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Children Safe after
Troopers at the State Police Barracks—including an Irish cop or two—participated in something of a "St. Paddy’s Day miracle" Monday, when they helped to free a five-year-old Bethel girl trapped under three feet of ice and snow. The Rev. Scott Carlson, of the Faith Assembly of God church on Route 107, reported this week that his daughter Rachel and her two older brothers were playing outside just after noon Monday when a buildup of icy snow on the church roof let loose. Timothy, 10, was buried up to his waist in the avalanche; little Rachel disappeared under it. Luckily, reported Rev. Carlson, 7-year-old Jonathan had been a little away from the others. Screaming "Rachel’s gone, she’s under the snow," Jonathan ran to get his father, inside the family’s nearby parish home. Dad ran to the back of the church, losing his shoes along the way, and began frantically digging where Timothy said he had last seen Rachel. Then he sprinted back to the house and called the state police barracks, just a mile or so down the road. As luck would have it, five troopers where there. Sgts. Ray Keefe, John Hagen, and Terry Lewis, and Troopers Mike O’Neil and Ed Twohig headed out the door. Barracks clerk Heidi Holzinger went too. Within a minute or two of Carlson’s call, help was on the scene. For fear of harming Rachel, most dug away at the snow with their fingers. "It was the most amazing thing," reported Sgt. Keefe. "First we saw a boot, then a hand, and then it moved—it was the most incredible sign—and then a little blood, and her head." The cold and crying little girl was quickly freed, bundled up in blankets, and taken to the hospital. She was treated for minor injuries and ferried home by a grateful family. The rescue left the troopers, who more often than not deal with events with unhappy endings, grinning ear to ear. By Sandy Cooch |
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