Tragedy struck an Edgemere Avenue resident who tried to save her grandson’s dog after the dog ran out onto the ice on the Plainsboro Pond on January 3.
Janet Howard, 61, apparently had been walking the German Shepherd, Apollo, when the dog, police believe, took off onto the 25-foot wide strip of ice along the shoreline of the pond in the area between Pond View Drive and Maple Avenue. Police say they believe she went after the dog, and both fell through the ice.
Police said that they received a call around 10:50 a.m. from Fox Run Drive resident Austin Hearn, 31, who had been biking along the Lenape Trail when he heard her cries for help.
Plainsboro Police Lieutenant Thomas DeSimone said Hearn tried to rescue the woman, but fell through the ice himself. Hearn told police that he had broken a path in the ice from the shoreline to the open water in an attempt to save the woman, and was able to make it back to shore, and ran to call police. DeSimone explained that Hearn did not have his cell phone on him, and realized that he needed more help to get Howard out of the water, since the ice had broken around him when he got out of the water.
When police arrived on the scene, Hearn pointed to the place he last saw Howard, and Plainsboro Police Sergeant Joseph Duffy waded into the pond, and initially searched the area with his feet. Unable to locate Howard in the murky water, he went under water and felt the bottom with his hands, but was again unable to locate her.
Officers Joseph Breyta and Joseph Diggs also arrived on scene with flotation rings and rope. Tethered by the rope, Duffy went under water once more and searched the area with his hands, but was still unable to locate her. Fire Chief Doug Vorp and members of the Plainsboro Rescue squad also arrived.
The Fire Department’s Special Services unit also arrived, and under the direction of Vorp, Lieutenant Roy Wagner and firefighters Andrew Gormish and Ron Sost entered the pond wearing cold water “dry suits” and eventually located Howard four-and-a-half feet beneath the surface, approximately 25 feet from the shoreline. They performed CPR and defibrillation efforts. Howard was later pronounced dead at the University Medical Center at Princeton.
During the rescue, the dog exited the water and ran home.
Many neighbors along Edgemere Avenue said that although they heard of the incident, none of them knew Howard.
“I’m so deeply upset about what happened to her,” said longtime resident Jack Henderson, who lives at 70 Edgemere Avenue. He said her death has been the second death at the pond that he can recall. About 40 years ago, Henderson recalled, a young man also drowned in the pond. He said the first accident occurred after the pond was dredged. A group of juveniles went swimming, and one of the boys got caught up in something in the water and drowned.
Henderson also said that the first accident occurred during the time the township was constructing the recreational islands on the pond, and he was a part of the Plainsboro citizens’ committee that had suggested the idea for the islands. “They turned out to be very linear, but they are very highly used, particularly on this side of the lake,” he said. “There are people who walk with their animals every day.”
According to reports, Howard, an acquisitions supervisor at the Rutgers’ Douglass College library, attended high school in Maryland, and attended the University of Maryland. She lived on several military bases around the world since her father served in the U.S. Army.
Reports said she met her future husband, a Marine, while in college, married him during her sophomore year, and lived with him in Alabama and New York before coming to New Jersey in 1970. The couple had two daughters before divorcing. Howard has seven grandchildren. See obituary, page 9.
A number or address could not be found for Hearn, reportedly a lifeguard, who is not listed in property tax rolls.
