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[Updated, 3:05 p.m.] The little girl found holding onto a lifeless body in Lake Gleneida Monday afternoon was physically OK, but mentally "traumatized" following the tragedy.
That's according to Chief Mike Johnson of the Carmel Police Department. Johnson told Patch Tuesday afternoon that the little girl and her mother, whose names he would not release, are Putnam residents. He did not have additional specifics.
The youngster was transferred to Putnam Hospital Center by ambulance, Johnson said, but she did not require treatment.
An autopsy was conducted there this morning on Pamela Kaner, 59, the Brewster woman whose body responders recovered a short time after receiving the 911 call. Johnson would not comment on the results, adding that the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has taken the lead on the investigation.
Johnson declined to comment on whether the incident looked to be accidental, or whether foul play was involved. To his knowledge, the only witnesses were those in the row boat—reportedly strangers who happened upon the scene.
[Original story] A Brewster woman is dead following a tragedy Monday evening that involved the rescue of a 6-year-old girl from Lake Gleneida in Carmel, officials say.
DEP Commissioner Carter Strickland said in a statement that the investigation indicates that "a 6-year-old child was wading/swimming with a 59-year-old woman" in the lake, where swimming is prohibited. Police have identified that woman as Pamela Kaner, 59.
"Two men and a woman in a row boat observed a child holding onto a body in the middle of the lake crying for help," Strickland said. "The child was not wearing a life vest. The boaters placed a life vest on the child and brought her to shore where they notified the Carmel Police."
The girl was not injured, police said. Kaner was pronounced dead at the scene. The cause of death is not yet known, according to officials.
Police received word of the incident around 5:15 p.m. By 8 p.m., responders—including members of the DEP Police, Carmel Police, New York State Police, , Carmel Fire Department, Carmel Volunteer Ambulance and the Mahopac Falls Volunteer Fire Department dive team—had cleared the area.
“We are saddened by the tragedy that occurred last night on Lake Gleneida, and are working with Carmel Police to determine what happened," Strickland said. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the family.”
Officials were unable to provide an address for Kaner Tuesday morning. She's listed as an Oak Street resident. No one answered the door at the multi-family home Tuuesday afternoon. Folks who live in that area told Patch they had not heard of anyone by that name.
Tragically, there have been several other water-related deaths in the Hudson Valley this summer, including that of a an , a 40-year-old man, and a of a six-year-old boy.
