Police said Monica Rivera fell about 40 feet through an opening between sections of the 7th Street Trafficway Bridge.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A 24-year-old mother of two died after falling about 40 feet through a narrow opening in the median of a Kansas City, Kansas, bridge, an incident police have described as accidental with no preliminary evidence of foul play.
Monica Rivera was found dead Oct. 23 beneath the 7th Street Trafficway Bridge, just north of Southwest Boulevard, after officers were called to an industrial area at about 9:45 a.m. Kansas City, Kansas, police later linked her identity to a missing-person report filed that afternoon in Johnson County. Investigators said preliminary autopsy findings showed no evidence that another person caused her death.
Police said surveillance footage showed Rivera walking north along the trafficway early that morning after getting out of a vehicle. Investigators said she crossed traffic lanes and approached the bridge median, where a gap of about 30 inches separates portions of the structure. She fell approximately 40 feet to the area below, according to police and local news reports.
Authorities said Rivera had been out with friends before the fall and may have been impaired. Police said she had gotten out of a car after an argument with a friend and then walked by herself along the bridge. A police spokesperson said Rivera was not being chased and did not appear to be looking behind her before the fall. Investigators have characterized the death as a tragic accident.
The opening is located between bridge sections that can appear from roadway level to form a continuous surface. Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department spokesperson Nancy Chartrand told local media that the design could make the space difficult to recognize for someone attempting to cross from one side of the roadway to the other. Police measured the opening after Rivera’s death as part of their investigation.
The Kansas Department of Transportation, which is responsible for maintaining the bridge, told KSHB that it had no current plans to cover or otherwise modify the median gap. The department’s response came as Rivera’s relatives and others raised questions about the safety of the opening following her death.
Local reports said another person also died after falling from the bridge in 2023 while attempting to cross the roadway. Police have not said that the two deaths occurred under identical circumstances, but Rivera’s death renewed attention on the opening between the bridge sections and whether pedestrians can easily recognize the hazard.
Rivera leaves behind two daughters, ages 3 and 5. Her relatives said the children did not go to school the morning Rivera disappeared, which immediately concerned family members because they considered it unusual. Her mother and other relatives later learned that police had found Rivera beneath the bridge.
Rivera’s family has asked for privacy and pushed back against online speculation about her death. Jacqueline Gallo, the grandmother of Rivera’s daughters, said the family had been distressed by unsupported claims circulating on social media. Rivera’s mother, Emilia Rivera, said the family accepted investigators’ conclusion that her daughter’s death was accidental.
The Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department’s Major Case Unit continued handling the investigation after Rivera was identified. As of the latest reports, authorities had announced no evidence of foul play, and the Kansas Department of Transportation had not announced plans to alter the bridge opening.
Author note: Last updated November 1, 2026.