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Search continues for Hutterite girl presumed drowned

Members of a Hutterite colony continued to search the Assiniboine River Sunday for an 11-year-old girl who went under the water Saturday evening.

Becky Waldner is presumed drowned, RCMP said.

She was with a group of children who were swimming in the river near the Poplar Point Colony.

Hutterites from 15 other colonies joined in the search Sunday. They scoured the banks of the Assiniboine on foot and searched in the water from boats.

The initial RCMP investigation indicated a group of children was swimming when one of them became distressed and sunk.

The reeve for the RM of Cartier, where Poplar Point is located, said the river is normally safe to swim in this time of year, but has been unusually high this summer.

"It’s normally, this time of year, fine," said Roland Rasmussen. "The river (right now) is actually quite high. I know I wouldn’t swim in that."

History

Updated on Sunday, July 15, 2012 at 3:14 PM CDT: added comments from reeve

9:28 PM: Adds details and photo

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