A little snow fun outside in Vermont is how it started—but in a matter of seconds, it became a matter of life and death.
Vermont State Trooper Michelle Archer arrived at the scene of an icy pond on private property last month in search of an 8-year-old girl who had fallen through the ice.
The trooper had been patrolling Cambridge on Dec. 17, 2023, when she received an emergency radio call about two children who fell through a frozen pond off Vermont 15, before 9 a.m.
They had been playing in the snow and somehow wound up on the pond before the thin ice suddenly gave way, and both children fell in.
The 80-year-old homeowner, who can’t swim and remains unnamed by officials, somehow managed to get the younger of the two girls, a 6-year-old, to shore, but the 8-year-old was out of reach near the middle of the pond.
Patrolling just minutes away, Trooper Archer had been alerted and she sped to the scene after the homeowner’s 911 call came in.
Arriving and facing a life-threatening situation, she had the presence of mind to retrieve a small life preserver with a rescue rope stowed in the back of her cruiser before hoofing it through the snow toward the frozen pond.
“There wasn’t a whole lot of thinking going on. Something was taking over—training,” Trooper Archer told local outlet Vermont News First. “It was the opposite of panic.”
Footage taken from her body camera that was recently released by Vermont State Police shows her next selfless act to save the child.
As the trooper nears the area of the broken ice, the pink jacket of the 8-year-old is seen mostly submerged, her head and body underwater.
Without hesitation, Trooper Archer removes her gun belt and tosses it aside before plunging into the frigid water. Swimming out several feet, she manages to grasp the girl in her arms and brings her back to shore.
One of the homeowners is then seen lending assistance onshore until fellow Trooper Keith Cote appears.
“Keith, she’s making noises, she’s making noises!” Trooper Archer is heard yelling.
Her colleague—no stranger to emergencies himself—tells her twice to change into dry clothing and then carries the 8-year-old to a waiting ambulance from Cambridge Rescue.
The girl was taken to the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington for treatment of her injuries, then believed to be life-threatening, before being released a few days later, after recovering.
The water temperature in the pond that day was estimated to be 40 degrees, according to State Police Lt. Cory Lozier.
Despite the bitterly cold water, Trooper Archer required no medical treatment—changing into her Vermont State Police search and rescue uniform, she warmed up in her cruiser.
Trooper Archer is a 6-year police veteran, while Trooper Cote joined in 2021 after a distinguished career as a St. Albans City Police officer.
Both Troopers and the homeowner were commended by the Vermont State Police leadership for their selfless and heroic actions and were put forward to receive the agency’s Lifesaving Award.
