2nd day of search in Brush Creek fails to locate reported body, officials say

For a second day Sunday, multiple Westmoreland and Allegheny County emergency response crews were unable to locate a body that a witness told police he saw floating Saturday in Brush Creek in North Huntingdon.

Crews on Sunday entered the creek in inflatable rafts, dive teams from Monroeville and Murrysville responded, and firefighters walked along the creek for several miles between the township village of Larimer and Trafford to no avail.

Township police also summoned a state police helicopter and a cadaver dogs to assist in the seven-hour search that ended about 4:30 p.m. due to darkness and an incoming snowstorm.

The township’s emergency management coordinator Gene Komondor said township officials will meet Monday morning to discuss the next course of action.

Emergency management officials at a command post along Route 993 referred inquiries to township police Chief Robert Rizzo, who couldn’t be reached for comment.

The search Sunday appeared to focus on a several-mile stretch of the creek, which winds through a wooded area off Route 993.

On Saturday, rescuers used drones, and firefighters searched along the creek banks and waded in the creek for more than three hours before the search was called off at 4:45 p.m., according to police.

A Westmoreland County dispatcher reported the initial call of a body in the creek was received at 1:27 p.m. Saturday.

Rizzo said a man was metal detecting in the woods near the creek, with his young son, when they saw what they believed was a body in the creek.

“The gentleman who initially called it in, got his son out of the area, but by the time we arrived the body was gone down the creek,” Rizzo said.

Rizzo said Saturday he believed the report is credible.

“I personally spoke with the man who saw the body, and he was still very visibly shaken by what he saw,” Rizzo said. “I believe it is credible.”

Brush Creek is part of the Turtle Creek watershed and eventually flows into the Monongahela River in North Versailles in Allegheny County.

Paul Peirce is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Paul at 724-850-2860, ppeirce@tribweb.com or via Twitter @ppeirce_trib.