DES MOINES, Iowa — The body of the missing 11-year-old girl who went under in the Raccoon River Wednesday has been found.
The Des Moines Metro STAR Unit located her north of the 5600 block of Park Avenue around 12:20 p.m. Friday, according to a Des Moines Police press release.
Emergency crews initially responded to the scene Wednesday around 5:57 p.m. after receiving reports of a child getting off an inflatable raft and not resurfacing.
Des Moines Police announced Thursday that she was presumed to have drowned.
While the child originally went under near Deer Ridge Apartments, the search moved east.
"We've deployed our dive team both last night and again today. Fire departments are out there supporting us, and they also have cadaver dogs on the river helping us to try and locate the young girl," said Sgt. Paul Parizek on Thursday.
According to Parizek, making the call that the mission was one of recovery rather than a rescue came down to the details of the witnesses and time.
"In cases like this where we've got a situation where someone says, 'We saw her go under and never saw her come back up,' that certainly narrows that time, unfortunately," Parizek said.
As the search for the girl continued, Parizek noted any recovery performed in a body of water is a challenge.
"When you put [the body] in a river, when we're working with currents, that adds to that," Parizek said. "There's a science behind what we do and how we do it, but there's a dozen variables that impact it."
DMPD said crews were on the water from sun up until sun down for nearly three days.
Local 5 will update this story as more information becomes available.