A woman is missing after entering the Niagara River near the falls where a mother and her two children died in a horrific murder-suicide a week ago.
New York State Police are actively searching for the woman who was last seen in the water just above the largest of the three waterfalls that make up the notorious destination. The New York Post reported.
Witnesses reported seeing the woman in the waters off Goat Island, just above Horseshoe Falls, around 2pm on Wednesday afternoon.
“An immediate search of the area was initiated using Park Police drones, foot searches in the gorge and visual searches from overlooks,” state police said in a statement to WGRZ.
“Park Police also contacted the New York State Aviation Police for assistance in the search in the lower Niagara River,” they added.
Search crews are now searching for the woman who reportedly sank in the Niagara River.
But the woman, who has not yet been identified, has not yet been found.
Horseshoe Falls is the largest of the three waterfalls that together make up Niagara Falls: it reaches 188 feet high, 2,200 feet wide, and the plunge pool below plunges 100 feet deep.
The deepest point of the Niagara River, which is 167 feet deep, is just below Horseshoe Falls, which is the same height as the falls.
The incident comes just a week after a New York mother and her two children jumped off a ledge in the same area.
Last Monday, Chianti Means, 33, jumped over the railing with her children at Luna Park, a small area near the top of the falls.
He pushed his two children, nine-year-old Roman Rossman and four-month-old Mecca Means, off the ledge before jumping 200 feet into the water after 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 notorious destination.
Last Monday, Chianti Means, 33, jumped over the railing with her children at Luna Park and pushed her 9-year-old son and 4-month-old daughter off the ledge before jumping 200 feet into the water after them.
State Park Police said that based on reviewed security footage capturing the series of events, Roman was the first to jump over the railing, then Mecca and Means around 9 p.m.
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 since been pronounced dead, but their bodies have not yet been recovered and may never be found.
Authorities noted how powerful currents could carry their remains hundreds of miles away from the falls. The mirror reported.
Despite days of intensive search efforts, police reported last week that their rescue operations to find Means and her two young children were unsuccessful.
Means, who lived in Niagara Falls with her family, 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 in Niagara Falls with her family and worked as a domestic violence counselor, was said to be battling postpartum depression.
Rumors about last week’s deaths arose from Means’ social media posts about her separation from her daughter’s father, in which she hinted at her anguish, sadness and regret.
But her cousin, Bierra Hamilton, says the young mother suffered from postpartum depression.
“Understand this: Postpartum (depression) is very real and it needs a cure,” Hamilton told the New York Post. ‘His death was not by a man. My cousin was fighting depression alone and silently.’
Many of those who jumped to their deaths at Niagara Falls or fell by accident have never been recovered from the bottom of the waterfall, over which 3,610 tons of water rush every second.
Some are pushed away from the falls and swept downstream by its fierce currents and, in some rare cases, are found years later.
A man believed to have fallen over Niagara Falls in 1990 was identified last April. CBS News reported.
Vincent Stack, a Buffalo, New York, man, disappeared at age 40 in Niagara Falls State Park three decades ago.
Two years later, in April 1992, a body was found on the shores of Lake Ontario.
But only last year were the remains discovered to be those of Stack, whose body traveled about 15 miles to the mouth of the river before drifting 140 miles across the lake after his fall 34 years ago.
