Update June 15th, 10:00pm EST: It has been confirmed that the body of Kristian Pelss has been recovered by Latvian Authorities. Unfortunately the young man was found to have passed away. Officials are currently stating that the cause of death is “drowning”. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family, friends, teammates, and fans.
Below is our June 13th report.
Breaking we have some sad news coming out of Latvia. Edmonton Oilers prospect Kristian Pelss has been missing for 3 days and authorities fear that he has drowned in Riga, Latvia.
The report comes from Latvian news source, Apollo.
There are several eye-witness reports seeing a man leap into the river from a bridge. When Police and Emergency workers investigated, clothing and identification belonging to Pelss’ was found nearby. No body has yet been recovered, and Pelss’ family is insisting that he be treated as a missing person and only that they have not heard from Pelss since Monday (which incidently was also the day of the jumper). They believe that it was not Pelss who was seen jumping from the bridge; and are treating the eye-witnesses as unreliable due to the distance they saw the jump from. Search teams, including divers, continue to comb the river in search of the missing person.
The reports out of Latvia seem to indicate that authorities do believe that it was indeed Pelss who was the jumper and that he has passed away.
Pelss, spent last season split between Stockton in the ECHL, and Oklahoma City in the AHL. He was a former player on the Edmonton Oil Kings, helping them to the 2012 WHL Championship and earning a contract from the Oilers.
We at LWOS would like to express our hope that Pelss is indeed alive and will shortly return home safely. We express our thoughts and prayers with the family at this time.
Thanks for reading, as always feel free to leave comments below and follow me on twitter @lastwordBKerr. Give the rest of the hockey department a follow while you’re at it – @BigMick99, @IswearGAA, and @LastWordOnNHL, and follow the site @lastwordonsport.
Interested in writing for LastWordOnSports? If so, check out our “Join Our Team” page to find out how.
Photo Credit, Oilkings.ca
