The death of a Texas woman on an Ocean City beach on July 31 has been ruled accidental, and investigators have been unable to determine what caused a hole she climbed into to collapse, burying her alive. 
 
 On Thursday, police said Ashley O' Connor, 30, was intoxicated and walking on the beach, when she climbed into a three to four foot deep hole to sit down to smoke a cigarette. 
 
 O' Connor's body was later found on a beach on 2nd Street, and her cause of death was asphyxia due to suffocation, according to the Ocean City Police Department. 
 
 
 
 A tractor driver told police he did not see a hole on the beach where she climbed in, and said it may have already been filled in. 
 
 
 
 An initial investigation by police revealed that O' Connor was walking on the beach alone when she was later found in a hole covered by sand. Authorities at the time were trying to determine if she fell into the hole or climbed inside of it on her own. 
 
 In a separate incident at an Ocean City beach on Aug. 1, Timothy Thompson, 35, died after he was caught in a rip current. 
 
 
 
 Rescue swimmers jumped in and began a search to recover Thompson's body, but it was too late. Police say he died at an area hospital. 
 
 
 
 ||||| The death of a 30-year-old woman whose body was found buried in an Ocean City beach has been ruled accidental, police said. 
 
 Ashley O’Connor, of Plano, Texas, was found on the beach in the early morning hours of July 31 in the area of 2nd Street, police said. She was vacationing at Ocean City. 
 
 Detectives determined that O’Connor walked alone onto the beach in the area of 2nd Street around 2 a.m. and sat in a hole approximately 3 to 4 feet deep. 
 
 At one point, the hole collapsed while O’Connor was inside, ultimately causing her death, police said. Detectives were unable to conclusively determine what caused the hole to collapse, but found no evidence of foul play, police said. 
 
 The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled the death to be accidental caused by asphyxia due to suffocation, police said. 
 
 "We're not sure what happened after Ashley walked on to the beach between 2:15 and 6 a.m., but we've ruled out foul play. We are not 100 percent sure, and probably never will be, but this was a tragic accident," Ocean City Mayor Rick Meehan said. 
 
 
 
 Because the death was ruled to be accidental, a comprehensive toxicology report will not be completed; however, the autopsy revealed that alcohol was a factor in the incident, police said.
– Without discovering a satisfactory explanation for her death, police have closed the investigation into a woman who suffocated beneath the sand of a Maryland beach, WTOP reports. "How the hole collapsed, she unfortunately is the only person that will know," Ocean City Police Chief Ross Buzzuro says. Ashley O'Connor of Texas was vacationing in Ocean City with her family when she went for a walk on the beach alone around 2am July 31. The 30-year-old's body was found more than four hours later when a passerby noticed her hand sticking out of the sand. A medical examiner said O'Connor died from asphyxia due to suffocation, and her death was ruled accidental with no possibility of foul play, according to WBAL. Police believe O'Connor climbed into the 3.5-foot-deep hole in the sand on her own for an unknown reason. She had been drinking and was found to have a BAC more than the legal limit for driving. It's unclear who made the hole or why it collapsed. O'Connor, who was found in a sitting position at the bottom of the hole, may have caused the collapse herself when she climbed in, or tractors in the area may have caused it. But WJLA reports a tractor driver told police he hadn't seen a hole in that area of the beach, and it may have already collapsed.