Teenager Falls 60 Feet At State Park, Dies

A Missouri teen girl died after sliding off the top of a cliff at a state park, KSDK reported Tuesday.

Mariah Schramm, 18, was swimming with friends Saturday at Johnson’s Shut-Ins State Park in Missouri, according to KSDK. She climbed to the top of a rock and fell into the Black River, according to KSDK.

“She was reluctant, lost her balance, lost her footing, slipped and fell approximately 50 feet,” said Thomas Dresner, chief ranger of the Missouri State Park Rangers, according to KSDK.

The water is deep enough to avoid hitting the rocks, but the teenager fell so close to the edge that she “ended up hitting her head on a rock shelf that was slightly below the surface of the water,” Dresner said, according to KSDK.

She was pronounced dead after suffering a head injury, according to KSDK.

“There are signs in the area where she fell,” Dresner said, according to KSDK. “There are no trespassing signs posted. We don’t allow anybody to go up there.”

There have been multiple incidents of people falling off cliffs to their deaths in 2021. A 24-year-old New Yorker slipped and died off an 80-foot cliff while hiking in Utah in April.

Authorities recovered the bodies of two hikers that were missing in Maine after they fell around 100 feet from ice-covered cliff bands in March, and a man canyoneering died in Death Valley National Park in February after he plummeted 95 feet.