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Emergency Responders Recover Dead Body From Fall Creek Gorge Hours After Airlifting Unresponsive Woman
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A body was recovered from Fall Creek gorge at around noon Sunday.
The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/tag/gorges/)
A body was recovered from Fall Creek gorge at around noon Sunday.
A small army of students hired by Cornell, known as “Gorge Stewards,” patrol campus’ two gorges from May through September, providing guided tours and natural history lessons — while making sure visitors enjoy the scenery safely.
The man was rescued from a net below the Stewart Avenue bridge and taken to a local hospital, where he is expected to fully recover.
The man found dead in Fall Creek Gorge on Friday has been identified by police as Avram B. Pinals ’18, a senior who was scheduled to graduate on Sunday and had planned to attend medical school at the University of Michigan.
The victim appeared to be about 21 years old, and police were later able to identify him and notify his family, a sergeant said late on Friday.
Cornell and Ithaca moved one step closer to blocking access to the gorge above Ithaca Falls, which has long served as a local swimming hole but has also been the site of at least two students’ drowning deaths in recent years.
“If people are found to be swimming and/or cliff jumping in the Six Mile Creek area, the fine could be as high as $250,” Holcomb said. “There are also other fines associated with open containers, possession of drugs [and] littering.”
Cornell Police found a deceased female at the bottom of Fall Creek Gorge yesterday afternoon after receiving a call from a witness saying that a woman had jumped off the Suspension Bridge. Members of the Ithaca Police Department, Cornell Police Department, Ithaca Fire Department and Bangs Ambulance responded to the incident.
The body was removed at approximately 4 p.m. as “Members of the Ithaca Fire Department rappelled into the gorge [to] retrieve the body,” according to a statement issued by the IPD. While the female has yet to be identified, police are continuing to investigate the incident.
The bridge has since been cleared, except for remnants of yellow police tape near the path leading down to the gorge.
Ryan Lavin ’09, president of the Student Assembly, was at the scene two years ago when a group of students helped pull the body of a drowned teenager out of one of the gorges. Now, Lavin, along with other student leaders, Cornell administrators and Ithaca city officials, participated in a meeting on Friday to discuss new tactics for enforcing gorge safety issues in light of recent deaths and injuries.