Hike turns deadly as parents tumble off cliff in New York
When the Green family left for a weekend outing, they headed for the Zoar Valley Gorge, a rugged area not far from their home in Buffalo that includes waterfalls, forests and cliffs that plunge as much as 400 feet straight down.
But a summer hike turned tragic when both parents, Amanda and William Green, were found dead Sunday at the bottom of the gorge, and both of their young sons were hospitalized, one with severe injuries. Police on Monday were still trying to piece together how the couple and four-year-old Alexander tumbled off a cliff and wound up alongside a creek far below, and how seven-year-old Jacob, though injured, escaped more serious harm.
“It is a gorge,” said Capt. Daniel Richter, a New York state forest ranger. “It’s like anything else. You don’t want to get too close to the edge. There have been accidents. There have been fatalities. It’s just the nature of the area.”
Authorities believe the parents and Alexander fell about 200 feet down the cliff, but they are not sure why. Police continue to investigate.
The tragedy unfolded Sunday in the Zoar Valley, a popular hiking and kayaking spot 56 kilometres south of Buffalo. According to Erie County Sheriff Timothy Howard, two hikers trekking through the bottom of the gorge came across the Greens’ bodies. The injured fouryear-old was nearby, he said. “The first two hikers who found the bodies did not have a cellphone,” Howard said. “They flagged down a third hiker who made the call.”
A sheriff’s helicopter made a dangerous landing on the gorge floor and evacuated the fouryear-old as emergency crews and police descended the cliff face. Rescuers searching the area for clues found sneakers and footprints that were too big for a four-year-old.
Around that time, authorities learned from relatives that four members of the Green family had gone to the gorge, officials said.
More searchers were brought in, and hours later a sheriff’s detective found Jacob walking in the area. It was still unclear Monday if the older boy fell along with his parents and brother, sheriff’s spokesman Scott Zylka said.