Selfie-Taking Woman Plunges to Her Death in Lake Superior

Tu Thanh Nguyen was hiking alone when she apparently stopped to take a cliff pic
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 22, 2018 6:00 AM CDT
Selfie-Taking Woman Plunges to Her Death in Lake Superior
This Aug. 2, 2003, picture shows Lake Superior at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore near Munising, Mich.   (AP Photo/Bob Brodbeck)

What should have been a day of hiking with awe-inspiring views turned tragic in Michigan Wednesday when a woman fell to her death into Lake Superior. WLUC reports 32-year-old Tu Thanh Nguyen, from Sunnyvale, Calif., was traversing the trails along the cliffs of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore by herself when she decided to stop to snap a few selfies. She apparently got too close to the edge of the 200-foot-high cliff she was perched on and plummeted over the side, into the water below.

Two kayakers saw Nguyen fall and rushed to retrieve her, and once back on shore, a kayak company called for help. The Detroit Free Press cites Michigan State University data that shows the lake would've been a chilly 45 degrees when Nguyen fell in. A park ranger tells the Marquette Mining Journal she was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics. The National Park Service has deemed her death an accident. (An Israeli teen recently fell to his death taking a selfie in Yosemite.)

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