(Radio Iowa) – There could be a new lead in the case of missing Xavior Harrelson. He’s the 11-year-old boy from Montezuma who disappeared May 27. Mitch Mortvedt is assistant director of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.  “The DCI is assisting the Poweshiek County Sheriff’s Office…as part of the investigation,” he says, “information that we have received that has led us to the Fox Forest area of Poweshiek County.”

Fox Forest is a 531 acre wildlife area, about five miles from Montezuma. Mortvedt says the search started this (Thursday) morning. “It’s open-ended and it will go as long as it needs to,” Mortvedt says, “as the investigators and agents on the scene determine that it needs to.”

Mortvedt says he cannot comment on what led law enforcement to start searching in that area of Poweshiek County.

In an update to our report this (Thursday) morning, the Cass County Sheriff’s Office says one person was transported to the UNMC in Omaha, following a collision west of Lewis, near the Cass/Pottawattamie County line. Authorities say at around 8:02-a.m., Thursday, Cass County Deputies responded to an accident at the intersection of White Pole Road and 542^nd Street.

Shayeleigh Marshall Julich Howard, of Glenwood, was east bound on White Pole Road driving a 2011 Jeep Patriot.  Anita Marie Riley, of Griswold, was driving a 2004 Ford F-150 pick-up. She was stopped at the stop sign at 542^nd Street.  Riley failed to see the on-coming traffic and pulled onto White Pole Road, was attempting to go east when her pickup  was struck by Howard’s SUV.

Howard was taken to the hospital in Omaha for treatment. Riley refused medical treatment.  The Cass County Sheriff’s Office was assisted by Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office, Iowa State Patrol, Cass County EMS, Lewis Fire Department and Griswold Fire Department.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation has raised more than eight million dollars to purchase about two-thousand feet of shoreline on East Lake Okoboji. Joe Jayjack, the foundation’s communications director, says more than 400 donors stepped up so the natural beauty of the lakeshore can be preserved. “It is such a special place that we felt like we had to go for it,” Jayjack says. “We had an $8.2 million goal and the reality is about 90% of that was raised just in the last couple of months and it’s been an amazing effort by folks up at the lakes, showing how much they care about this.”

The property, which covers 50 acres, is next to a state park. It’s the last undeveloped and privately owned tract of shoreline on East Okoboji. The sale should close sometime in December and Jayjack says the Natural Heritage Foundation has begun planning for work at the site. “How we’re going to allow access and public use of it, along with some of the restoration plans that we’ll be doing there, too,” Jayjack says, “just restoring some of the native prairie, oak savanna and the natural shoreline there.”

The eight-point-two million dollar project is the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation’s largest ever fundraiser. The organization had a September 7th deadline to raise the money after making an offer on the property a year ago.

(Radio Iowa) – As the rate of new COVID-19 infections remains high in Iowa, the state’s top health official says they are working on more rapid testing options. Interim Department of Public Health Director Kelly Garcia says testing is widely available across the state — but the department is seeing some issues for those who need rapid testing. “It’s not that there’s supply chain issues. But there do seem to be some kinks in the pipeline in terms of folks being able to access testing quickly when ill and that is most important,” Garcia says.

Since mid-July, the state’s Test Iowa program has offered mail-in testing kits that can be requested online or picked up at certain locations. But the mail-in option creates a longer turnaround time for results for Iowans experiencing COVID-19 symptoms. “So the lab processing is not the constraint at the moment. But the mailing time is and so we’re working to solve for that,” she says.

Kelly Garcia

Garcia says if you need a rapid test you should check options at local pharmacies or urgent care facilities. But you should avoid seeking tests at hospital emergency rooms.

(By Natalie Krebs, Iowa Public Radio)

Sheriff’s deputies in Page County have arrested a woman on a warrant for Failure to Appear for her Pre-Trial Conference. 49-year-old Shawn Carlene Beard, of Lenox, was arrested today (Thursday), at the Page County Courthouse, in Clarinda. Shewas unable to post the $25,000 bond, and was being held in the Page County Jail pending further court appearances.

Shawn Carlene Beard

Griswold Fire and Rescue were dispatched at around 8:03-a.m. to a two vehicle accident at 542nd Street and White Pole Road (The Cass/Pottawattamie County line). The crash involved a rollover. Injuries have been reported, but the number and extent of those injured was not immediately available. A medical helicopter was placed on stand-by.

An accident Wednesday afternoon in Red Oak resulted in the driver of a van being issued a verbal warning for Unsafe Backing, and Failure to Yield while backing onto a highway. Red Oak Police say the accident happened at around 12:32-p.m., in the 100 block of W. Oak Street. A 2018 Ford transit van driven by 37-year-old Trevor Troy McAlpin, of Red Oak, was backing out of the Casey’s parking lot. A 2004 Dodge Stratus driven by 29-year-old Jodi Michelle Booher, of Shenandoah, was eastbound on W. Oak, when McAlpin backed the van onto the road, into the side of the Dodge.

Damage to the Transit van, registered to a Red Oak heating and cooling company, was estimated at $9,000. The Dodge sustained $4,000 damage. No injuries were reported.