NORTH CAROLINA, USA — A 3-year-old Pennsylvania girl was killed after she was swept over Whitewater Falls in North Carolina, a sheriff's office said.
The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release that Nevaeh Jade Newswanger of Denver, Pennsylvania, had been visiting the waterfall with family, who are staying in Oconee County, South Carolina, while working in the area, news outlets reported.
Jackson County Emergency Management received a 911 call around 5:50 p.m. on Sunday from someone reporting a little girl “had been swept away in the water at the top of the falls” and carried over the edge by the current, the sheriff's office reported.
Rescue crews from Jackson, Transylvania, Haywood, Henderson and Oconee counties responded to the falls and launched rescue operations to locate the child, the news release said.
They located the child's body trapped in an area of the waterfall. Recovery operations went into Monday, when the child was recovered around 1 a.m.
The U.S. Forest Service describes Whitewater Falls as the highest waterfall east of the Rockies, plunging approximately 411 feet (125 meters).
