Updated at 7:08 p.m.
A 25-year-old Burlington woman was found dead in the Huntington River in Richmond on Saturday.
An initial investigation showed that Katie Hartnett was visiting the river “upstream of the Huntington Gorge on Friday afternoon when she slipped and fell into the water,” according to a press release from Vermont State Police.
State police first became aware that Hartnett was missing Friday night, when they received a call at 9:23 p.m. about an unattended vehicle that was parked on Dugway Road in Richmond for hours, they wrote.
“Upon investigating the scene, it was determined that the owner of the vehicle, Katie Hartnett, had not been seen since (1 p.m. Friday),” police said.
After an extensive search involving multiple agencies and 40 people, Hartnett’s body was located by the crew of a Vermont Air National Guard helicopter around noon on Saturday, police said.
“Technical rescue teams on the ground then began a recovery operation, which took about an hour,” police wrote.
Officials have warned that rivers are running dangerously high throughout the state this week following historic flooding.
In response to a question, a spokesperson for Vermont Emergency Management said that the determination of whether Hartnett’s death is considered a “storm-related death” would involve a number of factors.
Those include how the Federal Emergency Management Agency ultimately defines the dates for the flooding disaster’s “incident period,” according to the spokesperson, Mark Bosma, and the results of an autopsy that is being performed to determine Hartnett’s cause and manner of death.
State police are continuing to investigate.
