A tourist fell to her death from a cliff in a New York state park last week as she was taking photos with her husband, authorities said.
Nur Aisyah Binte MD Akbar, 39, from Singapore, was hiking on the Beacon Hill Trail in Minnewaska State Park last Friday when she and her spouse, 41-year-old Abdul Rauf Bin Mohd Said, stopped to take pictures “at the edge of a cliff,” New York State Police said in a statement. Authorities said Akbar then “lost her footing” and fell around 70 feet.
Said called 911, authorities said, and a state police helicopter was sent to the scene to aid rescue efforts. Akbar was taken to Ellenville Regional Hospital where she died from her injuries, according to police. The incident is under investigation.
“My heart is broken into pieces and I don’t know how to piece them back together,” Said wrote in a Facebook post over the weekend. “I’ve been crying non-stop for the last 12 hours and been really distraught by myself now.” In later posts, Said expressed thanks to the people who tried to save his wife and wrote that “I wished I had slipped off the edge and joined my wife in the fall.” “Now I have to live with these nightmares over and over,” he added.
