Overhang collapse kills girl at lake

Monday, June 2, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

National Park Service investigators believe wind and waves at Lake Mohave may have caused a sand and rock overhang to collapse, burying a 6-year-old girl playing below who died two hours later.

Rina Reyes of Rowland Heights, Calif., was playing along the shady shore at Lake Mead National Recreation Area's Turkey Cove with her 4-year-old sister and their 5-year-old brother when the tragedy happened about 2:30 p.m. Saturday.

The overhang gave way, burying the girl and injuring her sister, authorities said. Family members pulled the buried child from the debris and took her by boat to Katherine Landing launch ramp where park rangers put her aboard the Arizona Department of Public Safety helicopter for air evacuation to Bullhead Community Hospital in Bullhead City, Ariz.

"It took four or five men to take the sand boulder off of her," Ranger Ralph Patterson of the National Park Service said today. "She had massive head injuries. She was bleeding from the ears, nose and mouth."

The child was pronounced dead at the hospital at 4:30 p.m. The girl's sister suffered a broken arm, and her brother escaped injury.

Turkey Cove is located just south of the Katherine Landing developed area on Lake Mohave.

"The lake is quite high right now and there are really no beaches," Patterson said. "The family spent quite a bit of time to find a beach that was satisfactory."