Grosse Pointe Farms Public Safety Department members rescued a woman from Lake St. Clair Aug. 4 after she drove her vehicle into the water.
By: K. Michelle Moran | Grosse Pointe Times | Published August 19, 2025
GROSSE POINTE FARMS — An alert motorist who called 911 immediately enabled Grosse Pointe Farms Public Safety Department officers to save the life of a woman who had driven into Lake St. Clair.
The witness called the emergency number when she saw a vehicle on the opposite side of Lake Shore Road drive into the water in the area of Newberry Road at around 8:20 a.m. Aug. 4. Within two minutes, officers arrived on the scene, where they found the woman’s vehicle — a Kia — partially submerged and the body of the woman, 70, of Detroit, floating face down in the lake, roughly 50 yards west of the vehicle and 30 feet from the shore.
Detective Keith Colombo, a member of the Farms’ dive team, said every officer on shift at the time raced to the scene. Fellow dive team members Lt. Wes Kipke and officer Jon Ross, along with officers Will Madsen and Joseph Maurer, headed into the lake to get the woman out of the water, while Detective Roger Wierszewski and Detective Lt. Antonino Trupiano stayed at the shoreline to pull the woman up over the breakwall and onto land.
“They selflessly, immediately took off their (holster) belts and (bulletproof) vests and jumped in the water,” Colombo said. “They didn’t wait for apparatus (to arrive).”
Colombo said the woman wasn’t breathing and had no pulse when officers got her out of the lake. They immediately started CPR, and after about a minute of that procedure and efforts to clear water out of the woman’s lungs, she gradually regained consciousness.
It took a few minutes for the woman to become coherent again, but “she was able to rebound fairly quickly,” Colombo said.
The woman told officers she had driven into the lake with the intention of ending her life.
Officers in the water checked the vehicle to see if anyone else had been inside at the time but found it empty. The woman was able to confirm to officers that she had been alone.
Medstar ambulance got to the scene soon after and its medics continued to treat the woman as they transported her to a local hospital.
Despite the fact that Lake Shore is a busy road that’s also popular with pedestrians and cyclists, the witness was the only other person around who saw the woman enter the water.
“Had that person not been there, the circumstances would have been a lot different,” Colombo said.
He said Trupiano has already nominated the witness for a lifesaving award, as her quick thinking and decision to call 911 saved the woman from drowning. Public safety awards for officers and members of the public are typically awarded in March for the prior year.
Two other public safety departments from the Pointes sent officers to the scene as well, Colombo said.
“Everybody did a fantastic job,” Colombo said. “It was an extremely fast response and because of that, she’s alive today.”
If you or anyone you know is having thoughts of suicide, call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988. Help is available around the clock.