LOCAL

Missing 2-year-old girl's body recovered in Allegheny River in Warren County

Staff report
Erie Times-News

WARREN — Pennsylvania State Police troopers are continuing their investigation into the death of a 2-year-old girl whose body was recovered from the Allegheny River on Sunday after she had wandered away from her Warren County home on Saturday morning.

The child, whose name was not released, was reported missing on Saturday at about 11 a.m. from her residence on Valley View Lane in Limestone Township, off Route 62 near Tidioute.

Troopers who responded to the residence on Saturday determined that the girl left her home and walked to an area close to the Allegheny River, according to state police in Warren. A tracking dog was used to follow the girl's scent from her bedroom to an area on the river where she was suspected of falling into the high-moving water, the agency reported.

A search involving state police, area volunteer fire departments, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, and tracking and dive teams from McKean County was launched on Saturday. On Sunday, the girl's body was recovered in the Allegheny River about one mile south of where she was suspected of falling into the river, according to state police.

The Warren County Coroner's Office's preliminary cause of death was accidental drowning, troopers reported on Sunday.