NEGAUNEE TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — A Michigan conservation officer from Allegan County helped save a woman clinging to the side of a 70-foot cliff, state officials say.
Michigan Conservation officers Kyle McQueer and David Miller joined the search for the 25-year-old Baraga County woman Thursday night.
The woman called dispatchers around 8:35 p.m., saying she was on the edge of a cliff overlooking Lake Superior, holding onto tree roots.
The woman wasn’t sure where exactly she was, so Michigan State Police used her cellphone signal to pinpoint her location, near Haanpaa Road in Negaunee Township, just outside the village of L’Anse.
Miller said they had just passed Haanpaa Road when someone flagged them down after hearing the woman’s calls for help.
Miller and McQueer, who is from Otsego, found the woman about halfway down the face of the 70-foot cliff, according to a Department of Natural Resources news release.
Miller held onto the woman until McQueer could get a tow strap, which he anchored to a tree before lowering it down the cliff.
Miller lifted the woman to a safer place, as she held onto the tow strap. McQueer and another officer then tied the tow strap around the woman before a team of rescuers pulled her to safety.
Miller said the woman said she had Huntington’s disease, leaving her with little to no strength in her arms and legs. She told him she was on her way to visit a friend when she decided to go down to the lake. After hopping over the guard rail, she lost her footing and started to slide.
Authorities are not releasing the woman’s name, but say she is from L’Anse.
McQueer began working for the DNR in July, and is currently in his probationary period with the department. Miller was hired in 1996.