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A woman died, and her five-year-old son is in critical condition after they fell 90 feet into a gorge near the Cave of the Winds elevator at Niagara Falls State Park earlier in the week.
Rescue crews had to hike through 300 feet of dangerous icy terrain to reach the pair at the bottom of the gorge. They provided medical attention to the woman, but she passed away before they could get her out of the gorge. The boy suffered a head injury and was rushed to the hospital, where he remains in critical condition after undergoing emergency surgery.
"Although today it's nice out, it's very icy down there. It's a real tough terrain that our guy and our girls were able to get through and get to them and provide that life-saving care and do everything they could," New York State Parks Police Captian Chris Rola said. "We were going to make every effort for that child that was still alive at the time."
After speaking to the woman's husband and several witnesses, Rola said that investigators do not believe that the fall was accidental.
"There's multiple people there, and they are being interviewed. That's all part of the investigation," Rola said. "They're all being interviewed, but we don't believe it's an accident."