Dive Teams Searching Lake After Five Year Old is Pulled to Safety
SPRINGFIELD - Fire department dive teams are searching a lake north of Springfield for a possible body today after fishermen reported they heard two splashes and pulled a 5-year-old girl to safety early this morning. Greene County Sheriff's chief deputy Jim Arnott says investigators are approaching the case as a possible homicide. They're searching for a man seen on a bridge across McDaniel Lake when the girl was pulled from the water. Authorities believe the child was thrown in. They say the suspect drove away in a dark, box-shaped car when the fishermen jumped in to rescue the girl. The girl told investigators her mother was also in the water. She's in stable condition, but her name has not been released. Arnott says officials are still interviewing the girl while Springfield Fire Department divers search in the dark water below the bridge. He says they don't know for sure if there is another person in the water.