VALLEY CITY, N.D. (AP) — Authorities have identified the Valley City woman who drowned Friday trying to rescue her dog from the Sheyenne River as 38-year-old Jodi Kvien Opatz.
Kvien Opatz called dispatchers about 8:15 a.m. Friday to ask for help in getting her dog out of the river near the Little Dam southwest of Valley City. She told dispatchers she was going to attempt to save the dog, but dispatchers told her to wait for help and not go in the water.
When rescuers arrived, they found the woman in the water.
Valley City Fire Chief Gary Retterath says the dog managed to pull itself out of the water, but it then went back into the river and drowned before rescuers could get to it.

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May 12: The Valley City woman who drowned in the Sheyenne River Friday has been identified by authorities as 38 year old Jodi Michelle Opatz.
 
VALLEY CITY, N.D. (AP May 11, 2012) – Authorities say a Valley City woman
drowned Friday morning, while trying to rescue her dog from the Sheyenne River. The woman believed to be in her late 30’s was not immediately identified.

The woman’s body was recovered in an area of downed trees near the shoreline between the Little Dam and the 8th Avenue bridge. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
 
     Fire Chief Gary Retterath says the dog drowned after going back
into the water after emergency crews recovered the woman’s body.