Rescuers Give Up on Sinkhole Victim

Jeffrey Bush was sucked into cavity under his house
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 2, 2013 5:45 PM CST
Rescuers Give Up on Sinkhole Victim
Jeremy Bush places flowers and a stuffed animal at a makeshift memorial in front of a home where his brother Jeffrey died in a sinkhole in Seffner, Fla. on Saturday, March 2, 2013.   (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Rescuers have called off the search for a Florida man who was sucked into a sinkhole under his bedroom late Thursday night, the AP reports. Officials said they plan to destroy the home of 37-year-old Jeffrey Bush and ordered the next-door neighbors to move out before the sinkhole drags them down too. "At this point it's really not possible to recover the body," said a county administrator. He added that "we're dealing with a very unusual sinkhole."

With reporters, onlookers, and engineers buzzing around the quiet street in a suburb east of Tampa, the next-door neighbors cried as they packed boxes. They had been allowed a half-hour to take belongings since being evacuated yesterday. The victim's brother, Jeremy Bush, wept as he lay a stuffed animal and flowers near the house this morning. He said someone came to check for sinkholes a couple of months ago—probably for insurance reasons—but found nothing. "And a couple of months later, my brother dies," said Jeremy. "In a sinkhole." (More sinkhole stories.)

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