Woman killed by fallen tree in Ohio park was college student

MASSILLON, Ohio (AP) — The woman killed by a falling tree in northeast Ohio was a 21-year-old college student who decided to take a walk to clear her head after a day of studying.

Rachael Schmidt attended Kent State University’s Stark County campus where she was a third-year communications major, the Canton Repository reported. She lived in Perry Township in suburban Canton.

She decided to talk a walk at a Massillon park on Sunday afternoon, a time when the newspaper reports that wind gusts averaged more than 30 mph. The tree that fell and struck Schmidt was estimated to have been 80 feet tall and 6 feet in circumference at its base. It was on a hill surrounding the park.

Someone saw the accident and called for help. Schmidt died an hour later.