Coast Guard: Pair who jumped from Eads Bridge planned it; search continues

Police, fire and U.S. Coast Guard personnel are still searching for two people who plummeted late Tuesday from the Eads Bridge into the Mississippi River.

Coast Guard spokesman Matt Marler said Wednesday evening that search crews had not recovered anyone as of 7:30 p.m. St. Louis police and fire personnel were leading the search with help from the Coast Guard.

Marler said the report Coast Guard officials received Tuesday was that four people planned to jump off the bridge and meet up on the riverbank. Two of the four went through with the jump, Marler said, and they have yet to be found. He said Coast Guard investigators are working to learn more about the planned jump from the two who decided not to go through with it.

A Casino Queen security guard first reported seeing jumpers fall into the river at about 9:30 p.m.

Marler said searchers are computer models that take into account the type of clothing the jumpers were wearing, their age, swimming experience, river currents and other factors to build search patterns.

This is the second time in two weeks that someone went into the river from the Eads Bridge.

On July 16 a worker who was on scaffolding beneath the bridge deck fell to his death when an off-course towboat struck the scaffolding, causing it to partially collapse.

The victim died after falling from the scaffolding onto the deck of the boat.

This story was originally published July 22, 2015 at 9:00 AM with the headline "Coast Guard: Pair who jumped from Eads Bridge planned it; search continues."