MIAMISBURG — Police are investigating after a woman’s body was found in the Great Miami River by a rowing team in Miamisburg Wednesday morning.
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Emergency crews were called the Great Miami River near Rice Field on Dayton Cincinnati Pike around 10:52 a.m.
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A 911 caller reported seeing a body floating in the river, according to dispatch records.
“I’m at Rice Field, I’m with the rowing team in Miamisburg and there’s a body floating in the river,” the caller said in a 911 call obtained through a public records request.
The caller said the body, described as a male, was hung up on the shoreline.
“I think he’s like hung up on some debris,” the caller said.
Wednesday evening, Mark Hess, chief of Public Safety for Five Rivers MetroParks, later confirmed with News Center 7 that crews recovered a woman’s body from the river.
Dispatch records show the body was found several hundred feet north of the railroad bridge.
The identity of the person recovered has not been released, pending notification of family and further investigation by the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office.
The 911 caller, later identified as Alex Walters of Oakwood, told News Center 7 the youth rowing team was out for a normal summer practice when they made the discovery.
“When we were just north of the railroad bridge one of our rowers could smell something and thought there might be a body on the shore. And at first we didn’t really expect that to be true. But then when we went over to check it out that was the case. And that’s when we sent the kids into our dock and called the authorities,” Walters told News Center 7′s John Bedell.
The rowing team, the Gem City Crew, is made up of primarily middle and high school students and understood the seriousness of what they found, Walters said.
“I think our kids realized the seriousness of the situation and we did our best to get off the water and assist in any way we could,” he said.
Walters noted that the rowers were doing “good” given the seriousness of what they found.
“Good. We just had a few kids on the water and there was only one group of kids that had even been over there. And the rest of them we had get off the water. Our thoughts are with the family of this person and I hope they can have some closure if they’re ever reached,” Walters said.
We’ll continue to update this story as we learn more.