Pennsylvania officials are still on the search to locate 6-year-old Lin’ajah Brooker after she fell into a rain-swollen creek, getting swept away with the violent current. They say the longest a person could survive in cold, fast-moving water would be three hours.
It’s been almost 48 hours since Brooker was last seen.
Chester County officials say the girl was reported missing around 7 p.m. Saturday after slipping and falling into Chester Creek. She was one of three girls who slipped while playing along the creek. However, police say Brooker was the only one who couldn’t make it out.
“She went down a little too far with the other kids, and my 7-year-old daughter tried to hold her and she was holding onto my daughter’s coat and I guess the wind took her,” said Tyeesha Reynolds, Brooker’s aunt, via ABC 6.
Several fire companies as well as the Coast Guard launched a three-hour search to locate her that evening but to no avail, per ABC’s report. Chester Fire Commissioner John-Paul Shirley said in addition to the aggressive tide of the water, rescuers had to search through trees and all types of debris floating in the water.
At that point, Shirley said it would have been a miracle to find her. The commissioner added the speed of the water current would have swept the girl two miles to the mouth of the Delaware River in just nine minutes, suggesting the rescue team would have been too late in trying to catch up with her.
Source: A Heartbreaking Discovery in the Search of a 6-Year-Old Black Girl Who Fell into a Flooded Creek
