A body pulled from the Mississippi River Monday has been identified as a 45-year-old West Monroe, La., woman who died after a jump from the Interstate 20 bridge and after a struggle by barge workers to save her more than two miles south.

Warren County Coroner Doug Huskey said he ruled the death of Pamela Weems Mitchell a suicide from apparent drowning, but an autopsy was to be performed at the Mississippi State Crime Lab in Jackson.

Vicksburg police Lt. Bobby Stewart said a report of someone walking west on the eastbound lanes of Interstate 20 bridge came at 8:30 a.m. When police arrived moments later, they found no one on the bridge, he said.

Around 10 a.m., Riverside Construction barge workers near Baxter Wilson Steam Electric Plant saw and heard a woman in the river yelling for help and called E-911, Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace said.

The workers threw a life ring to Mitchell, who was able to hold on for a short time before slipping away and under water, Pace said.

Baxter Wilson is about 2.6 miles south of the Mississippi River bridges.

Her body was found near the barge, Pace said, by Ergon Marine boats that were the first to arrive on the scene.

Rescue boats from the sheriff’s department and Vicksburg Fire Department arrived shortly after Ergon, and the county boat transported the body to the bank.

Stewart said a missing person’s bulletin for Mitchell had been issued by West Monroe authorities early Monday morning. Her vehicle was spotted in a parking lot in the 4200 block of Warrenton Road, he said.

Mulhearn Funeral Home in West Monroe has charge of arrangements.