Woman dies after falling down steep cliff on Blue Ridge Parkway

BUNCOMBE COUNTY, N.C. — A South Carolina woman died Saturday when she fell down a steep cliff on the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina northeast of Asheville, authorities said.

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According to a news release from the National Park Service, Nancy Sampson, 61, of Greer, died as a result of injuries from her fall at Glassmine Falls Overlook in Buncombe County, the Asheville Citizen Times reported.

Dispatch operators received a call at 12:15 p.m. EDT about a woman who had fallen down a cliff at the site, according to the newspaper.

Law enforcement rangers with the National Park Service arrived and pronounced Sampson dead at the scene, WSPA-TV reported. She was located 150 feet below the overlook, according to the television station.

Sampson’s body was recovered by the Reems Creek Fire Department with the assistance of Mount Mitchell State Park Rangers and a volunteer from the Trauma Intervention Program of Western North Carolina, the Citizen Times reported.

It is unclear what led Sampson to fall down the cliff.

The Blue Ridge Parkway is situated on some of the highest peaks in the eastern U.S., according to the newspaper. It stretches 469 miles from Shenandoah National Park in Virginia to the entrance to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Cherokee, North Carolina.

No additional details were immediately available. An investigation is ongoing.