World

Woman falls 100ft to her death into river while posing for photo at edge of cliff

An avid traveller and photographer fell 100 feet to her death while posing for a photo on the edge of a cliff. Zoe Snoeks, 33, died after falling from the cliff near the village of Nadrin, in the Belgian province of Luxembourg, on the morning of November 2. Zoe lived in of Limburg, Belgium, with her husband, whom she met in school and married in 2012.
According to local reports, she fell at least 30 metres (98 feet) to her death, when her husband had his back turned to check on their dogs. The public prosecutor’s office in Luxembourg Province said she slipped on the cliff edge and fell into the Ourthe River.
The police, firefighters, a team of GRIMP (Groupe de Recherche et d’Intervention en Milieu Perilleux – Perilous Environment Reconnaissance and Intervention Group) rescuers, and scuba divers were sent to the scene along with a medical helicopter from Bra-sur-Lienne, and later located the body. Her husband Joeri Janssen said the pair had left in their campervan on Sunday, and had been due to return home to Limburg on the day Zoe fell to her death. “Since the pandemic, it was our little thing to drive across Europe in our van and take beautiful photos,” he said.

The couple always took their dogs Joy and Ivy as well as a drone for taking aerial images of their travels. Joeri said: “We got up very early to take pictures of the Herou (a 1,400-metre-high rock face that rises almost vertically above the Ourthe River). There is almost always mist there. It’s great for photos. We arrived before 9am.” He explained that his wife was posing for photos on the edge of the cliff when “she told me to look out for the dogs”.
“I turned to the dogs and told them to wait. When I turned back to Zoe, she was no longer there. She had just vanished. It must have happened in less than five seconds. “I didn’t see or hear anything. No rustling, no screams or shouts. I looked up and saw only dust.” “I called her, even though I knew it was hopeless. The chasm was several tens of metres deep. “I immediately called the emergency services, but had almost no network. They didn’t understand me, even though I speak a little French.” He said he went to the nearby Le Belvedere Hotel to ask for help, adding: “The rescue team could not find Zoe immediately, they said in French. Then they told me that unfortunately Zoe was dead, also in French, but I immediately understood what they meant.”

Comment here