Tragedy at Christmas show as actress plunges 25ft to her death in front of horrified audience



Tragic: Keri Shryock, 23, died in hospital





An actress in a Christmas pageant who was suspended 25 feet in the air by an overhead rope fell headfirst onto a concrete church floor and died.

Keri Shryock, 23, and two other performers were playing wise men on their way to Bethlehem before about 2,000 spectators during Wednesday night's opening performance at Crossroads Community Church, in Cincinnati.



The three were approaching a star when Shryock fell into an aisle in the audience portion of the theater, witnesses told The Cincinnati Enquirer.

'Toward the ending of the song she came loose,' Daniel Doepke, 55, of Middletown, told the newspaper.



'I can't describe how heart-wrenching it was, her fall to a hard concrete surface.'

Shryock was taken to University Hospital, where she died yesterday morning.

There was no immediate explanation of how the accident occurred, or if there was an equipment failure.

'Our prayers and heartfelt sympathies go out to her family during this incredibly difficult time,' the church said in a statement.



'We are shocked and deeply grieved by this tragic accident.'

Shryock, from Sylvania, Ohio, near Toledo, graduated from a university this year and had been participating in gymnastics for the past two years, friends said.

The church characterized the program as a contemporary Nativity story, said church spokesman Matt Chandler.

'It was a figurative and artistic version of the Christmas story found in the book of Luke,' he said.

Ten remaining performances of the show 'Awaited' were canceled.



The non-denominational church held an evening of prayer, reflection and worship last night.



About 1,100 people attended the prayer session, said church spokeswoman Natalie Hastings.

The mega-church was founded in 1996 and has grown to a membership of about 10,000, Chandler said.



It is known for dramatic and musical presentations at weekend services.

The church's Web site said 'Awaited' was seen by more than 20,000 people when it first was presented last year.

