WYOMING, MI (WWMT/CNN) - Police say when a mother of three took her dog for what was supposed to be a quick walk, the dog fell through the ice in a pond, and her owner drowned rescuing her.
Tracy Cashman, 38, was the kind of person to help anyone in danger, according to her mother, Rhonda Moore.
"Whether it was her dog, someone else’s dog, a child, she would just do it. It would be instinct,” Moore said.
Cashman took her Goldendoodle Lola out for a walk around 8:30 p.m. Saturday. Half an hour later, the dog, soaking wet and alone, returned home.
"It was a quick trip. She had a light jacket [and] didn't take her phone. She must have let the dog off her leash, and the dog ran out in the back pond on the ice,” Moore said.
For hours, Cashman’s family searched for her in the nearby Battjes Park before calling 911.
First responders found the 38-year-old in the park’s pond and performed a cold-water rescue early Sunday, but Cashman was already dead by the time they were able to retrieve her from the water.
Police say the mother accidentally fell through the ice while trying to rescue her dog, who had fallen through the ice during the walk.
"You step off, and it just drops. She probably didn't even think about it. If that dog was struggling, she was going to save her dog,” Moore said. "She wouldn't have walked out in normal circumstances. She was just being her. That was her."
Authorities say the accident serves as a reminder for people to be careful while out on ice.
An autopsy is scheduled for Monday to determine Cashman’s official cause of death.
Copyright 2018 WWMT, Rhonda Moore, Godfrey-Lee Public Schools via CNN. All rights reserved.
