A woman has fallen 100 feet to her death while posing for a photo on the edge of a cliff in Belgium.
Zoe Snoeks, 33, died at a cliff near the village of Nadrin in the Belgian province of Luxembourg on the morning of 2nd November.
The victim, who lived in the Belgian province of Limburg with her husband, whom she met in school and married in 2012, fell at least 30 metres (98 feet) to her death, according to the news site 7sur7.
The public prosecutor’s office in Luxembourg Province said she slipped on the cliff edge and fell into the Ourthe River.
The police, firefighters, a team of GRIMP (Groupe de Recherche et d’Intervention en Milieu Perilleux – Perilous Environment Reconnaissance and Intervention Group) rescuers, and scuba divers were sent to the scene along with a medical helicopter from Bra-sur-Lienne, later finding the victim’s dead body.
Her husband Joeri Janssen said: “We only left on Sunday in our campervan. Since the pandemic, it was our little thing to drive across Europe in our van and take beautiful photos.”
The couple always took their dogs Joy and Ivy as well as a drone for taking aerial images of their travels.
They were due to return home to Limburg on the day Snoeks fell to her death.
Janssen said: “We got up very early to take pictures of the Herou (a 1,400-metre-high rock face that rises almost vertically above the Ourthe River). There is almost always mist there. It’s great for photos. We arrived before 9am.”
He explained that his wife was posing for photos on the edge of the cliff when “she told me to look out for the dogs”.
“I turned to the dogs and told them to wait. When I turned back to Zoe, she was no longer there. She had just vanished. It must have happened in less than five seconds.
“I didn’t see or hear anything. No rustling, no screams or shouts. I looked up and saw only dust.”
“I called her, even though I knew it was hopeless. The chasm was several tens of metres deep.
“I immediately called the emergency services, but had almost no network. They didn’t understand me, even though I speak a little French.”
He said he went to the nearby Le Belvedere Hotel to ask for help, adding: “The rescue team could not find Zoe immediately, they said in French. Then they told me that unfortunately Zoe was dead, also in French, but I immediately understood what they meant.”
He added: “Taking photos was her passion. I immediately unlocked her phone and saw that she had taken a photo on the cliff edge. Her very last selfie.
“Zoe is looking straight ahead. You can also see the mist and the river where they finally found her body.
“The emergency services said Zoe fell at least 30 metres. I saw this place with my own eyes. I even think it was more like 50 metres (164 feet).”
It is unclear if the local authorities are continuing to investigate the victim’s death.
