TRAGIC

Massachusetts Mother Drowns Trying to Save Her Kids From River

The U.S. Coast Guard suspended the search Friday night for the woman’s 6-year-old boy in the Merrimack River.

A Massachusetts woman has drowned while trying to save two of her children who were swept into the Merrimack River, officials told The Boston Herald. One of the kids, a 6-year-old boy, is still missing, but the U.S. Coast Guard suspended the search Friday at 5 p.m. after dive team efforts changed from a rescue to a recovery, the Newburyport Fire Department said. In the initial 911 call on Thursday night, the caller said a family with two parents and four children was involved in a watercraft incident, but the fire department found that the family had been on land when two of the kids entered the water, prompting their mother to go in after them. She was able to get her 7-year-old daughter onto a nearby fishing boat that stopped to help, but she couldn’t get onto the boat herself and disappeared underwater. First responders pulled her out, gave her CPR and transported her to Anna Jaques Hospital, where she died.