MINNEISKA. Minn. – The death of a Minneapolis woman who fell 100 feet from a bluff-top overlook at Latsch State Park was suicide, the regional medical examiner medical examiner has concluded. Although more than two dozen first-responders were on-scene, no one actually saw the woman fall. It was late and dark, and first-responders were too far back and had only flashlights for illumination. The first-responder team included a crisis negotiator, but the woman, Rachel Gerhardt, 33, had not responded in a meaningful way except to show agitation. She had been alone the overlook. Police in Minneapolis, checking on a missing person report, had established her location at Latsch Park, 100 miles, away, by pings from her cell phone. Winona County deputies found her car at a trailhead. With a a drone and thermal imaging, they located Gerhardt at the overlook 500 feet above. They found their way up a trail and established contact. Gerhardt, they said, was minimally communicative, then agitated as more first-responders, eventually about 30, arrived. The negotiator backed off periodically as Gerhardt became agitated. Suddenly all was quiet. The medical examiner report said that Gerhardt died of “multiple injuries due to fall from elevated height.” Medical Examiner Ross Reichard said identification was confirmed by scars and amputations.
Obituary detail
Rachel Marie Gerhardt grew up in Minneapolis. She attended Artaria Chamber Music School and performed in Minnesota youth symphonies. She participated in numerous cello master classes including with celloist YoYo Ma and the Minnesota Orchestra. For college she chose the Oberlin Conservatory. Her degree, in 2013, was in cello performance and music history. She joined the Teach for America program and was placed at Excell Academy in Minneapolis and taught second and fourth graders. She then earned a master’s degree in elementary literacy and a certificate in middle-school mathematics. Most recently she taught seventh grade math at Hiawatha Academy in Minneapolis. She was married with two children, 8 and 5. The family said that “days with mama included lots of snuggles, reading, craft projects, cooking and gardening.”
The recovery
The rescuers team at Latsch Park called the State Patrol for a helicopter equipped with thermal-tracking technology and lights to find Gerhardt. The flight was cancelled when deputies with their own thermal devices located where Gerhardt landed. From a distance she appeared lifeless Winona firefighters rappelled 100 feet down the near-vertical bluff and confirmed Gerhardt was dead. They rigged mountaineering rescue equipment and various hoists to bring the body to the overlook and down a trail to an abuance at the parking lot off U.S. Highway 61. This process took the whole night.
Earlier: Victim in 100-foot fatal bluff-top fall: From Minneapolis
Earlier: Crisis negotiations preceded Latsch Park fatal fall