Family asks for help after drowning deaths of two boys

    LINN COUNTY, Kansas (KMBC) -- A grieving mother said she repeatedly warned her son and his best friend to stay away from the ice-covered lake near their home in Linn County, Kansas.

On Monday, Angel Balz said she and others searched for her son, Keagan Grubbs, and his friend, Bowen Owens, both 9, but couldn’t find them.

Hours later, the Linn County Sheriff’s Office drone team located the boys’ bodies using infrared technology at night. They were trapped under the ice at Lake De Lago in the Lake Chaparral community, north of Mound City.

“Two days before that night, I warned them every day not to go on the ice because something was going to happen and they kept on doing it,” Balz said.

She said the boys had crossed the lake twice before their third attempt turned tragic just feet from the shore.

Now, two crosses stand on the shoreline.

Each cross has a water gun leaning against it with the same handwritten messages: "I love you" and "I miss you."

“They were never separate. They were always together. They got off the bus. They were here,” Balz said.

She said law enforcement officers told her there was evidence the two boys were trying to save each other.

Balz was told the boys were holding hands when their bodies were removed from the lake.

A friend, whom Balz describes as an adopted sister, has set up a GoFundMe page to help with funeral expenses.

It is the second time Balz has lost a child.

She said that in 2018, her 3-month-old daughter, Octavia, died from heart complications.

As she grieves and plans a memorial for her son, she said she must also focus on her two remaining children.

“I got to think about my other kids, but it’s going to be different because he’s not going to be around,” she said.

The Linn County Sheriff’s Office has an open investigation into what led to the tragedy.

Autopsy results for the boys are pending in what authorities are calling a suspected drowning.