70-Year-Old Woman Dies After Falling 200 Ft. Over Grand Canyon Rim, Marking Fourth Death in Month
A 70-year-old woman is the fourth person to die at Grand Canyon National Park in a month’s time after falling about 200 feet on Tuesday near the popular Pipe Creek Vista, PEOPLE confirms.
The woman, whose name has not been made public, struggled near the rim of the vista point around 1:05 p.m. local time on Tuesday, National Park Service spokesman John Quinley tells PEOPLE. Another park visitor either “saw that she needed help or heard that she needed help” and contacted the authorities.
“She was out on a rocky point, a bit of a distance from the developed trail,” Quinley tells PEOPLE. “That’s when we began our rescue response, but before we were able to do a rescue she fell.”
Quinley says it took about 15 rescuers and a helicopter to recover the woman’s body. Her identity will not be made public until authorities notify next of kin.
“Park staff encourages all visitors to have a safe visit by staying on designated trails and walkways, always keeping a safe distance from the edge of the rim and staying behind railings and fences at overlooks,” park officials said in a statement.
It is unclear how the woman fell.
The death comes just weeks after a Macau, China, man in his late 50s fatally fell 1,000 feet from Grand Canyon West’s Eagle Point — a tourist hot spot on the Hualapai reservation outside the national park — on March 28. He was reportedly trying to take photos when he stumbled and fell.
Days earlier, on March 26, a Japanese tourist was found dead near Grand Canyon Village and a 67-year-old California man fatally fell from the edge of the South Rim on April 3, according to the Washington Post.
Seventeen people died at the park last year, the Post reported.
Grand Canyon National Park recently celebrated its 100th year on Feb. 26. The geological site draws 6 million visitors each year. However, as much as it is known for its beautiful landscape and rock formations, the Grand Canyon has become the site of hundreds of deaths.
At least 770 people have died at the park since the mid-1800s, CityLab reported. Last October, the bodies of Garret Bonkowski, 25, and Jessica Bartz, 22, of Peoria, Arizona, were found on the canyon’s South Rim.
Months earlier, in July, 24-year-old Andrey Privin, of Illinois, lost his footing and fell 500 feet to his death after climbing over a railing at Mather Point.
