the water," Campos said.

Though party boats, such as those at "Just for Fun," carry dozens of people, they are under exactly the same rules as small recreational boats that carry only one or two people.

"There's not any special inspections, like yearly, biannually or anything like that. They are subject, however, to inspection for equipment requirements so that they carry the correct number of life jackets, for example, and that's at any time, by any police officer that's out on the water," he said.

Officials at Just for Fun declined to comment.

Investigators are still trying to determine why the boat may have been backing up, and whether Maiella or the boat driver had been drinking. The investigation could take days.

The Travis County Medical Examiner's office completed an autopsy.

A spokesperson tells KVUE News it will be at least three weeks before toxicology tests are complete.