Illinois woman dies in Montana rafting accident
Posted July 15, 2008 11:00 pm
COLUMBUS, Mont. -- Stillwater County authorities say a 50-year-old Illinois woman has died after a rafting accident in the Stillwater River near Columbus.
Sheriff Cliff Brophy says Rhonda Leslie of Morris, Illinois, drowned Monday.
He says the raft carrying four people hit a pillar of a bridge and overturned. Three of the rafters made it to shore, but Leslie was under water for nearly five minutes.
Search and rescue crews found Leslie seven miles downstream. She was taken to Stillwater Community Hospital where she later died.
Brophy says Leslie was not wearing a life vest.