EDWARDSVILLE, Kan. — The Kansas City Kansas Fire Department says a man went missing around 1 a.m. on Sunday morning. The disappearance had searchers scouring the Kansas River for hours
“We just came back from the store,” said Hector Andrade, who frequents the Kansas River.
Andrade and his dad had planned on going fishing Sunday in one of their favorite spots along the Kansas River, near Interstate 435 and Woodend Road in Edwardsville, Kansas.
“We come about 10 times every month or more. We come camping sometimes here too,” said Andrade.
But while trekking to the river, they had come across yellow caution tape which had been put up by the KCK Fire Department because rescuers have been searching for a 44-year-old man.
Deputy Chief, Kevin Shirley, said the man was with a fishing group when he went into the water overnight and never came back up.
“He didn’t have a shirt, shorts on, that was it. Where he went in at, we are conducting most of our search right there now,” said Shirley.
Searchers worked on and off all day. They laid their equipment out, tackled rough terrain, and even used a helicopter to scan the water.
The river is shallow, however the currents are unpredictable.
“If you get in that water and you don’t have a life preserver on, there’s a good chance you could go under water and die,” said Shirley.
In fact, this is almost the exact same spot where another man drowned in July. According to Shirley, this came as no surprise. The area has had its share of tragedy in the past.
“We have had another recovery operation, we went in in the same area and there’s been several in that same area over the past 10 years,” said Shirley.
So for those like Andrade, he said he will think twice about safety at this fishing spot a lot more since all these accidents have happened.
KCKFD has exhausted all of its resources and still come up empty handed, the department said they will just have to wait for the body to reappear, which could take a couple of days. They stopped search efforts as of Sunday, and have not decided if they will go back out to continue searching Monday.