A woman who swam into an icy Alaska river in December in an attempt to save one of her dogs has been found deceased.
The body of Amanda Richmond Rogers, 45, was found in the Eagle River, near Anchorage, on Sunday, her family told TV station KTUU this week. Anchorage Police confirmed the discovery with the Anchorage Daily News.
Richmond Rogers, a nurse and mother of four, had been missing since Dec. 23. She was swept under the ice while trying to rescue her dog, Groot, after he fell through.
Her sister, Jennifer Richmond, told KTUU that Rogers was found holding Groot’s body in her arms.
Richmond Rogers and her husband, Brian Rogers, had been walking two of their dogs along the river when the incident occurred, the Anchorage Daily News reported at the time. Groot plunged through the ice while trying to get a drink of water, and Brian Rogers went into the river trying to find the dog. He got out after he couldn’t locate Groot, but then saw his wife heading into the frigid water herself.
“I yelled but doubt she even heard me as she was completely concentrating on saving the dog,” he wrote in a statement in December, per the Daily News. “Before I could get back to the opening to try and grab her I could see her SWIMMING downstream under the ice and then out of sight. I waited and waited and am still waiting.”
He said that when he saw “the look on her face,” he knew his wife was determined to try and save Groot.
“She did not jump in to save ‘just a dog,’ it was a family member,” he wrote. “To me and our four boys she died a hero.”