Penn State Student Drowns At Abrams Falls

The Blount County Sheriff’s Office received a broken cell phone call on the evening of Sunday, May 24th, reporting that a visitor had possibly drowned at Abrams Falls in the Cades Cove area of the park. Supervisory ranger/medic Steve Spanyer drove to the trailhead from the ranger station, then hiked the two-and-a-half miles to the falls, arriving at 8:30 p.m. He found that Nublan Zaki Norhadi had been underwater and missing for more than 90 minutes. Norhadi was with a group of 35 Penn State University students, all of them from Malaysia and members of the Malaysian Society at Penn State (this was not a school-sponsored trip, though). After arriving at the falls, many members of the group decided to go swimming. Norhadi and two others began walking in the water towards the falls. As Norhadi approached the falls, the water became deeper and the current began to pull him under. Members of the group saw that Norhadi was was struggling and waving for help. One member of the group tried to rescue him, but was unable to do so and had to be pulled from the water. Due to the amount of time that Norhadi had been underwater and the fact that it was becoming dark, a decision was made to begin the search for him at first light the next day. Rangers Kent Looney and Trey Kelly remained at the falls all night. The Blount County dive team and rangers returned to the falls at 7 a.m. on May 25th. Divers found Norhadi’s body early that afternoon in the general area where he was seen being pulled under. Ranger Helen McNutt was IC.