Coast Guard: Woman jumped off bridge

Advocate staff photo by RICHARD ALAN HANNON -- United States Coast Guard personnel search the Mississippi River just south of the Interstate 10 bridge in Baton Rouge Thursday for the body of a person that jumped earlier off the bridge.

Advocate staff report

A 35-year-old Grosse Tete woman jumped off the Interstate 10 bridge Thursday and fell to her death in the Mississippi River below, West Baton Rouge Parish Coroner’s Chief Investigator Yancy Guerin said.

The Coroner’s Office withheld the woman’s name Thursday afternoon pending notification of her next of kin. She died on impact after hitting the water, Guerin said.

Guerin said a motorist who witnessed the woman leap off the bridge around 9:40 a.m. called 911 and alerted authorities.

Two U.S. Coast Guard response boats assigned to port security recovered the woman’s body, Coast Guard Lt. Tory Saxon said.

Petty officers had performed CPR on the victim until paramedics took over, Saxon said.