Frederick L. Miller, 18, farmhand, died attempting to save Linda D. Frutchey, 6, from drowning, Columbia, New Jersey, February 6, 1958. Linda wandered to Paulins Kill from her home nearby and ventured onto thawing ice generally an inch thick which covered the stream. Forty feet from the bank she broke through the ice into water 12 feet deep and began calling for help. As Linda’s mother ran to the bank and began to descend it, Miller, who had been at work in a farm building 200 feet away, overtook her and ran to the edge of the stream. He stepped onto the ice but broke through it near the bank alongside a rowboat which was frozen into the ice and chained to a stake. He broke the boat free from the ice but could not loosen the chain. At Miller’s direction Linda’s mother ran to get help, returning to the stream 10 minutes later with her husband and two other men. At that time both Linda, who was inert, and Miller, who was floundering weakly, were in the hole in the ice, which then was five feet in diameter. Two of the men started to walk across the ice but broke through and returned to the bank. By the time the men had freed the boat from its mooring and proceeded in it to the hole by breaking the ice ahead of them, both Linda and Miller had disappeared beneath the surface. Firemen arrived and found Linda and Miller, but they could not be revived.
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