30-year-old Illinois woman ID’s as victim in balloon fall

The Nye County Sheriff’s Office has identified the woman who fell to her death from a hot air balloon on Oct. 18 as Summer Hawthorne, 30, from Rockford, Illinois.

Sheriff Joe McGill told the Pahrump Valley Times that the cause of death was suicide, according to the initial investigation.

Hot-air balloon pilot Doug Campbell, owner and operator of Balloons over Pahrump, told the Pahrump Valley Times that Hawthorne was aboard a balloon operated by a company out of Las Vegas with her mother and the pilot, when she jumped from about 4,000 feet to her death.

Campbell said he was in an adjacent balloon and contacted emergency responders after the woman’s fall.

He says hot air balloon baskets are safely designed to prevent passengers from accidentally falling out, but he called this an “intentional act.”

A gofundme account has been established by Hawthorne’s mother, in an effort to return her daughter’s body back home to Rockford, from Pahrump.

“She was an amazing person and anyone who met her loved her,” her mother on the page. “She loved working in a day care and with all the kids. We took a mother-daughter mini trip to just relax and reconnect and talk. She had a very bad accident and is no longer with us. This is all so very sudden and I’m asking for help to get my baby home. Even if you can’t help we can use all the prayers at this time. The funds will be used to fly Summer home and any funeral arrangements.”

The gofundme account is entitled “Bring Summer Home.”

If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, help is available 24 hours a day by calling or texting the free national Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at “988.”

Contact reporter Selwyn Harris at sharris@pvtimes.com. On Twitter: @pvtimes.