Efforts To Recover Body From Ohio River Hit Setback

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MOON TOWNSHIP (KDKA) – Efforts to recover a body from the Ohio River have hit a setback.

Moon Township Police say officers and workers at the Dashields Dam lost sight of the body on Wednesday. Police say it could be under the dam or it may have moved down the river.

Crews were able to fly a drone over the body earlier this week. Police believe the body is that of a woman. They also believe it has been in the water for some time.

"He was able to fly the drone over the dam, get close enough to the body to get some video and some pictures of the body and some of that we used to reach out to other agencies," Moon Township Police Captain Gregory Seamon said.

Today, police said they think they now know who the person is, but want to wait until the body is recovered and sent to the medical examiner.

"We do have some possibilities but obviously we are not working on that, but the other agencies are," Seamon said.

Police say the body had been caught in the backwash of the dam. The river has been too high and conditions have been too dangerous to attempt a recovery.

"It is sort of a waiting game unfortunately - we're sensitive to the family and this is someone's loved one and it's hard and if was my loved one I would want to recover it, but the reality of it is we couldn't recover it safely," Seamon said.

According to police, a tow boat crew first observed the body in the Ohio River on Monday. They attempted to catch up to the body before it went over the Dashields Dam, but were unable to do so.

Once police recover the body, they will work to figure out where the body entered the water and how the woman died.

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