LOGAN – The Ohio Department of Natural Resources is reportedly investigating the death of a 44-year-old Chillicothe woman who was hit by a falling tree branch at Hocking Hills State Park Monday as a possible homicide.
According to a report in Wednesday morning’s edition of The Columbus Dispatch, the agency believes the falling limb that killed Victoria Schafer near Old Man’s Cave was “not a natural occurrence.”
It is the third death at the park this summer and the second in two weeks on the trails near Old Man’s Cave.
A 22-year-old hiker died after apparently losing his footing and falling about 75 feet (23 meters) from a cliff there two weekends ago.
In June, the body of a 55-year-old woman was recovered from a remote part of the park’s Conkles Hollow State Nature Preserve. The agency didn’t disclose then how she died.