Utah woman drowns while trying to rescue dogs from creek

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — What began as a Sunday evening walk in a Salt Lake City park turned tragic when a woman drowned while trying to save her two dogs after they jumped into the fast-moving, icy waters of a creek, police said.

While out with her husband, Liudmilla Feldman, 58, plunged into the high water full of snow runoff, but the swift current that had overtaken her pets pulled her underwater, Unified Police spokesman Brian Lohrke said Monday.

She was underwater for one to two minutes and had already drowned by the time an onlooker trying to help reached Feldman and grabbed her ankle to pull her out of the creek, Lohrke said.

They called 911, but efforts to revive her were unsuccessful.

The dogs survived the ordeal at Tanner Park after they were able to climb out of the creek themselves, Lohrke said.

Authorities didn’t release the name of Feldman’s husband, and Lohrke said he didn’t have any more information about the dogs’ condition.

Calling it a tragic accident, Lohrke said people should be cautious about jumping into creeks and rivers swelled in the spring months by snowmelt.

“People need to be careful around bodies of water, especially this time of year when the waters are high and the current swift,” he said.

Copyright © 2024 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.