Florida deputies came to the aid of a suicidal teen this Father’s Day as she hung from an interstate overpass, threatening to take her own life. The deputies secured her to the railing, talking to her for an hour before lifting her to safety on a fire engine ladder.
Dispatched deputies found the teen on the overpass bridge of Palm Coast Parkway and Interstate 95. She was on the outside of the railing, holding on. Deputies closed the interstate and rerouted traffic.
Upon learning that the teen didn’t like men, the investigators sent female officers to the scene, and Deputies Laura Jenkins and Crista Rainey were a part of the law enforcement team that was sent to help out. Jenkins grabbed the teen by the hand and secured her to the railing using handcuffs, and a negotiation lasting almost 60 minutes ensued.
Both officers comforted the teen, trying to find a subject that would reignite her desire to live. They found one: Deputy Rainey talked to her about her 7-month-old nephew. Using a fire engine ladder, reinforcements approached the teen from below and behind.
“It was a tap dance, it was a tap dance we were just trying to find anything just to keep her talking,” Rainey said, recalling the incident, while Jenkins confirmed that the teen did in fact “let go multiple times” before being lowered to safety.
Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly called the multiple-agency rescue “outstanding.”
“Someone’s daughter was saved on Father’s Day.”
