The evening had been calm — the kind of quiet that settles over a small town once the rush of the day gives way to stillness. The air carried a faint chill as the last of the cars crossed the 17th Bridge, their headlights cutting soft beams across the river below. Then, in an instant, that calm shattered.
Just after 10 p.m., emergency dispatchers began receiving frantic calls. Witnesses reported seeing a woman standing at the edge of the bridge, her silhouette outlined against the dark water. Moments later, she was gone.
Within minutes, sirens pierced the night. Police, paramedics, and firefighters raced toward the bridge, their vehicles illuminating the road in flashes of red and blue. What began as confusion quickly turned to dread as bystanders pointed toward the spot where the woman had fallen.
According to early reports, several motorists had seen her before the fall. “I thought she was just looking at the water,” said Daniel Ortiz, who had been driving home from work. “She was standing very still, just staring. Then suddenly people started shouting, and she was gone. It all happened so fast.”
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