Icy River Bodies: Two Missing in South Dakota River After Saving 6-Year-Old Boy, 'Contributed To Saving That Boy's Life' [VIDEO]

A search for icy river bodies began Thursday night after a man and a 16-year-old girl went missing as they tried to save the teenager's 6-year-old brother at Big Sioux River at Falls Park in South Dakota.

Emergency crews are continuing their search their focus shifted from rescue to recovery overnight, said Sioux Falls Fire Chief Jim Sideras.

Police say Garrett Martin Wallace was climbing on rocks Thursday evening when he fell into the river, a teenage girl, his sister Madison Leigh Wallace, jumped to help him. Soon a man, Lyle Eagletail also jumped however the pair was swept away and disappeared into the freezing water.

The 6-year-old boy was rescued and safe with family members.

"It's hard to say if he actually ended up in the water or not," Police Chief Doug Barthel said. It's unclear if the heroic rescue attempts by two adults helped the boy ashore or if he popped up on a rock as witness accounts differ.

"He wasn't in that long," he said.

A witness Napoleon Ducheneaux, 21, said his friend, Eagletail jumped into the river while trying to help the others.

"Three of us that had him, and he had a kid, the kid with him but he just slipped, he slipped. I heard him say hold onto me, and I'll hold onto you and then that was like the last I heard his voice," Ducheneaux told Fox.

"These people literally jumped in without thinking of their own safety and trying to rescue that child," Sideras said. "It's a very noble act that they did, and they probably contributed to saving that boy's life."

"We have some issues with very thick ice that we are trying to address. We also have a high flow of water because of ice melting," he said.

"We have a lot of foam. We have on the scene crews who are trained in swift water rescue and ice rescue. We also have on site a dive team. Because of the thickness of the ice, it's not possible for that team to go in. We are still doing search patterns," he continued.

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