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UPDATE: Conservation officers find body of missing 11-year-old in East Fork of the White River

Wednesday, April 1, 2026 at 1:45 AM

Courtesy-Columbus Fire Department

COLUMBUS, Ind. - UPDATE (Thursday morning): Indiana Conservation Officers with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources have recovered the body of the 11-year-old girl who went missing in the East Fork of the White River in Columbus on Monday evening.

At 10:42 a.m. on Thursday, conservation officer divers located and recovered the victim in 10 feet of water approximately 80 yards from where she was last seen.

ORIGINAL STORY (Tuesday, 1:45 a.m.): First responders from the Columbus Police Department, the Columbus Fire Department, and the Bartholomew County Water Rescue Team responded to Mill Race Park just after 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday following a report of a missing child who went under the water and did not come up.

The preliminary investigation indicates that an 11-year-old child was in the water when, at one point, she submerged and did not resurface.

Emergency crews deployed numerous boats from the Columbus Fire Department and Bartholomew County Water Rescue Team to search the last known location of the child and the downstream portion of the river.   

The search for the 11-year-old Columbus girl was temporarily suspended at around 11:30 p.m.   

Multi-agency search efforts have now transitioned to a recovery procedure set to resume on Wednesday morning. Mill Race Park will remain closed during the search and recovery operation.

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