Woman Drowns After Rescuing Son, 5, From Lake
A woman saved her 5-year-old son who fell from a capsized canoe in a chilly lake before slipping beneath the surface and drowning Sunday, police said.
The body of Debbie Snook, 33, was pulled from Culvers Lake in northwestern New Jersey two hours after the incident.
Police said Dylan Snook and his father, Chris Snook, 34, had been fishing from a dock at their lakeside home when a lure became snagged. They paddled out in a canoe to free it, but the vessel flipped over.
Chris Snook was able to pull the child onto the overturned canoe, but as the father tried to make their way ashore, the child somehow became separated from the canoe, police said.
Debbie Snook, watching from the dock, saw her son slip off and rushed into the 40- to 45-degree water to save him, police said.
A neighbor paddled his boat out to the mother and son and retrieved the child, who was revived on the shore. Debbie Snook disappeared beneath the water, police said.
The child was in stable condition.
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