Authorities recovered the 10-year-old student Wednesday, one day after his teacher was found dead in the Coralville Reservoir.
SOLON, Iowa — A fifth-grade teacher and a 10-year-old student died after a water emergency during an elementary school field trip near Lake Macbride, authorities said, ending an overnight search while leaving unanswered questions about how the two entered the water.
The Johnson County Sheriff’s Office identified the victims as Hannah Jorgensen, 24, of Tiffin, a fifth-grade teacher at Borlaug Elementary School, and Ahmed Osman, 10, of Iowa City, a fifth-grade student at the school. First responders recovered Jorgensen on Tuesday and found Ahmed the following afternoon. The sheriff’s office said the incident remained under investigation and had not released further details about what caused the accident.
Deputies were called at about 12:10 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 22, after receiving a report of people in the water at Lake Macbride State Park near the Coralville Reservoir spillway. Responders recovered Jorgensen from the reservoir at 12:43 p.m., and she was pronounced dead at the scene. Crews continued searching for the missing child for hours before suspending recovery operations overnight.
The search resumed Wednesday with assistance from numerous local and state agencies. At 1:24 p.m., responders recovered Ahmed from the Coralville Reservoir, according to the sheriff’s office. Officials said all other witnesses and people who had been at the scene were accounted for. Authorities have not publicly described the sequence of events that led Jorgensen and Ahmed into the water.
The Iowa City Community School District said the incident occurred during a Borlaug Elementary fifth-grade School of the Wild field trip at the Macbride Nature Recreation Area. The district confirmed Jorgensen was a teacher at Borlaug and Ahmed was one of the school’s fifth-grade students. Borlaug’s staff directory also listed Jorgensen as a fifth-grade teacher.
The district said both were deeply valued members of the school community and that their deaths were being felt at Borlaug and throughout the district. Counselors and additional support personnel were being made available for students and employees. The district also said it was working with the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office as authorities continued investigating the circumstances surrounding the deaths.
The University of Iowa’s School of the Wild is an outdoor environmental education program operated through the College of Education. The university says the program began at the Macbride Nature Recreation Area in 1999 and serves more than 1,200 students in weeklong experiences each year. The recreation area covers 485 acres and includes woodlands, prairie, shoreline and floodplain ecosystems between Lake Macbride and the Coralville Reservoir.
The water emergency brought a large multiagency response to the area. Agencies involved included the Johnson County Metro Dive Team, Johnson County Emergency Management, several local fire departments, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Iowa State Patrol, University of Iowa Police Department, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and medical response teams. The Story County Sheriff’s Office also assisted with Wednesday’s recovery operation.
The Macbride Nature Recreation Area was listed as closed to the public Thursday on the University of Iowa’s website. Published reports said School of the Wild activities were also put on hold following the incident. Officials had not announced when regular programming at the site would resume.
The sheriff’s office had not released a cause or detailed account of the accident as of Thursday. Its latest public statement said the case remained under investigation and that no additional information was available for release, leaving the events that led to the deaths of Jorgensen and Ahmed unresolved.
Author note: Last updated September 24, 2026.