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Fredericksburg, White Oak, and Falmouth rescue squads were in place for an immediate rescue attempt, pulling Deborah Myers from the Rappahannock River within seconds yesterday afternoon.
State police Trooper Steve Dunham pleads with Deborah Myers
No traffic flows across the Interstate 95 bridge over the Rappahannock River during yesterday afternoon's tense discussion.
Rescuers rush from the river in an attempt to save Myers' life. |
Deborah Myers turned to the state trooper who was desperately trying to save her life and whispered "I'm sorry."
Then she leaned forward and plunged more than 80 feet into the cold water of the Rappahannock River yesterday.
Rescue workers in a boat below the Interstate 95 bridge rushed to the 48-year-old Spotsylvania County woman, but Myers died a short time later at Mary Washington Hospital, state police spokeswoman Lucy Caldwell said.
Police closed northbound I-95 during Myers' 90-minute standoff with the trooper, creating a 10-mile backup that paralyzed traffic through the region.
Trooper Steve Dunham, a 17-year state police veteran, was returning home from training in Richmond about 11:45 a.m. when he saw Myers walk out and sit on the edge of the bridge, her feet dangling over the edge.
He pulled over, radioed for state police to stop traffic and began talking to her.
Myers cried, rocked back and forth on the edge of the bridge and told Dunham that she split with her husband about a month ago, Caldwell said.
Authorities said she may have taken an overdose of prescription of anti-depressants before venturing out on the interstate.
Crisis negotiators from state police and the Stafford County Sheriff's Office were called to the scene, but Myers refused to speak to anyone but Dunham.
"The trooper tried to dissuade her from jumping the best he could," Stafford sheriff's Capt. David Roderick said. "He was the only person she would let near her."
Alone on the bridge with Myers, the trooper pleaded with her to come off the ledge. He motioned to her with his hands several times and was able to get about three feet away from her.
The trooper asked if she'd like to talk to her husband, but Myers said she would rather speak to her minister, Caldwell said.
Police tried to locate her pastor, but couldn't find him in time.
"Trooper Dunham listened to her and said anything he could think of to make her feel better," Caldwell said. "He was trying to do anything he could to save her life."
About 1:15 p.m., Dunham reached out and offered Myers his hand.
But when she leaned toward the water, he took a step back.
Then, after staring down for a few seconds, Myers suddenly lunged from the bridge.
A Fredericksburg fire and rescue crew waiting below immediately pulled her from the river. She was floating face down when they scooped her from the water.
Myers was unconscious but breathing when she was loaded into an ambulance. She died before a helicopter arrived to take her to Inova Fairfax Hospital, Caldwell said.
State police almost immediately reopened the northbound lanes of I-95, but traffic remained snarled for hours on all of the Fredericksburg area's major roads.
Some frustrated drivers--stuck in traffic in the southbound lanes of I-95 as Dunham negotiated with Myers--yelled as they passed over the bridge. Dunham told other police officers that he was sickened to hear at least a dozen people shout for her to jump as they passed over the bridge.
"That's a sad and disturbing commentary on the way people feel," Caldwell said.
Myers' suicidal leap was similar to a May 2000 incident on the Fall Hill Avenue overpass in Fredericksburg.
Carlos Mejia, a Guatemalan immigrant upset about a fight with his girlfriend, teetered on the edge of the overpass for four hours, leaving a traffic mess never before seen in the region.
He jumped from the bridge as officers approached, breaking his leg as he landed on the interstate.
Police charged him with obstructing the free passage of others.
Mejia recovered from his injuries and still lives in Fredericksburg. Since the jumping incident, he has been arrested seven times on charges ranging from traffic violations to trespassing.
In January, a 38-year-old Stafford County man leapt to his death on I-95 from the Garrisonville Road overpass before dawn one morning.
"I had the same feeling today I had that night," said Roderick, who was at the scene of both incidents. "You could just see, there's no preventing it."
The decision to publish the pictures today of Deborah Myers' last moments came only after a series of discussions in our newsroom.
From the time we heard about this incident, we debated the best way to report the story accurately and sensitively. As we did two years ago, when a man jumped from another I-95 bridge and survived, we strived for balance in our coverage. Our goal was to tell the story with pictures that offer insight into a very public tragedy without being needlessly graphic.
Perhaps those images will stir a renewed dialogue in our community about suicide, the toll it exacts on families and how we can help those who are in pain.
--The Editor, The Free Lance-Star (Click to send e-mail)
