LOWELL — Officials introduced Monday afternoon that the stays of the lacking 7-year-old Lowell lady, Anna Mburu, had been found within the Merrimack River after practically a full 24 hours of looking out.
“We are all heartbroken to be here this afternoon to report that it appears that the end of the search has come with the recovery of a body of a young child, preliminarily identified as 7-year-old Anna Mburu,” Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan instructed reporters at a Monday afternoon press convention on the Lowell Police Department.
Ryan mentioned Anna’s stays had been found by Massachusetts Environmental Police within the Merrimack River in Tewksbury close to the Trull Brook Golf Course shortly after the search resumed for the day at 7 a.m.
The seek for Anna, who had autism and was nonverbal, was performed along side numerous completely different native police departments and regulation enforcement companies, Ryan mentioned, and it concerned using drones, Ok-9 models, the Massachusetts State Police Air Wing, ATVs and dive groups.
The search started in Anna’s quick neighborhood on Geana Lane after police had been known as round 3 p.m. Sunday, Ryan mentioned, and expanded block-by-block from there. Anna had final been seen on her bicycle on the finish of her household’s driveway between 2 and three p.m. on Sunday.
Ryan praised the group response to Anna’s disappearance and the widespread group help within the search.
“Lowell does an amazing job of responding. We had literally hundreds of people come out,” mentioned Ryan. “People were out with flashlights walking through the area, checking their properties and the properties of people who might have been away, looking in playhouses and swing sets and all sorts of places a 7-year-old little girl may have gone.”
Anna’s stays had been in the end discovered when Environmental Police on the Merrimack River deployed “side scanner sonar,” which prompted divers to look the realm the place she was lastly discovered about 15 yards from the shore and in about 8 toes of water.
Ryan famous that there are not any apparent indicators of foul play. The chief medical expert will nonetheless want to find out a explanation for demise.
Heavy rains sophisticated the seek for Anna, Ryan mentioned, particularly by elevating the water stage on the river by 4 to six toes, and inflicting tough waters.
Lowell Police Superintendent Greg Hudon thanked all the regulation enforcement companies that got here to hitch the search effort.
“This was not the way we wanted it to end, unfortunately, but I think we did everything we could possibly do to help the family,” mentioned Hudon.
Ryan famous that it isn’t but clear the place or when precisely Anna initially entered the water. She mentioned there was some house safety footage police had been capable of get hold of that confirmed Anna earlier than she entered the river. It is believed, Ryan mentioned, that Anna’s physique traveled between a half mile and one mile within the water.
“It is unusual to locate someone who has gone missing in a moving body of water as quickly as was done here,” mentioned Ryan.
Police started cleansing up the search command middle that they had arrange on Geana Lane close to Anna’s household’s house after her stays had been found downstream from the place she went lacking.
Ryan famous that Anna’s household is asking for privateness at the moment.
St. Michael’s Church in Lowell performed a vigil for Anna Monday night, adopted by a candle lighting on the Reilly Elementary School, the place Anna was a pupil.
At the St. Michael’s vigil, parishioner Lucy Waweru mentioned that she got here to indicate assist for the Mburu household and for the St. Michael’s group.
“Right now we are just here to mourn for them. We are going to have meetings tomorrow to plan for the funeral,” mentioned Waweru.
Lowell City Manager Tom Golden was on the vigil, and mentioned afterwards that he was there to indicate assist, and that he was happy with the response the Lowell group gave in the course of the seek for Anna.
“It was a beautiful thing last night to see the number of [people] walking around until 11:30 with their flashlights out looking for wherever a child could be,” mentioned Golden. “Hundreds of particular person folks strolling up and down the streets simply attempting to see if there could be a greater final result.
“Our heart will continue to go out to the family, and the city will be there for them as we have in the past. It has been a difficult 24 hours for the entire community and for the family,” Golden continued.
The tragic information of Anna’s demise comes lower than a month after the one-year anniversary of the drowning demise of one other little one from Lowell. Harry Kkonde, 3, went lacking within the Pawtucketville neighborhood on June 14, 2022, and was discovered deceased in a pond close to his babysitter’s home the next day.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”