Body of 7th suspected suicide victim this year recovered at Rio Grande Gorge Bridge

TAOS — The Taos County Sheriff's Office recovered the body of a Colorado woman at the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge on Thursday —  the day before a planned rally to call for improved safety measures at the 60-year-old steel arch span, which has seen a total of seven suspected suicides this year.

The woman who died at the bridge this week was identified as 48-year-old Stacy Andrews-Sepp of Parker, Colorado. A security officer reported that Andrews-Sepp was driving across the 600-foot-high bridge Wednesday night when she stopped abruptly, got out of her vehicle and jumped from one of the bridge's 4-foot-tall railings, according to a news release from the sheriff's office.

Sheriff Steve Miera led the operation into the rugged, trail-less section of the canyon beneath the bridge to recover Andrews-Sepp's body early Thursday morning, a task he's undertaken more times in his over 20 years in law enforcement than he'd care to count.

Speaking with the Journal on Thursday afternoon, he said he was tired and sore. But his exhaustion, he said, was less of a physical sort and more so tied to the county's yearslong advocacy to bring what Miera views as the most meaningful enhancements to the historic steel arch bridge that might make it less prone to suicide.

"You know, we've had this conversation umpteen times," Miera said, "and you get to that point where you go, 'What else can you say? What else is there?' You can only say so much before it becomes so redundant that you just got to do something."

Two local nonprofits, True Kids 1 and Help Outreach Taos, released a mandate and roadmap ahead of Friday's Community Rally for Accountability that calls on public officials to consider the addition of suicide deterrents at the bridge, such as higher railings, as well as administrative and mental health changes that could make the tourist destination safer.

Following a string of three suicides in the month of September alone, New Mexico Transportation Cabinet Secretary Ricky Serna commissioned a new engineering study to assess the feasibility of adding suicide deterrents to the bridge. Serna also ordered the bridge closed to foot traffic and upped the number of security guards at the bridge to three. After they were discovered to be malfunctioning last year, the state Department of Transportation repaired 10 call boxes at the bridge that connect people in crisis to emergency counseling.

NMDOT last conducted a feasibility study in 2018, but new safety measures, such as raised railings, fencing or netting, didn't follow. In the wake of the study, concerns were raised regarding the cost of adding deterrents, the weight the bridge can sustain and the location's role as both a tourist viewpoint and even a film location for the state's lucrative movie industry.

The bridge falls within New Mexico's 41st House District, which is represented by state Rep. Susan Herrera, D-Embudo. Speaking at a rally Sept. 26, Herrera told a crowd of local students, politicians and law enforcement that she would seek up to $15 million from the state next year to fund suicide deterrents for the bridge.

According to data Miera shared with the Journal this week, a total of 58 deaths confirmed as suicide by the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator have taken place at the bridge since 2000, with an unclear number of suicides taking place previously following the bridge's completion in 1965.

This year's seven suspected suicides at the Gorge Bridge tie the most ever recorded in the 25 years the sheriff's office has been tracking deaths there, with the same number logged in 2005. According to the sheriff's office, 45 males and 13 females have died by suicide at the bridge.

Miera said he has been in close contact with Transportation Secretary Serna this year and expects the state to take action in the upcoming legislative session.

"I think this is the final brushstroke that drives this point home," Miera said. "I think that this shows that temporary measures can still be ineffective. So I think this will push us forward to take more permanent measures, this will springboard us forward into getting something done out there."

If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, call or text the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. The New Mexico Crisis and Access Line can also be reached at 855-662-7474 (855-NMCRISIS).