712 Digital Group - top

Raccoon River drowning victim is identified

News

July 17th, 2022 by Ric Hanson

(Des Moines, Iowa) – Police in Des Moines, Saturday, released the identity of an 11-year-old girl who drowned in the Raccoon River, Wednesday evening. The body of Diamond Mathis was recovered at around 12:20-p.m., Friday in the river, north of 5600 block of Park Avenue.

Police and water rescue personnel responded at around 6-p.m. Wednesday to the scene of the incident, where the girl suddenly went under the water after she gott off the inflatable raft she was on with two other children. On Thursday morning, police said the girl was presumed to have drowned.

The search was suspended Thursday evening. Authorities have previously stated that swimming in the river is dangerous, adding that even divers were having a difficult time in the water’s current.