Police: Drowning of 11-year-old accidental

Wichita police are classifying the drowning death of an 11-year-old girl Sunday afternoon as an accident.

Police Lt. Jason Stephens said the girl was at a church function at a private home in the 3200 block of Ridgeport, near 29th and Ridge. There were about 100 kids and several adults overseeing the function, he said.

At around 4 p.m., the party started ending and that’s when adults realized the 11-year-old girl was missing, he said. Within a couple hours, search crews found the girl in the water about 10 feet from shore and 10 feet under water. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Stephens said there had been several other kids swimming in the lake throughout the day, and there were “several different activities” going on for the parents to supervise.

Late Sunday night, Pathway Church posted on its Facebook page that “a young woman named Shelby Cramb drowned” while at the church’s Middle School Lake Party, which was held Sunday afternoon at 3221 Ridgeport Court.

Other posts on social media identified Cramb as the 11-year-old who was reported missing.

Police are not identifying the girl, but according to the Associated Press, the Maize school district sent a message to parents Sunday night saying she was a sixth-grader.

The church said it planned to hold a prayer meeting at its Westlink Campus, 2001 N. Maize Road, at 6:30 Monday night.

This is the third drowning fatality in Wichita this year, police said.

This story was originally published August 28, 2017 at 10:44 AM with the headline "Police: Drowning of 11-year-old accidental."