A Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School senior may have saved the life of an Oak Bluffs man Monday night after he fell into the frigid waters of the Oak Bluffs harbor and was unable to pull himself to safety.

Shelagh Kelley, 18, was inside her family’s home on East Chop Drive around 11 p.m. when she heard the faint cries of someone in distress. She alerted her mother Patricia and her father Rick Kelley, a state police lieutenant who works off-Island, and together they strained to listen to determine where the cries were coming from.

“We opened the windows and went out back, and I wasn’t even sure if I could hear anyone,” Mr. Kelley told the Gazette yesterday. “But Shelagh kept telling us she was sure she had heard someone, so we kept looking. I don’t even know how she heard [this person].”

Mr. Kelley said it seemed at first the cries were coming from the nearby East Chop Beach Club, but soon the family determined they were coming from an area near Our Market, about four doors down from their home.

Once they were sure of what they heard, Mrs. Kelley called 911 while Mr. Kelley grabbed both his sidearm and a flashlight and headed toward the harbor with Shelagh.

As they approached the harbor they hard a male voice calling for help and soon found a man who had wrapped himself around one of the pilings. Oak Bluffs police officer James Morse then arrived on the scene, and together they pulled the man out of the water and to safety, Mr. Kelley said.

Mr. Kelley said he was not sure how the man fell into the water.