Police recovered the bodies of three children who went missing in the Iowa River Wednesday night.
Chief Mike Tupper, of the Marshalltown Police Department, said officers responded to a call just after 6 p.m. that two girls and one boy disappeared while swimming in the river near the Marshalltown Water Pollution Control Plant.
The children, a nine year old female, a seven year old female and a seven year old male, were familiar with one another, Tupper said, but police are uncertain whether they were all related. Police are still investigating how long the children had been missing before the call came in as well as piecing together how they died.
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T-R PHOTO BY LUKE STALZER
Officials with the Marshalltown Police Department, Marshall County Sheriff’s Office, Marshall County Emergency Management and the Marshalltown Fire Department concluded search efforts Wednesday night after recovering three juveniles from the Iowa River. Look for more in Friday’s Times-Republican and online at timesrepublican.com.
One of the families police notified are Burmese, Tupper said. Because of a language barrier, police would not release many details of the search Wednesday night.
Tupper said the team of about 30 searched until just after 9 p.m., when they recovered the third body.
The children's disappearance comes just over two weeks after 10-year-old Andres Favela drowned in the river near the Center Street Dam.
Marshalltown Fire Department, Grundy County Sheriff's Office, Iowa Department of Natural Resources and Marshall County Emergency Management assisted with the search.