The Nation - News from Oct. 19, 1987

An 11-year-old Missouri boy riding his skateboard near a construction site in Slater drowned after he fell into an abandoned well, police said. Christopher Brown, of rural Gilliam, was flown to the University of Missouri-Columbia Hospitals and Clinics, where he was pronounced dead, a hospital spokesman said. The well, which was about 15 feet deep, was three-quarters full of water. About two hours after the boy’s parents first noticed that he was missing, the father found the skateboard by the well and called police.