‘Tragic’ snow fort collapse kills 12-year-old girl at Illinois church, police say

When two girls who had gone outside a suburban Chicago church to play in the snow didn’t return after an hour, their families went to look for them, WGN reported.

They found Esther Jung, 12, and a 9-year-old playmate buried in the snow after a fort the girls had dug into a snowbank collapsed on them, The Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Relatives pulled the girls from the snow about 2:40 p.m. Sunday, but Jung later died at a Chicago-area hospital, The Chicago Tribune reported. The 9-year-old girl remains hospitalized with hypothermia.

It’s not known how long the girls were trapped in the snowbank, thrown up by passing snow plows, after a tunnel they had been digging collapsed, WGN reported.

“It’s just a tragic accident,” said Sgt. Charles Buczynski of the Arlington Heights Police Department, The Chicago Tribune reported.

It was about 14 degrees at the time of the collapse, according to the National Weather Service.

The accident took place while the families of the girls attended services at Rothem Church in Arlington Heights, The Daily Herald reported.

This story was originally published January 21, 2019 at 3:03 PM with the headline "‘Tragic’ snow fort collapse kills 12-year-old girl at Illinois church, police say."