A North Carolina inn worker who was allegedly killed during a sex assault by her colleague at the secluded mountain lodge where they both worked was strangled to death.

Aspiring chef Sara Ellis, 29, died in July 2018 near the Pisgah Inn. An autopsy also notes blunt force trauma to her face.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner lists strangulation as the cause of death after her former co-worker at the inn was charged last year with first-degree murder and aggravated sexual abuse resulting in death.

Derek Shawn Pendergraft, now 21, who was the first to report Ellis missing, had initially told authorities the two went for a hike and he lost track of Ellis after she turned back in the rain.

Authorities found her body off an embankment near the Blue Ridge Parkway. 

Pendergraft's attorney didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

The autopsy released Monday by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner lists strangulation as the cause of death for 29-year-old Sara Ellis, left

Her former co-worker at the inn, Derek Shawn Pendergraft, was charged last year with first-degree murder and aggravated sexual abuse resulting in death

Tragic Sara had texted her sister just days before her death saying how 'safe' she felt living and working at the secluded mountain lodge in Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina, where she was staying for the summer.   

Carrie Ellis said: 'Two days before it happened was the last message I had. I was checking on her. She said she did like it there. She was making some friends; it was beautiful.

'It's kind of eerie now. She said, "This is a safe place"'.

She saw the seasonal job at the inn as a way to advance a career as a chef, friends and family said.  

Prosecutors said Ellis, from Florida, was a 'particularly vulnerable' victim on account of her hearing impairment. 

After Pendergraft informed inn managers she was missing, authorities found the victim's body off an embankment near the parkway. 

Pendergraft, who was 20 at the time of Sara's death, had been working as a housekeeper at the inn. 

Victim Sarah Ellis, left, texted her sister two days before the vicious July 24 attack, telling her how 'safe' she felt at the Pisgah Inn. Pendergraft, right, initially told authorities the two went for a hike and he lost track of Ellis after she turned back in the rain

Sara Ellis, right, poses for a photo with her sister Rachel Ellis in 2008 . Sara Ellis, working a summer job at a North Carolina mountain lodge, was out hiking when, authorities say, a co-worker attacked her and left her lifeless body steps from a famed scenic highway

Investigators stand along the trail where Ellis' body was found near Brevard, North Carolina, on July 26 last year 

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Authorities say the pair had been out hiking when Pendergraft attacked her. 

Initially, Pendergraft told investigators that he and Ellis went for a hike after they both finished work around 4 p.m., but she decided to return when it began to rain. 

Agents write that he returned from his hike and told his managers that she was missing, saying then that he had found her umbrella lying on the ground. 

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