Body found in Mississippi River could be missing boy

BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn. — A child's body was found Saturday in the Mississippi River north of Minneapolis, authorities said.

And relatives and friends of an 10-year-old boy missing since March 18 are worried that the remains could be Barway Collins of nearby Crystal, Minn.

Barway was last seen jumping out of his school's van outside the apartment building where he lived. Surveillance video from the apartment complex showed that as the boy was about to go inside, he turned around as if someone he knew were calling him and then he walked away.

"I think it's Barway," Pastor Harding Smith, who has been a spokesman for the Collins family, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. "My heart is very troubled right now."

Barway has been missing for 3½ weeks.

Some of the 11-year-old's neighbors are hoping that Barway still can be found alive and had a vigil for him Saturday evening.

A group organized to search for Barway found the body around 1 p.m. CT in shallow water about 20 feet from shore, Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek said. He would not comment on whether the body could be that of the child.

Authorities have said Barway's father, Pierre Collins, 33, is the primary suspect in his son's disappearance. But the father has not been charged, and he has said he is innocent.

Searchers have focused on an area in North Mississippi Regional Park since the child was reported missing, finding a red backpack April 2 that matched the description of one that Barway was said to be carrying.

Authorities recovered another body Thursday afternoon from the Mississippi, but that was an adult man.

Officials have not released the identity of either set of remains, which now are in the custody of the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office, and both cases are under investigation.

Contributing: Adrienne Broaddus, KARE-TV, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn.; The Associated Press