Trending
Nearly two weeks after being swept over the South Williamsport side of the Hepburn Street dam, the body of 10-year-old Claue Schreffler-Algofera was recovered Saturday afternoon in Northumberland County, according to South Williamsport Fire Chief Jeff Trammell.
"It has been confirmed that it is Claue," he said. Just before 6 p.m., he learned from social media that a body had been recovered from the Susquehanna River in the Sunbury area.
A short time later, he received word from the Lycoming County 911 Center that the body recovered was that of Claue, a third grader in the South Williamsport Area School District.
Trammell said he reached out to Acting Police Chief Deven Thompson, who said he had been alerted and was heading to Northumberland County.
Shortly after 7 p.m., Thompson told him that the girl's body had been recovered.
It was about 11 a.m. on May 4 when it is believed the girl got swept away from shore while she and two other children were splashing in the river together, just below a pad, west of Front and Winthrop streets. The girl's mother was also there but not in the water, investigators were told.
Seeing her daughter in trouble, the mother, whose name has not been released, immediately went into the river in an attempt to save Claue. Both mother and daughter went over the dam, but the woman managed to surface, get to shore and was pulled out by emergency personnel.
While in the water, the two other children also got into trouble briefly, but managed to get back to shore before reaching the dam, borough police said.
The mother and the two children were taken by ambulances to UPMC Williamsport.
Emergency responders searched for the girl's body for three days before calling off the search.