Two women from our area who drowned in Maine earlier this week are being mourned in central Pennsylvania.
Amy Stiner and Melissa Moyer were rescued after they were lost during a hike, only to drive off a boat ramp into the ocean to their deaths.
According to friends, Moyer was with her son visiting her longtime friend on the Maine coast.
Moyer was from Sunbury and Stiner was originally from Columbia County. Both were killed Tuesday in a tragic turn of events.
To make matters worse, Stiner’s father said she was seven months pregnant when the van she was driving, ended up in the Atlantic Ocean.
Stiner recently moved from Columbia County to Machias, ME with her husband to work on a farm. According to Stiner’s father, the couple was expecting their first child in September.
“I got a phone call from her mom, said she’s gone. Thought it was a dream, nightmare,” said Charlie “Kid” Rarig.
“Kid” Rarig is devastated. His daughter was in her late thirties and at his tire shop near Catawissa, he remembers her as the adventurous type.
Last year, Stiner joined her dad for a ride in his monster truck (Thunder Chicken) for the first time.
“This is really hard on me, hard on everyone. It’s going to be a life changer.”
According to officials in Maine, Stiner and Moyer had been hiking earlier this week when they got lost due to heavy fog. They were rescued, then the fog proved to be their downfall, when both were in a minivan that went off a boat ramp into the ocean, and both women perished.
“The whole conversation was so bizarre, I had a hard time believing it happened,” said Moyer’s friend Jenn O’Halloran.
There is even more sorrow in Sunbury for Moyer who was better known as Missy.
Moyer was 38 years old and worked in the Shikellamy School District helping troubled students. She and her 13-year-old son went to Maine to visit her friend, Stiner.
“She was looking for a cheap vacation for her and her son and going up there, she had this grand plan to cover the trip’s expense by bringing lobsters back for everybody in the community and selling them,” added O’Halloran.
“She was always a positive person, never had anything bad to say about anybody,” said Moyer’s friend Lynnie Carl.
Two women who, for some reason, went the wrong way and leave behind loved ones who will miss them so much.
“Great kid, good-looking. I won’t see her anymore,” said Rarig.
“She used to look out her bathroom window and wave to me, I just kept looking up, wishing she would, but she’s not there,” added O’Halloran.
Melissa Moyer leaves behind a 13-year-old son.
Amy Stiner married Gregg Stiner, a Millville native.
There is a memorial fund set up for Stiner’s husband.
