GRANDVIEW, WV (WOAY) – On Sunday night, at around 8 p.m., it was reported that a woman fell off of the main overlook in the Grandview area of the New River Gorge National River.
At this time and after about a two-day search, she has not been located.
“The call came in just before dark last night,” National Park Ranger Randy Fisher said. “We arrived on scene, and we had a witness that said that someone went over the edge, and we did an initial sweep until almost midnight last night, and we weren’t able to get a find last night, so we came back in the morning and going on a second operational period today.”
The National Park Service joined by the Beaver Volunteer Fire Dept., West Virginia State Police, the Raleigh Co. Sheriff’s Dept., Jan-Care Ambulance and the Fayette Co. Vertical Rescue Team were all on scene for Day 2 as teams rappelled down both sides of the overlook.
Details about the woman are limited at this time as her identity has still not been released.
“All we really know is that she’s 43 years old, and she was here with her son and her husband so we know that,” NPS Chief of Interpretation Eve West said. “She was wearing a pink shirt. That’s just about all the details we have.”
Overnight, a thermal helicopter search did not turn up any results.
On Monday, in daylight, the rappel team descended about 50 feet to the first cliff after the overlook drop and once that search was completed with no results, the Raleigh County Sheriff’s Department sent in the bloodhound team.
The dogs were able to find the woman’s scent at the overlook using her items but from there, it was time for another rappel.
This time, crews did a grid search from top to bottom which is about 1,400 feet from the park’s tallest peak all the way down to the river. This did not turn up any new finds either.
West says the woman’s husband was getting the car at the time of the reported fall.
“Someone did observe her over, and then when they turned and looked back she was gone,” West said.
This is still under investigation with limited details as the search is ongoing, but stick with us for updates.
