Vt. State Trooper dives into icy pond to rescue drowning child
January 6, 2024 | By Mike Donoghue | Vermont News FirstUPDATE: State police released the bodycam video footage from Trooper Archer’s rescue. See that in a Jan. 12 post here.
A Vermont State trooper, who jumped into a bone-chilling icy pond in Lamoille County to rescue a drowning young girl, is being credited with saving the child’s life.
Vermont State Trooper Michelle Archer. VSP photo
State Trooper Michelle Archer was on routine patrol in Cambridge when she received an emergency radio call from the public safety dispatcher concerning a report of two children that had fallen through the ice at a private pond off Vermont 15 shortly before 9 a.m. on Sunday, Dec. 17, officials said.
Archer, who was just a couple of minutes away, arrived near East View Road, jumped out of her patrol cruiser and got some basic information. She diagnosed the situation as she ran toward the pond, took off her gun belt and dove into the frigid water, State Police Lt. Cory Lozier said Friday.
He said Archer had the presence of mind to grab a small life preserver with a rope that state troopers carry in their patrol vehicles.
Archer found the freezing 8-year-old girl and brought her back to a snowbank on solid ground to hand her off to State Trooper Keith Cote, who provided needed first aid, Lozier said.
Cote eventually ran the chilled child to an arriving Cambridge ambulance, which took her to the UVM Medical Center for examination and treatment. Over the following days, the hospital helped restore the girl's normal temperature and she has since been released.
Lozier said the pond was an estimated 40 degrees.
Cote also was concerned that Archer did not end up suffering from hypothermia after being in the bitterly cold water.
For Archer, she just needed dry clothes. Archer changed into her State Police Search and Rescue Team uniform while trying to warm up inside her cruiser, Lozier said.
“As their Commander, I could not be more proud of Trooper Archer and Trooper Cote. Their swift actions and efforts were selfless and heroic. Both Troopers responded to the scene within minutes of the call and immediately went into action, with zero hesitation or regard for their own safety. Because of their actions that day, a very young girl is alive and well,” Lozier told Vermont News First.
Both Archer and Cote are being recommended for the department's lifesaving award for their unselfish efforts, according to Lozier, who is the station commander for Chittenden and Lamoille counties.
The dramatic rescue was captured on state police video. While most law enforcement agencies release video of heroic and life-saving efforts promptly, Vermont State Police said Friday the department is reviewing how much will be made available for the public to view. It could be released next week.
No information about the rescue was initially released by state police while the child was in the hospital recovering, but now the department has acknowledged the lifesaving efforts by the troopers.
The preliminary report indicated that a couple of children were sliding near the pond and at some point, they ended up on the thin ice. The two children fell through and the elderly property owner, who does not swim, was somehow able to get the first child out of the water before the troopers arrived, police said.
State police hired Archer in January 2018 and she subsequently completed the basic 16-week course at the Vermont Police Academy in Pittsford. During her career, Archer has been assigned mostly to the Williston barracks, which is responsible for patrols in both Chittenden and Lamoille Counties. She also was selected to do a two-month special assignment in Orleans County in 2021 due to a personnel shortage at the Derby barracks.
Cote joined the state police in April 2021 after working as a patrol officer for St. Albans City Police and also as a corporal with its Street Crimes Unit. He was one of three city officers honored in 2018 with the police department's highest award for bravery when they entered a burning apartment building to rescue an elderly double amputee, but not before his oxygen tank exploded knocking the officers off their feet. In the end, they helped evacuate 11 others, then-Police Chief Gary Taylor reported.
In July, Troopers Archer and Cote also were the responding officers to an incident at the Smugglers' Notch Resort waterpark involving a 3-year-old child who fell into a water tank. The child later died at UVM Medical Center.
Mike Donoghue is a veteran Vermont newspaper journalist who works as a freelance correspondent for many Vermont news outlets including Waterbury Roundabout. He published this story under his Vermont News First banner on Friday, Jan. 5.