BLENCOE, Iowa (KTIV) - Crews searching for a Northwest Iowa resident have located an object in the Missouri River that could be the individual’s body.

Monona County Sheriff Kevin Ewing says Iowa DNR crews have used sonar to identify “an object of high interest” near where the boat crash happened.

“Our sonar units give us an image of the water column and a shadow of the bottom of the river. In a lake, it’s very still and there aren’t any objects typically moving through; whereas with a river there may be objects that move through and change the image as we scan,” said Katherine Hoeppner, a conservation officer with Iowa DNR. “We did see an object of interest on our sonar; we’ve marked that object and we’re going to continue to monitor it over the next couple of days.”

The missing person, a Monona County resident who has not been officially identified, went missing after a boat crash on Saturday, May 24.

According to the sheriff’s office, a boat crashed into a barge near the Huff-Warner access area on the Missouri River, just west of Blencoe, Iowa. Authorities believe this crash happened due to mechanical issues, which caused the boat to drift downriver.

Eyewitnesses told authorities they saw the Monona County resident jump from the boat before the crash.

“The conditions we’re facing here on the Missouri River are pretty typical for the river. But it includes things like turbidity, it’s very dark, once a diver would go down under the water they could no longer see anymore,” said Hoeppner. “It’s also very cold, I’d even say it’s unseasonably cold for the end of May, so the divers could only operate for so long before they become hypothermic. And also, just the current, which is typical for the river.”

Sheriff Ewing told KTIV that crews will continue to monitor the object. Iowa DNR plans on returning to the Huff-Warner Access Area twice a day to continue scanning and looking for the resident.

First responders from the following teams contributed to the search.

Iowa DNR is asking anyone with information related to this search to contact the Monona County Sheriff’s Office at (800) 859-1414.

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