KANSAS CITY— The Highway Patrol will continue searching on Thursday for a man who is missing in the Missouri River in Kansas City.
Just before 9p.m. Wednesday, the Kansas City Fire Department responded to a possible water rescue on the Missouri River, according to Battalion Chief Michael Hopkins.
The police department received a call just before 9:00 p.m. from a third party stating that someone had entered the water nearly six hours earlier and was possible stranded on one of many rock outcroppings along the river.
The fire department deployed their Rescue Division with three boats along with two drones. On arrival crews began searching for the possible victim on the river from the boat ramp at River Front Park and areas east all the way to the city limits and shortly beyond. Using manual search techniques in conjunction with the drones' thermal imaging capabilities the river, both banks, out-croppings, strainers and islands were checked.
The drones identified multiple areas of interest for boat crews to investigate, but physical searches of those areas came back negative. The KCFD spent just over four hours search the river and surrounding area before ceasing operations just after 1:00 a.m.
Early Thursday, the victim was identified a 25-year-old man, according to Hopkins. Friends reported he entered the water to swim and could not return to the shore due to the current. The last contact was late afternoon near a rock out cropping offshore from the ramp, according to Hopkins.