Christopher Middleton

MIDDLETON, SCHMUECKER, ROBINSON, HAVENHILL, ALEXANDER

Posted By: Mari Nielsen - volunteer (email)
Date: 3/8/2010 at 22:34:21

CHRISTOPHER MIDDLETON

Icy River Hampers Recovery of Body

Wapello – Icy river conditions have forced local authorities to discontinue dragging efforts to locate the body of 5-year-old Christopher Middleton who is presumed to have drowned Monday.

However, a couple of divers are aiding the county sheriff’s department and Wapello rescue workers in the fourth day of their search for Middleton, who fell through the ice covered Iowa River south of Wapello.

Divers Doug Schmuecker and Dennis Robinson, from Iowa County, are searching the river from Chris Middleton’s point of entry to an area 100 yards downstream, the place where Chicago psychic Greta Alexander advised authorities Wednesday that the boy’s body might be found.

Schmuecker entered the downstream point at about 10:30 today. He and two other divers had searched that area unsuccessfully Wednesday, from about 3-5 p.m. He commented today that the current was not too swift Wednesday and that he was planning to search for a couple of hours today also.

If the divers are unsuccessful, the sheriff’s department and the Wapello Fire Department will confer later today on whether to continue the search.

“We’re running out of alternatives,” said Louisa County Sheriff Bill Havenhill this morning.

Local authorities today were also taking advantage of an amphibious vehicle called a “Duck” provided by Muscatine County’s Civil Defense Department.

Workers were using the vehicle upstream to break up the ice, but it too was getting stuck in the icy waters this morning.

Psychic Alexander called the sheriff’s office this morning and informed them that if the boy was not found at the 100-yard spot downstream, that he would be near a bridge downstream. She said if the boy was to stand up he would be facing a bridge, Havenhill reported.

The nearest bridge downstream from the drowning site is located at Oakville, Havenhill reported. The Iowa Highway 99 bridge through Wapello is about two miles north of the site.

Source: newspaper clipping with handwritten notation “week of Dec. 31, 1981”