Search and recovery underway for three-year-old girl in boating accident
A search and rescue vehicle leaves the Steelton boat access area on Tuesday, May 8. A boat capsized in the area of the Dock Street dam on Monday night and a woman and a family dog were killed. The woman’s boyfriend was able to get to safety and call 911. Their 3-year-old daughter was still missing Wednesday. (Photo: Brandie Kessler, York Daily Record)
(Harrisburg) — A search of the Susquehanna River resumed Wednesday to find the body of a three-year-old girl who went missing when her family’s jon boat overturned Monday night, according to the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission.
Spokesman Eric Levis said the commission is the lead investigating agency for the boat accident, and it is working closely with local responders in any way possible. On Wednesday, “a waterways conservation officer is on the river search by boat for the missing child,” Levis said by email.
“The child is presumed to have drowned,” Levis said, explaining that the effort is search and recovery.
He acknowledged that some members of the public have expressed an interested in helping search for the child, and urged that anyone who does head to the river take safety precautions, like wearing a life jacket.
“Please know the water level remains high and the water is dangerously cold,” Levis said.
Levis said the commission has not discussed search plans beyond Wednesday. “We are taking this one day at a time,” Levis said.
On Monday night, a jon boat carrying Cody Binkley, his girlfriend Mary Bredbenner, the couple’s 3-year-old daughter Madelyn Binkley and the family dog, capsized near the Dock Street Dam, according to the Associated Press. The names were released by authorities Tuesday night, the Associated Press reported.
Cody Binkley was able to get to safety and call 911, Waterways Conservation Officer Darrin Kephart said Tuesday. Cody Binkley was treated at a hospital for hypothermia, the Associated Press reported.
The bodies of Bredbenner and the family dog were recovered by search and rescue crews, but the search for Madelyn Binkley was suspended.
Kephart said Tuesday that camping equipment was among the debris search and rescue teams found when they recovered Bredbenner’s body and the body of the family’s dog. It was believed that the family was going to be camping in the area when they went onto the river Monday night.
Authorities haven’t determined what caused the boat to capsize, according to the Associated Press.
The Dauphin County District Attorney’s office on Tuesday issued a request for information from any witnesses. Anyone with information should contact Dauphin County Detective John C. O’Connor at JO’Connor@dauphinc.org.
The Dauphin County Coroner’s office did not release Bredbenner’s name, but said it was handling the case of the drowning victim in the Susquehanna River from Monday night. A representative for the office would not say whether an autopsy would be done, stating the office is not releasing any information on the case.
This story comes to us through a partnership between WITF and The York Daily Record.
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