A woman is missing after entering the Niagara River near the falls where a mother and her two children died in a horror murder-suicide a week ago.
New York State Police are actively searching for the woman last seen in the water just above the largest of the three waterfalls that make up the infamous destination. The New York Post reported.
Witnesses reported seeing the woman in the waters of Goat Island, just above Horseshoe Falls, around 2pm on Wednesday afternoon.
“A search of the area immediately began using a Park Police drone, a foot search of the canyon and visual searches from vantage points,” state police said in a statement. WGRZ.
“Park Police have also contacted New York State Police Aviation for assistance in searching the lower Niagara River,” she added.
Search crews are now looking for the woman who reportedly plunged into the Niagara River
But the woman, who has yet to be identified, has not yet been found.
Horseshoe Falls is the largest of the three waterfalls that make up Niagara Falls – with a height of 58 meters, a width of 600 meters and the plunge pool below up to 30 meters deep.
The deepest point in the Niagara River – which is 50 meters deep – is just below the Horseshoe Falls, at the same height as the falls.
The incident comes just a week after a New York mother launched herself and her two children over the edge in the same area.
Last Monday, 33-year-old Chianti Means stepped over the guardrail with her children at Luna Park – a small area near the top of the falls.
She pushed her two children, nine-year-old Roman Rossman and four-month-old Mecca Means, over the edge before jumping 200 feet into the water behind them.
The mystery woman, who has yet to be found, was last seen in the water just above Horseshoe Falls – the largest of the three waterfalls that make up the infamous destination
Last Monday, 33-year-old Chianti Means stepped over the guardrail at Luna Park with her children and pushed her 9-year-old son and four-month-old daughter over the edge before jumping into the water 200 feet behind them.
State Park Police said that based on the reviewed security footage that captured the series of events, Roman was the first to go over the railing around 9 p.m., then onto Mecca and Means.
State Police Public Information Officer James O’Callaghan said it did not appear the mother was chasing her children as they plunged to their deaths.
All three have now been declared dead, but their bodies have not yet been recovered – and may never be found.
Authorities noted how the powerful currents could carry their remains hundreds of miles from the falls. The mirror reported.
Despite days of intensive search efforts, police reported last week that their rescue efforts to find Means and her two young children were unsuccessful.
Means, who lived with her family in Niagara Falls, worked as a domestic violence counselor, according to her LinkedIn profile.
The bodies of Means, nine-year-old Roman Rossman and four-month-old Mecca Means have not been found, but all three have since been pronounced dead
Means, who lived with her family in Niagara Falls and worked as a domestic violence counselor, was said to be suffering from postpartum depression
Rumors of last week’s death grew out of Means’ social media posts about her breakup with her daughter’s father, in which she alluded to her fear, grief and regret.
But her cousin, Bierra Hamilton, says the young mother suffered from postpartum depression.
“Understand this – postpartum [depression] is very real and needs healing,” Hamilton shared New York Post. ‘Her death was not over a man. My cousin was silently fighting his depression alone.”
Many of those who jumped to their deaths or accidentally fell into Niagara Falls were never found at the bottom of the waterfall, where 3,610 tons of water rush over it every second.
Some are pushed far from the falls and carried downstream by the raging currents – and in some rare cases they are found years later.
A man believed to have crossed Niagara Falls in 1990 was identified last April. CBS News reported.
Vincent Stack, a man from Buffalo, New York, went missing from Niagara Falls State Park thirty years ago at the age of 40.
Two years later, in April 1992, a body was found on the shores of Lake Ontario.
But it wasn’t until this past year that the remains were discovered to be those of Stack, whose body traveled about 15 miles to the mouth of the river before floating 140 miles across the lake after his fall 34 years ago.