A 70-year-old Belleville woman jumped to her death from the Jefferson Barracks Bridge near Columbia on Tuesday morning.

Columbia police, fire and EMS personnel, along with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department, Mehlville Fire Department and St. Louis County emergency service agencies, responded with Illinois State Police about 10:40 a.m. to a report of a woman who had just jumped from the bridge into the Mississippi River.

The woman, identified late Wednesday afternoon as Judith A. Spors, 70, of Belleville, was driving a minivan. Witnesses reported seeing Spors park her vehicle on the shoulder of the westbound lanes of I-255 and jump off the north side of the bridge. She apparently landed in shallow water near a sandbar beneath the bridge.

Monroe County Coroner Vicki Koerber pronounced the woman deceased at the scene about 11:30 a.m.

The Columbia Fire Department launched its rescue boat from Luhr’s Landing, and Rock Community Fire Protection District in Jefferson County, Mo., was contacted to launch its water search team from the mouth of the Meramec River.

There were traffic delays on the bridge throughout the morning into the early afternoon as emergency workers recovered the body.