Virginia woman dies after falling 100 feet in cave in western portion of state

A Fairlawn, Virginia woman died on Friday after falling about 100 feet inside a cave nearly 30 miles from her hometown, according to authorities.

The Giles County Emergency Services said a 911 call was received just before 4:15 p.m. on Friday about a woman who had fallen about 100 feet within a cave in the Staffordsville community near Pearisburg.

The call prompted the Giles County Sheriff’s Office, Pearisburg Fire Department and Giles Rescue Squad to respond, and when they arrived, they requested additional services from the Celco Emergency Response Team and Blacksburg Rescue Squad’s Technical Rescue Cave Team to help with rescue efforts.

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A Virginia woman fell 100 feet in a cave in Staffordsville, Virginia on Friday, and died. (Google Maps)

Once crews made their way into the cave, rescue crew members located the victim, who, according to local CBS station WDBJ, was identified as 38-year-old Autumn Nicole Draper.

Crews were able to extricate Draper from the cave, and the scene was cleared at about 1 a.m. on Saturday.

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FILE- The woman was identified as 38-year-old Autumn Nicole Draper. (The Associated Press)

The Giles County Emergency Services press release noted that the investigation into Draper’s death remains open.

The Virginia Speleological Survey website shows Giles County is about 357 square miles in size and has 253 reported caves.

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Of the 253 caves, 62 miles have been surveyed. The longest cave is 118,272 feet, the survey notes, and the deepest is 718 feet.