Vermont trooper who saved 8-year-old girl from icy pond in 2023 honored for heroism
Vermont State Police Trooper Michelle Archer has received a Carnegie Medal for Heroism, one of 17 people in the U.S. and Canada who 'risked death or serious physical injury to an extraordinary degree saving or attempting to save the lives of others.'
Archer was patrolling in Cambridge on December 17 when two children fell through thin ice into a private pond off of Eastview Road. The landowner rescued one child. When Archer arrived, she grabbed a life preserver from her cruiser, dove into the pond and rescued the eight-year-old girl from the icy water.
VSP trooper credited with saving life of 8-year-old girl in Cambridge
'When I jumped into that frozen pond, the only thing I was thinking about was reaching that little girl and trying to save her life,' Archer said.
'You don't get into the profession of policing for accolades; you do it because you believe in serving your community and keeping people safe. As humbling as all the awards and attention are that followed what I did that day, nothing can overshadow the biggest reward of all: The little girl survived and fully recovered.'
Last year, Archer received a Vermont State Police Lifesaving Award, among other honors. She was named a finalist for International Association of Chiefs of Police / Motorola Solutions Trooper of the Year.
Vermont trooper involved in July 2024 shootout in Burke nominated for Trooper of the Year award
''This recognition, coupled with numerous others that members of the state police have received in recent weeks and months, reflects so highly on each and every person who works for this agency,' said Col. Matthew T. Birmingham, director of the Vermont State Police. 'Vermonters have much to be proud of when it comes to the state police, from these high-profile awards to the unsung, everyday acts of selflessness, bravery and heroism that people rarely hear about.'
More information about the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission and the 17 newest recipients is available on the fund's website.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Man charged with murder after woman found dead in Vermont
A Vermont man has been charged with murder in connection with the killing of Tina Daigle, who was found dead by the side of a highway in June, state police said. Michael A. Williams, 60, of Morrisville, was arrested Tuesday, state police said. Investigators determined that Daigle, 38, of Hardwick, was killed in Caledonia County early June 19, and her body was then found at a roadside pull-off along Route 14. Williams is facing charges of second-degree murder and first-degree aggravated domestic assault. He was scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday afternoon in the Criminal Division of Vermont Superior Court in St. Johnsbury. He was ordered jailed without bail pending his initial court appearance. An autopsy determined the cause of Daigle's death was asphyxiation or compression of the neck, and the manner of death is homicide or assault by another. The state police continues to ask that anyone with information that could assist in this case call the Berlin Barracks at 802-229-9191 or provide an anonymous tip online at This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
Fox News
14-08-2025
- Fox News
Alleged Devil's Den killer investigated in multiple unsolved murders across US that have one thing in common
The man accused of killing a married couple while they were on a hiking trip with their kids in Arkansas July 26 is being looked at for possible involvement in other murders. Arkansas State Police allege Andrew James McGann killed Cristen Amanda Brink, 41, and Clinton David Brink, 43, while the couple was taking their children hiking at Devil's Den State Park in Washington County, Arkansas. McGann is due in court Thursday morning to be arraigned on capital murder charges. Col. Mike Hagar, Arkansas State Police director, said McGann confessed to the killings, adding they were stabbed to death in a "completely random event." "We have no reason to believe there was any known association between our suspect and our victims," Hagar said. "During an interview with investigators, the suspect admitted to committing the murders. We also executed a search warrant at his residence and recovered items consistent with the crime." Hagar said DNA was used to link McGann to the couple's death. McGann, who has held several schoolteacher positions in the Southeast over several years, is also being looked at for possible involvement in the murders of people in Vermont and Wisconsin. A detective from the Sauk County Sheriff's Office in Wisconsin told Fox News Digital his agency has received tips regarding a "possible connection" between the July 26 incident and a separate Oct. 14, 2020, incident in Devil's Lake State Park, where John Craig Schmutzer was stabbed while hiking on the Grottos Trail. The detective said police are trying to determine if there's any link between McGann and the death of Schmutzer. "We've received many tips, both from citizens in Arkansas and Wisconsin, regarding the Devil's Den Homicide and the possible connection to our homicide from October 2020," Det. Sgt. Drew Bulin told Fox News Digital. "We've been in contact with Arkansas investigators and will be working to determine if the similarities are a coincidence or if there is something more." According to ABC 7 News, McGann grew up in Chicago's Garfield Ridge neighborhood, which is about three hours from Devil's Lake State Park. The Sauk County Sheriff's Office said Schmutzer's killer was roughly 6 feet tall with a "slender to average build." Jail records from Washington County, Arkansas, indicate McGann is 6 feet tall. The Vermont State Police said in an Aug. 7 press release that detectives reached out to law enforcement in Arkansas to discuss the death of Honoree Fleming, whose body was found on the Delaware and Hudson Rail Trail in Castleton. "After the Vermont State Police learned of the recent double homicide of a couple on a hiking trail in Arkansas and the arrest of a suspect, VSP detectives took the routine step of contacting their counterparts in Arkansas to discuss the case," the Vermont State Police wrote. "At this time, there is no known link between the suspect in that case and the Honoree Fleming homicide, or to Vermont in general." Shane Wilkinson, a criminal defense attorney and former chief deputy prosecutor of Benton County, Arkansas, told Fox News Digital he thinks law enforcement agencies with unsolved hiking murders are likely taking a look at McGann. "I think anybody that has an unsolved hiking trail murder, they're probably taking note of this right now," Wilkinson said. Former homicide Det. Ted Williams told Fox News Digital McGann's alleged murder has "raised a great deal of red flags all over the country." "I would have to believe not only are law enforcement in Wisconsin and Vermont interested in McGann. But they also interested him all over this country because of the manner in which he was alleged to have stabbed this couple to death," Williams said. "And the manner in which he stabbed this couple there in Devil's Den State Park would lead any law enforcement agency that has a similar situation, where someone has been stabbed to death, to definitely wanna look into Andrew McGann."
Atlantic
13-08-2025
- Atlantic
Nothing Is Scarier Than an Unmarried Woman
At the beginning of Zach Cregger's new horror film, Weapons, a spooky suburban fairy tale about the disappearance of 17 children, all blame is directed at the unmarried schoolteacher Justine (played by Julia Garner). She's the prime suspect—the one unifying factor in an otherwise unexplainable event. Each of the 17 children appears to have voluntarily fled their home at 2:17 in the morning, running into the night with their arms stretched backwards like the wings of a paper airplane. Home-surveillance cameras captured their flight, attesting to the fact that no one forced them to flee—but why were they all members of Justine's classroom? What was that woman doing to those children? Over the years, movies such as Fatal Attraction and Single White Female, to name just a couple, have depicted chronic singledom as a condition that can make women obsessive, deranged, desperate to fill the void created by their unwantedness. But in these portrayals, it's not just that solitude seems to warp the mind: These ladies appear to disturb some kind of natural order—and be more likely to crack. Today, a growing number of Americans are romantically uninvolved. Yet pop culture continues to fixate on these single women, with horror movies in particular framing them as duplicitous and unstable—threats to the public good. As he demonstrated in his previous feature, Barbarian, Cregger is interested in the dark forces rumbling under the surface of ordinary American lives. Weapons is set in a fictional Pennsylvania town, where the disappearance of the children sends the community reeling. School shuts down for a month, before resuming with no resolution. The police aren't much help. Everyone seems to be processing the tragedy in different ways, which is matched by the film's multi-perspectival structure. Townspeople such as Archer (Josh Brolin), the distraught father of one of the missing children, and Paul (Alden Ehrenreich), a lowly cop, are so fixated on their personal problems that they hinder the kind of collaborative action needed to save the children. It's easier to villainize Justine, who is one of the only single women in the community. Archer, who displays vigilante tendencies, directs his rage toward Justine by digging up unsavory details from her past, such as a DUI charge, and nagging the police to further investigate her. An unseen stranger, heavily implied to be Archer, harasses Justine in her home, knocking on her front door and writing the word witch on the side of her car in stubborn red paint, forcing her to zoom around town branded with crimson letters. Grief-stricken parents and angry community members also revolt against her, pressuring the school's genial principal, Marcus (Benedict Wong), to do something about her. Most people believe that Justine has done something wrong, though what, exactly, they can't explain. Women like her have been accused of being witches since the 13th century, perhaps because they deviate from maternal norms. In Weapons, Justine's lack of a family reaffirms her culpability. Elementary-school teachers are educators, but they're also parental figures. Across pop culture and in real life, mothers are supposed to do everything for their kids—even give their lives. Justine, who is as confused as anyone about what happened to those kids, seems most guilty to her neighbors because she's still alive. Depressed and paranoid after all this harassment, Justine succumbs to a bad drinking habit, going about her purgatorial days with a tumbler full of vodka. She also hits up Paul for a one-night stand—and when Paul's fiancée finds out, she comes charging after Justine at the liquor store. To the fiancée, Justine must seem like a total succubus. But for Justine, the hookup is a bid for some much-needed intimacy during a period of intense alienation. (Paul had also told her that his relationship was on the rocks.) Weapons balances this grim reality—the black-and-white way the world sees Justine, who in turn is trying to keep afloat—with a dry sense of humor and Justine's plucky resilience. She may be losing it, but she still takes it upon herself to play the sleuth, seeking out Alex Lilly (Cary Christopher), the one child in her class who didn't go missing. When she confronts him on the street, Alex runs off in a panic, but the exchange is genuinely motivated by Justine's concern. Because of the film's multiple points of view and Garner's protean performance, we're able to see how easily Justine takes on, or is foisted into, a variety of roles: nosy teacher, disgraced woman, forsaken lover. Funnily enough, there is one other single lady in town, a recent transplant and a stranger to most: Alex's Aunt Gladys (Amy Madigan), a kooky spinster who wears bright, splotchy makeup. She knows no one and has nowhere to go before Alex's parents take her in—a kind of nightmare scenario for down-on-love bachelorettes everywhere terrified of dying alone. Cregger has previously tapped into the unsettling power of old dames: In Barbarian, a monstrous old woman who is obsessed with children is a key villain. Other recent films such as The Substance and The Front Room have used similar figures to communicate female madness and explore insecurities about aging in a culture that glorifies physical youth. Gladys, despite her perturbing getup, doesn't arouse as much suspicion as Justine, because she steps into a maternal role as Alex's caretaker. Justine, meanwhile, continues to be a perfect scapegoat. Still, she emerges as the film's primary heroine, doggedly pursuing the truth of what happened to the kids. It's a brave choice; nobody would blame her for leaving town. But feared as she is for being a modern woman, she's brimming with personas and possibilities—some of which prove useful for unraveling awful secrets.
