First responders on Sunday afternoon recovered the body of a 12-year-old Erie boy from the Neosho River in Labette County, according to Neosho County Sheriff Greg Taylor.
Authorities had been searching for the boy, Kollin Showalter, since Wednesday afternoon, when he and another youth were killed by a southbound Union Pacific Railroad train that struck them as they were running across a railroad trestle over the river south of Erie near 115th Road. The accident happened at 12:39 p.m. Wednesday.
The other youth, Arthur Pollreis, 16, of Walnut was found dead next to the tracks.
Taylor said the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks notified him at 12:38 p.m. Sunday that a child’s body was sighted in the river near the old Kansas Gas and Electric dam on the Neosho River, which is about a mile east of Service Valley Charter Academy and two miles south of U.S. 400. The distance on the river between the railroad trestle south of Erie and the former KGE dam is about 32 miles, according to Google maps.
Taylor said when he arrived at the dam there were already others on hand, including the Labette County Sheriff’s Office, the Labette County Ambulance Service and other first responders.
First responders were able to recover Kollin’s body.
“This has been a very hard week for everyone involved. I want to express my gratitude to every first responder and our community who contributed to our recovery efforts,” Taylor said in a statement on social media.
See RESPONDERS, continued on page 2 The search for Kollin was active through Saturday, when it was called off because of the rising level of the Neosho River. John Redmond Reservoir had to release water last week and that water flows down the Neosho River.
First responders from several counties and agencies used drones, planes, helicopters, boats, sonar systems, divers, law enforcement K9s, cadaver dogs and shoreline search crews, Taylor said.
The water level was high on Wednesday but began dropping. The water began to rise again on Saturday afternoon from the Redmond release, causing agencies to suspend the search until the water level dropped.
