The body of 10-year-old Ahmed Osman was recovered from Lake Macbride on Wednesday, one day after authorities found the body of 24-year-old Hannah Jorgensen in the same tragedy. Osman was identified as a fifth-grade student at Borlaug Elementary, and Jorgensen was identified as a fifth-grade teacher there.
The recovery gave a name and a face to the missing student at the center of the Iowa death, but it did not answer the hardest question. The Johnson County Sheriff’s Office is still leading the investigation, and officials have not said how either victim got into the water.
The Iowa City Community School District said the accident happened during a Borlaug Elementary fifth-grade School of the Wild field trip at the MacBride Nature Recreation Area on Sept. 22, 2026. The district has canceled future School of the Wild trips and said counselors and other support personnel would remain available at Borlaug Elementary.
Jorgensen’s body was recovered after noon on Tuesday and she was pronounced dead at the scene. Osman’s body was later found in Lake Macbride, which confirmed the scale of the loss and closed the immediate search for the missing child.
Governor Kim Reynolds addressed the tragedy Wednesday evening, saying her heart was heavy with news from Lake Macbride and offering condolences to the families of Jorgensen and Osman. She said the loss touches the entire Borlaug Elementary community and Iowa City School District, and thanked the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office and other responders for their professionalism, compassion and care.
What remains unresolved is the path each victim took into the water, and that missing detail now sits at the center of the case. Until investigators answer that, the community has the names and the grief, but not yet the full account of what happened on the field trip.
