Mother and Two Children Bypassed Safety Measures Before 'Intentional' Deadly Fall at Niagara Falls: Police

New York State Police and New York Park Police are working to recover the bodies of the three family members in the heartbreaking incident investigators say was "intentional," as reported by Buffalo's WKBW.

Speaking with reporters on October 30, police said they received a call at approximately 9 p.m. about the tragic situation at Niagara Falls State Park where 33-year-old Chianti Means and her children Roman Rossman, 9, and Mecca Means, 5 months old, crossed beyond safety guard rails on Luna Island and went over the falls.

Police said that the drop at that point is approximately 200 feet, sharing that it is their belief the incident was "intentional in nature, though the circumstances remain under investigation." They further believe there were no other parties involved.

They shared that the victims' family has been cooperating with their investigation. Means and her children are residents of Niagara Falls, The New York Post reported. According to the newspaper, Means worked as a domestic violence counselor.

Luna Island, attached to Goat Island, is one of the more secluded overlooks at the park, separated from the rest of the area by a causeway over a river channel. There is a chest-high railing separating the viewing platform from the drop itself.

"They went there and they never came out," said New York State Park Trooper James O'Callaghan to the media. "That's where we're at."

He went on to emphasize that this wasn't an accidental fall as there are "a lot of security measures" in place at the park. "It's not something where they just stumbled in," he said.

O'Callaghan said that investigators have spoken with witnesses on the scene at the time of the fall, and while he was not able to offer any specifics due to it being an ongoing investigation, he did note "it is alarming what they told us."

The two police departments are working with the New York State Police Unmanned Aircraft Systems, Aviation and Underwater Recovery Units in their ongoing search and recovery efforts for the bodies of the three victims.

"What were the actual circumstances of how that went down?" O'Callaghan asked rhetorically. "That is the part that we may be able to solve or we may never know."

He said that they "know it was an intentional act, but the reason why is tougher to answer."

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