Woman Dies in Plunge Over Niagara Falls

Witness reports indicate it may have been suicide
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 2, 2011 8:05 AM CDT
Woman Dies in Apparent Suicide Plunge Over Niagara Falls
In this April 21, 2005 file photo, a group of tourists brave opening day on the bow of the Maid of the Mist at the base of the Horseshoe Falls, from Niagara Falls, NY.   (AP Photo/David Duprey, File)

A 51-year-old woman was swept over Niagara Falls and died Tuesday, in what may have been a suicide. About 30 witnesses saw the Canadian woman floating by them, "with her eyes closed" but apparently alive, at about 4:30pm, one tells the Toronto Sun. Then "she went past us. She went over the falls." Reuters reports that other tourists saw the woman enter the water at the Niagara River, and that no one saw her struggle to stay alive.

The woman, who went over the massive Horseshoe Falls, was dead by the time police and the Maid of the Mist tour boat reached her. An officer says "there was no foul play and it does not appear to have been an accidental drowning." (Click to read another tragic water-related story.)

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