Paraplegic Angela Madsen dies during solo crossing of Pacific

LOS ANGELES - Angela Madsen is being mourned by friends who loved her and  celebrated as an athlete who just wouldn’t give up. 

“She always tried to reach to the highest aspirations as possible,” said Paralympian Kendall Stier.

“She was just somebody who just had to try everything,” said Debra Madsen, Angela’s wife.

Debra Madsen married Angela Bogan back in 2013 and so when the three-time Paralympian set her goals on a solo rowing trip from California to Hawaii Debra says she wasn’t worried even though hurricane stopped Angela from successfully completing the same journey in 2013. 

But this time she had safety gear and said she knew what she was doing

“She’s rowed across almost every ocean but the cold ones and around Great Britain so she’s done a lot of stuff,” Debra told FOX 11’s Hal Eisner.

On April 24th Madsen left for her trip from Marina Del Rey. She rowed for two months across the ocean when weather started to become a concern.

 Debra says the weather got bad halfway between California and Hawaii …there was concern about a cyclone forming.

 “She got ready for that by taking everything off the deck and tying stuff down in the cabins.”

Then silence, no more texting, no more Skypes. The thought is she hopped off the boat to deal with safety measures but became hypothermic and that's what may have taken her life.

“I think her tether was caught on something so it didn’t give her enough slack to get back into the boat. Since she was paraplegic the bottom of her body didn’t feel very well…even though the water was 72 degrees you can get hypothermia or start hypothermia like in 15 minutes,” Debra added.

Whatever happened out there in the middle of the Pacific… Kendall Stier will always miss and appreciate the mentor she met at a track and field clinic in 2016.

“She saw something special in me before I won state championships. Before I won nationals and before I was a Paralympic hopeful She saw something special in me  before I even saw it in myself and I really owe that to her.”