Carl Junction boy drowns in Joplin flash flood

A youth has drowned in a flash flood in Joplin.

Joplin Police Dispatch received a call of a juvenile male being swept away by water shortly before 9 a.m. Saturday morning near 5th and Murphy Blvd.

Joplin Police, Joplin Fire Department Water Rescue and Redings Mill Department Water Rescue responded.

Police said the boy, identified as 13-year-old John D. Wheeler of Carl Junction, was walking by the water in a drainage ditch on Murphy Blvd. when he fell in.

Officers pulled him from the water. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital.

The Joplin Police Department and Missouri State Highway Patrol investigated the death.