New Castle Supervisor’s Son, 11, Dies in Hiking Accident
The 11-year-old son of New Castle Supervisor Ivy Pool died Saturday in an accident while hiking in the Catskills with his father and a small group of other people, according to the Greene County Sheriff’s Office.
Mattias Edstrom, a sixth-grader at Chappaqua’s Robert E. Bell Middle School, fell about 300 feet off of ice-covered ledges near Platte Clove Road in the Town of Hunter, police said.
The sheriff’s office is investigating the incident, which occurred in the Indian Head Wilderness Area of Catskill State Park. Police said it is near a popular ice climbing location known locally as the “Dark Side.”
Edstrom was with a group that included his father, three other adults and a 13- and a 15-year-old, police said. As the group was walking on a portion of a trail equipped with a hand line, the boy lost his footing, slipped and fell.
Forest rangers were able to reach Edstrom late Saturday but authorities made the decision that it would be too dangerous to try and recover him in the darkness. At 9 a.m. Sunday, a team of rangers set out to return to the scene and recover the body, and completed its mission at 4:24 p.m., police said.
Edstrom was then taken to Ellis Hospital in Schenectady pending an autopsy, authorities said.
Deputy Supervisor Jeremy Saland said the Town Board has canceled its Tuesday night work session and is holding an abbreviated meeting in the morning to address administrative matters.
“We are profoundly saddened over the tragedy that has befallen our Supervisor, Ivy Pool, and her family,” Saland said in a statement. “Everyone here at Town Hall offers Ivy and her family our support and sincerest condolences. In difficult times like this, our community is at its best – united together in friendship and love for one another.”
Over the weekend, in a statement to the school community, Bell Middle School Principal Martin Fitzgerald said grief counselors would be available at the school for students who need help. He asked that the community keep the family in their thoughts.
“Mattias was a brilliant, kind and loving young man,” Fitzgerald said as part of the statement to the community.
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