Lost Hikers Rescued, Only to Take Wrong Turn, Drown

Amy Stiner, Melissa Moyer drove off of boat landing
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 25, 2013 7:00 AM CDT
Updated Jul 25, 2013 7:54 AM CDT
Lost Hikers Rescued, Only to Take Wrong Turn, Drown
Two men walk on the boat ramp at the scene of a double fatal accident, Wednesday July 24, 2013, in Roque Bluffs, Maine.   (AP Photo/Washington County Sheriff’s Department, Lt. Travis Willey)

Yet another chilling story of people being rescued from one perilous situation only to succumb to another: Two female hikers who got lost in the rain and fog at Maine's Roque Bluffs State Park on Tuesday called for help; an off-duty firefighter and game warden came to their aid, eventually returning them to their minivan. But as Amy Stiner, 37, and Melissa Moyer, 38, exited the parking lot, they turned right instead of left—driving down a road that dead-ends about a mile later at a boat landing, which, in the poor weather conditions, they apparently couldn't see. They drove off the landing, into the water, and drowned.

The Portland Press Herald notes that a sign calls attention to the road's end, but it was covered in part by branches. With no homes in the area, "it's pitch black—dark as a pocket," says the county sheriff, who says the women called for help around 9pm. "They said they were in the water and the car was filling with the water. And then the phone just went dead." An hour later the car was located, some 175 feet from shore in 20 feet of water. The sheriff speculates that the auto-windows and locks may have ceased working once they got wet. An awful coda: Stiner was five months pregnant. (More hikers stories.)

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