As search for missing seminarian continues, community prays for closure

It has been about a week since Brian Bergkamp, a 24-year-old seminarian from Garden Plain, went missing in the Arkansas River during a kayak trip July 9.

The search was largely stalled all week as firefighters waited for water levels in the river to recede.

That wait has been long, both for Bergkamp’s family and the firefighters tasked with finding him, who want to provide closure to the family.

In the meantime, those who knew him are finding solace in the final actions Bergkamp took before he is presumed to have drowned — saving a struggling woman’s life.

A memorial Mass for Bergkamp has been planned for 10 a.m. Monday at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, 430 N. Broadway. Carl Kemme, bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Wichita, will celebrate the Mass.

That morning

Bergkamp and the four others he was with that morning — fellow seminarian Derek Thome and three women — had just started their planned kayak float when they ran into churning water under the 21st Street Bridge around 8:40 a.m. Saturday.

The woman whose life Bergkamp is credited with saving declined an interview but provided The Eagle with details of last Saturday’s events.

She gave this account:

All five were in separate kayaks. Thome heard the rushing water under 21st Street from a distance and told his fellow kayakers they needed to paddle hard to get through it.

The woman heard that instruction only as she was almost to the dropoff point.

Thome and two of the women made it through the waters; but when she came upon the dropoff under the bridge — and the rushing, swirling water beneath it — the back end of her kayak was sucked under the water.

When the kayak tipped, she fell out of it. She had a life jacket, but was not wearing it at the time.

Bergkamp was behind her, wearing his life jacket. Instead of paddling through the churning waters, he stopped to help.

He was calm the entire time, trying to get the two of them to a metal ladder attached to a support under the bridge.

From his kayak, he threw her the life jacket she had lost, which had floated away when she fell in the water.

Because of the over-the-head style of the life jacket, the water sucked it off shortly after she put it on.

Then Bergkamp’s kayak overturned.

Somehow, she was able to get out of the current. After that, she was floating on her back in the river until Thome came in his kayak to pull her to shore.

No one saw Bergkamp after his kayak capsized.

She credits Bergkamp, whom she called her “guardian angel,” and God for saving her.

Fire crews frustrated

On that Saturday, rescue crews searched the Arkansas River between 21st Street and Amidon with boats and other motorized watercraft for roughly 10 hours.

Since then, rescue crews have scaled back their search efforts, deeming it a recovery operation.

The scope of their search, until he is found, includes walking the shore banks multiple times each day hoping for Bergkamp’s body to surface.

Wichita Fire Battalion Chief Jim Wilson said it made sense to put boats in the water immediately after it happened; it doesn’t make sense to do so now, he said.

“It’s frustrating, but that’s just part of it,” he said. “It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack when you’re dealing with something like this.”

Sending divers into the water would be a dangerous endeavor, he said, as “the same thing could happen to them. They could get hung up on debris.”

Launching boats would also likely be fruitless, he said, as Bergkamp’s body may have moved “a considerable distance,” and they don’t know where to look.

“It’s pretty much a guessing game,” Wilson said. “There’s so much debris in the river (that) there is just no way of knowing.”

The news last Saturday hit “quite a few of these guys” particularly hard, Wilson said, as many of his firefighters went to high school with Bergkamp in Garden Plain.

“This young man is real good friends with a lot of my firemen,” Wilson said. “We periodically check on them, ask them if they want to be down there and most of them do.

“They’ve got a pretty good support network with their other firefighters, so as long as they want to be actively involved, we let them.”

Sporadic rainfall in Wichita this week has not aided the rescue effort, which hinges on the river receding enough for Bergkamp’s body to surface.

Wilson said on Thursday afternoon the water had receded about 4 feet since Monday.

‘The pain that we feel for the family’

Ever since Bergkamp went missing, there has been a steady stream of people who come to the river searching for him — and for answers — in their free time.

Regardless of whether the searchers have ties to the Bergkamp family, they are united by a common purpose: a desire to bring the family closure.

Garden Plain native Doris Vogel said she comes to the scene every day — she comes when she first wakes up, then around lunch, then again in the evening until dark.

“Some things you just can’t get off your mind,” Vogel said. “I don’t sleep. I’ll be up at 3 in the morning — obviously I don’t come at that time — but first thing I wake up in the morning, that’s the first place I go.”

She has no personal ties to the family, but she feels a connection with Bergkamp because they share a hometown, and she is also Catholic.

Every night, she interacts with Paul Maly, who comes to the scene in the evenings to search for Bergkamp. Maly said his son is close with one of the Bergkamp boys.

Maly looks up and down the river bank for signs of Bergkamp when he gets off work every day, he said.

“It’s about the pain that we feel for the family,” he said. “It kind of hits home when you’ve got the same age kids.

“And, you know, I’m Catholic. The Catholic community has been out here a lot, I think.”

A cross was placed in the grass close to the 21st Street Bridge early this week by a man who is not Catholic. He also comes every day, though he has no ties to the family.

“Our prayer is that when he comes up, someone’s going to find him immediately,” he said. “It’s heartbreaking to think about that.”

It’s not uncommon to see people with Rosary beads walking along the west river bank in the area.

The Miraculous Medal, a Catholic devotional, has been thrown into the river with the prayer that Bergkamp would be found soon.

And on Wednesday, a lone candle was lit among the rocks near where Bergkamp was last seen, according to a social media post.

“It’s just amazing how many people (Bergkamp) touched in indirect ways,” Vogel said. “Even after we find him, I’ll still walk this path to pray for the family.”

Remembering Bergkamp

Bergkamp is one of seven children — one of his brothers, Andrew, is currently a deacon in the Catholic Diocese of Wichita.

He attended Benedictine College in Atchison for one year before deciding to enter Conception College Seminary in Missouri and become a priest. He was in Wichita for the summer after completing his second year of a four-year program.

He was due to enter his third year of studies at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Md., this fall.

St. Anne Catholic Church, 2801 S. Seneca, will continue to host a prayer vigil at 7 p.m. every night until Bergkamp is found.

Catholic liturgical readings last weekend included the parable of the Good Samaritan, leading multiple priests in the diocese to mention Bergkamp in their Sunday homilies.

Kemme, the bishop, told the Catholic Advance earlier this week he “knew Brian to be an exceptional seminarian, well on his way to demonstrating so many of the qualities needed to be a good and faithful priest.”

“I was looking forward to how God would use him as a priest in the Diocese of Wichita. Now, we must all mourn his much anticipated ministry and the many fruits we all knew would be abundant by his priestly life and ministry.”

This story was originally published July 16, 2016 at 3:02 PM with the headline "As search for missing seminarian continues, community prays for closure."