Body Recovered From Tunnel Near Riverside In Tulsa

Breaking News Update 10:31 a.m. 3/6/23:

Tulsa Police have identified a man who was found dead after a tunnel he was building collapsed on itself on Sunday.

According to police, Andrew Ferris, died after the tunnel he was building collapsed near 56th and Riverside.

This is a breaking news update, stay with News On 6 for the latest updates.

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Tulsa Police say a man is dead after a tunnel he was building collapsed on itself.

This happened near 56th and Riverside.

Officers say the man was digging for copper wire, and when he found some, he continued to trace it back to the source.

But the embankment collapsed, and he was found dead.

Tulsa Police and Tulsa Fire were called to the scene after the victim’s girlfriend said she hadn’t heard from him in a few days.

“Back on Thursday, her and her boyfriend had some kind of argument, and he had left to come down here to the river,” said Lt. Josh Goldstein with the TPD. “He had apparently been digging a hole downward a little bit and then horizontally kind of toward Riverside behind us."

When the victim’s girlfriend went to look for him last night and saw the tunnel was gone, she called the police.

"Once the excavator got here, probably around three hours worth of digging, located what we believed to be a shoe, moved some more dirt, and they were able to slowly dig around and find the entirety of the victim's body," said Goldstein.

Police say, Andrew Ferris, the victim, was digging for copper wire and had found some.

Police believe Ferris was tracing the copper wire back to find more.

"This gentleman had been digging quite a hole, if you picture like a mining shaft, he had the beginning of one of those going, but with nothing shoring it up, and the sand just collapsed," said Goldstein.

Police say what he found had most likely been old or abandoned copper wire.

"We're not saying or accusing him of stealing copper wire, he had found copper wire down there, I was looking at it, I can't tell that it looked like it was attached to anything, it just seemed like it was a strand of abandoned copper wire maybe years ago was running across the river," said Goldstein.

Police say even though this doesn’t happen often, they hope other people will be careful when it comes to digging.

"It is rare, I've been here 16 years and it's the first one I've seen, but all along the river here it's loose sand, the river is constantly wanting to wash into the bank and make these cliffs that like to collapse," said Goldstein.

The body was sent to the Medical Examiner’s office where they will perform the autopsy.