Le Mars, Iowa — A 13-year-old boy has died after he apparently drowned in a pond near Le Mars.
The Plymouth County Sheriff’s Office reports that about 2:10 p.m. on Saturday afternoon, they received a call of a missing 13-year-old boy, who had last been seen in a pond at 20384 K-49, which is just south of the southeast part of Le Mars.
They tell us Plymouth County Communications immediately dispatched Plymouth County Deputies to respond to the scene along with the Plymouth County Dive Team. The Le Mars Fire Department and Ambulance crews were also paged to respond to the scene. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources overheard the call and also responded to the scene with a search boat.
When Deputies arrived on the scene, they gathered information that a 13-year-old male child had been swimming with a friend out to a platform in the middle of the pond. According to witnesses on the scene, no one saw the 13-year-old go under the water but witnesses were able to provide an approximate last known location on where he was last seen swimming.
When DNR officers arrived on scene the search boat was deployed which was equipped with a side-scan sonar. They report that the side-scan sonar was able to give them an approximate location on where the child was. Members of the Plymouth County Dive team then searched that area and they were able to recover the child in approximately 15 feet of water at 4:04 p.m.
The child was then transported to Floyd Valley Hospital by the LeMars Ambulance where he was pronounced deceased by medical staff.
The Plymouth County Sheriff’s Office reports that they were assisted by the Plymouth County Dive Team, the Le Mars Police Department, Le Mars Fire Department and Ambulance Squad, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, the Iowa State Patrol, and the Sioux County Dive Team.
