Explosion At Gender Reveal Party Kills Woman In Iowa

An Iowa woman has died after an explosion at a gender reveal party created debris that hit her. The Marion County Sheriff's office says the explosion happened at a home in central Iowa around 4 p.m. Saturday during a party to announce the gender of a baby a couple is expecting.

Deputies arrived at the home in Knoxville to find a 56-year-old woman dead. Knoxville is about 40 miles southeast of Des Moines.

Investigators determined that an explosion during the gender reveal announcement caused the woman's death. The blast "caused a flying piece of debris to strike the victim," police said in a statement.

No other details about the explosion were available. The victim's name wasn't immediately released but it did not take long for word to spread through Knoxville.

"It's something that's supposed to be fun and exciting," retired pastor Gary Roozeboom told CBS affiliate KCCI-TV. "You have your family there and then, wow, everything changed in an instant."

First published on October 28, 2019 / 7:13 AM

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