The Wisconsin community of Two Rivers is mourning the loss of a 7-year-old boy with autism after his body was recovered from the West Twin River on Sunday. The Two Rivers Police Department alerted the public to the tragedy of young Jacob Baer, who went missing while playing at Veteran's Park the day before, as reported by NBC Chicago.
According to CBS News, local authorities initiated a search and distributed a missing and endangered alert for Jacob after his parents reported that their child had vanished from their line of sight. Items believed to be belonging to the young boy were later discovered in the river late Saturday, leading to intensified search efforts by the police and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources which subsequently found a location in the river where Jacob's body was suspected in about 5 or 6 feet of water.
Jacob's body was later recovered from the river and positively identified, bringing a grim close to the search. The community is situated on the Lake Michigan shoreline in Manitowoc County.
"This tragic event is a reminder of how dangerous the ice can be on our waterways, especially this time of year when it is very thin," Two Rivers police Capt. Andrew Raatz said in a news release. Authorities are urging residents to exercise extreme caution around such environments. The police also advocate for vigilant supervision of children in the vicinity of waterways to prevent such heartbreaking incidents from recurring, as quoted by NBC Chicago.
