CONNELLY SPRINGS, N.C.,None — A Shelby teen has died after plunging over High Shoals Falls at South Mountains State Park.
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Channel 9's newspaper partner, the Morganton News-Herald, reported that 17-year-old Robert McMahon slipped into the water Tuesday afternoon and fell 80 feet down the falls.
Burke County Sheriff Steve Whisenant said the teen was at the park with a church group when he fell.
First responders found the teenager dead in the river below the falls.
Investigators have ruled the death an accident.
McMahon is the fourth person to die from at the falls since 1993. The last death was in 2005, when a 21-year-old Charlotte woman fell while trying to photograph the falls from beyond a security barrier.