ST. PAUL -- A 14-year-old St. Paul girl drowned Sunday afternoon in the St. Croix River.
The Polk County, Wis., sheriff’s office was notified of the drowning south of Interstate State Park at about 3:30 p.m. and a dive team recovered the body of Taw Meh at about 5:45 p.m.
Meh had been canoeing the river with a sibling and friends. The group stopped at a sand bar, and Meh was in water and standing on the sand bar when the current swept her into deeper water, said Polk County Sheriff Pete Johnson. She was not wearing a life preserver.
It’s common for people to canoe in that part of the river and stop along the islands, Johnson said. They will often stop on the sandbar to swim, rest or have a picnic. The sandbar can have a steep drop off and someone standing on it can be pushed by the current into deeper water.
