ELLENVILLE, N.Y. (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – A tourist from Singapore fell off a cliff to her death while taking photos with her husband at a state park in the Hudson Valley last week, state police said Thursday.
The 39-year-old victim, identified as Nur Aisyah Binte MD Akbar, was hiking the Beacon Hill Trail at Minnewaska State Park outside of Ellenville on the afternoon of Dec. 22 when the tragic fall occurred.
According to state police, she and her 41-year-old husband, Abdul Rauf Bin Mohd Said, had stopped to take photos at the edge of a cliff sometime before 1 p.m.
She lost her footing and plummeted 70 feet to the ground below, police said.
Her husband called 911, and the state police aviation unit responded to the scene. During a rescue involving state park police and forest rangers, Akbar was hoisted into a helicopter for transport to a hospital.
Akbar was taken to Ellenville Regional Hospital, where she ultimately died from her injuries.
In a Facebook post Saturday, her husband wrote that first responders tried to resuscitate his wife for "nearly three hours" but were unable to.
"My heart is broken into pieces and I don't know how to piece them back together," the grieving widower wrote. "I've been crying non-stop for the last 12 hours and been really distraught by myself now."
Said called his late wife his "best friend and soul mate." "I'm sorry I didn't manage to get to you in time sayang," he wrote, using a Malay word that translates to "dear."
In a follow-up post Tuesday, he wrote that he watched his wife's casket being loaded onto a Singapore-bound plane at JFK Airport.
"Ais Sayang, you are arriving home and your family and everyone else is waiting so much to see and hug you one last time," he wrote. "Not forgetting all your adopted and rescued animals too. They will all get to see you again soon."
An investigation into the fatal fall is ongoing, state police said.