[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]
After a near week-long search, police in Indianapolis have found the bodies of a missing family of four in a local pond.
Officials had been searching for Kyle Moorman and his three children — 5-year-old Kyle Moorman II, 2-year-old Kyannah Holland, and 1-year-old Kyran Holland — since they disappeared on July 7.
On Wednesday, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department assistant Chris Bailey gave reporters a gruesome update, revealing that dive teams found a man’s body in a pond on the south side of Indianapolis — and that officials separately found a vehicle in the water containing three dead children.
Shortly after, the Marion County Coroner’s Office positively identified the four bodies as the missing Moormans. The coroner’s office said examinations will establish the cause of death.
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The IMPD said the discovery came while crews were searching the water on Tuesday night. Indianapolis Fire Department dive crew and Indiana Department of Natural Resources officials reportedly located the car in the water using sonar technology. The vehicle pulled from the water was a black Saab, which matched the description of the car being driven by the missing family.
The case is being treated as a death investigation, and police are still at the scene collecting evidence as they try to figure out just what happened. Bailey said:
“This is heartbreaking for everyone involved. Regardless of the circumstances, we know a man and three young kids are dead tonight. We don’t know why and we don’t know how. In these circumstances, our rational brains want to know why and how something like this could happen.”
Here’s what we do know…
The 27-year-old father reportedly told family members he was taking the kids to fish along the White River — a trip that didn’t concern relatives, since it was something Kyle Sr. did quite often.
Kyle’s sister, Mariah Moorman, told The Indy Star as she helped other relatives search by the pond on Monday:
“As far as we know, he was coming out here to go fishing. That’s what he told my sister. It’s not odd. He does it all the time. They go night fishing a lot.”
The missing family was last seen about 11 p.m. on July 6 in the 1000 block of South Sherman Drive. Loved ones had searched the pond for five days because his cell phone was last believed to be in that area.
So, it’s still unclear exactly what went down. Was this just another devastating accident, or did something else happen here? We’ll have to wait for more police updates to find out — but until then, share your thoughts (below).
[Image via Family Handout/Indianapolis Fire Dept.]
