Horrified wife watches her husband die going over a waterfall after trying to save their dog 

A South Carolina man died after falling off a waterfall while trying to rescue his dog, which had strayed too close to the water’s edge.

John Shaffer, 42, of Charleston, South Carolina, died Saturday morning while hiking with his wife and dog in North Carolina’s Pisgah National Forest. 

Authorities said the dog got too close to the edge of Rainbow Falls, prompting Shaffer to go into the water to help the dog. 

John Shaffer, 42, died while hiking at North Carolina’s Rainbow Falls with his wife and their dog. He was trying to rescue the dog, which had gotten too close to the edge, and fell over

‘The dog got into the water and got in trouble,’ Lake Toxaway Fire Chief Carmon West told People. ‘The man got into the water to get the dog and they both fell over.’

Both Shaffer and the dog dropped about 150 feet.

First responders arrived about 30 minutes later, managing to locate Shaffer’s body within 20 minutes, although it took nearly six hours to actually recover his body due to the park’s difficult terrain. 

WLOS reported that Shaffer’s body had been found pinned against a rock after having been carried downriver by the fast-moving water.

Authorities said that Shaffer died of blunt force trauma to his body. The dog’s body has not been found yet.  

Signs are posted around Rainbow Falls, warning visitors of slippery conditions and fast-moving currents. Shaffer's body was found pinned against a rock downriver from the falls

Signs are posted around Rainbow Falls, warning visitors of slippery conditions and fast-moving currents. Shaffer’s body was found pinned against a rock downriver from the falls

Shaffer’s wife, who has not been named, is ‘in a state of disbelief,’ West told People. 

The last time someone died after tumbling over the waterfall at the national park was in 2016, when Taylor Terrell, 24, a news reporter from Atlanta, slipped and fell while wading in a nearby stream.

A US Forest Service spokesperson told the Citizen Times that warning signs are posted at the falls, highlighting both slippery conditions and strong currents.  

Park visitors are encouraged to view waterfalls from a safe distance or even from the ground and not to play in the water above a waterfall as its easy to lose balance on wet rocks.  



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