Jul 6, 2008 12:17 pm US/Central
Woman's Body Found After St. Croix River Drowning
TROY TOWNSHIP, Wis. (WCCO) ―
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Dive teams spent most of their time searching about 150 feet from shore. After not finding to woman on Saturday, dive teams resumed the search Sunday morning.
CBS
The body of a 42-year-old South St. Paul woman was found Sunday morning after she went under water around 1:30 Saturday afternoon in the St. Croix River near Pembles Beach, just south of Hudson, Wis.
Dive teams spent most of their time on Saturday searching about 150 feet from shore.
Lt. Mike Winberg of the St. Croix Sheriff's Department said the woman had gone swimming with her daughter and her daughter's friend. They were standing on a long, submerged sandbar when they were swept further into the river by large waves. The three tried to swim for shore instead of the sandbar, but were unable to make it.
Two people on Pembles Beach heard the cries for help and swam out to rescue the two girls, but they never saw the woman resurface.
"It is a popular local area because it's small and it's technically considered a river access. I don't thinks it's as widely used or known about," said Heidi Helgeson.
Helgeson and her husband open the Pembles Beach gate every morning at 10:00 to allow swimmers access to the river.
"My husband said there were three vehicles waiting to down there at 10 a.m. because it's a holiday weekend," said Helgeson. She said that was also a concern because the beach is not supervised, and the river's current is strong. Her family knows from their own experiences having swam near Pembles Beach for years.
However, people who live near Pembles Beach said they can't remember anyone drowning there before which is why the news is so hard to take.
"There's somebody that has lost a mother or a sister and it's very sad. You hate to hear about things like that because it's a nice day, I'm sure they had great plans. Now there's somebody who's not going to come home tonight," said neighbor John Mailand.
Authorities blocked off about a quarter mile area on the river, and they were using sonar to try and locate the woman's body.
At about 6:00 Saturday evening they thought they had found two spots were the woman might be, but so far nothing has turned up.
Winberg said that at one point the river bottom drops from 5 feet to about 53 feet. It is not known if the drop-off played a role in the drowning. Winberg said the woman was not wearing a life jacket.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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