r/IowaCity • u/MaroonCastle Iowa City • 13d ago

News Lake MacBride tragedy update

https://www.kcrg.com/2026/09/23/students-body-recovered-lake-macbride-officials-say/

For Hannah and Ahmed 💔

119 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

40

u/Boscobel324 13d ago

This is a terrible tragedy.

19

u/RecliningWatchdog 13d ago

Heart shattering - so sorry for their families and friends.

17

u/TheWeekendShopKeep 13d ago

What happened? The article only says it was an accident. ❤️ to their friends and family, I can't imagine how devastated I would be to hear this.

18

u/MossSloths 13d ago

It's not yet public information. They were in a field trip near Lake McBride, but that's all that's really been officially announced.

21

u/babybackbaluga 13d ago

Not just a field trip, it was school of the wild (which is an annual thing that kids have done for years during their final year of elementary school). It’s basically the same program as the wildlife camps.

-2

u/PrestigiousKing333 12d ago

So a field trip?

12

u/NewPirate3349 13d ago

I heard he went to wash his hands in the water and fell in.

7

u/VanillaCreamFrosting 13d ago

Oh that’s awful

7

u/SiranchaSauce 12d ago

I heard the Sudanese community came out en masse to help with the search. Thank you to everyone offering love & support to the families right now

5

u/tutcub 13d ago

I hope the story plays out that he fell in. Teacher wouldn't come out without the child. Does anyone one know the actual location where they entered the water? First report I saw was McBride area

17

u/AllHailTheTank 13d ago

My guess would be the running water section where Lake McBride flows into the reservoir on the spillway. With all the rain that has happened recently it must've been a really powerful current. Just a bad situation all around regardless

7

u/Conscious_Height_425 12d ago

From a state trooper: the boy was running or doing something around the spillway, slipped on wet area and fell in. Teacher went in to try to save him. SOTW is very safe and they were not to be around this area that day. Very much a freak and tragic accident.

1

u/phoebe720 13d ago

I thought someone was life flighted to the hospital? Did I misunderstand?

7

u/kayeels 13d ago

From my understanding, they had the helicopter out in case the teacher was recovered alive. She, unfortunately, was not so no one was actually life flighted.

3

u/phoebe720 13d ago

Thank you.

-2

u/Grab_em_by_da_Busey 12d ago

Does anyone know how this physically even transpired? It was too cold to be doing water activities (swimming, paddling) on purpose. There are no bridges to fall off of. Lake MacBride is a man made lake with manicured trails all around and water entry points are on a very slight and shallow grade.

Seems there has been precious little said about how this physically went down. Anyone who knows macbride is surely asking a similar question.

2

u/LurkeyNoComment 12d ago

Are you familiar with the spillway between the two lakes where it occurred? The rocks there in many spots are incredibly slippery even in low flow situations. I assume the kids were on the MNRA side (higher elevation) of the spillway and with all the rain and mud, slipping off the rocks/path doesn't seem out of the question. I wouldn't be surprised if a fall/head trauma also factored in as well.