Crisis response team to help those who searched for Evelyn Miller

The Iowa Crisis Response Team is heading to in the town of Floyd to help the hundreds of volunteers who searched for Evelyn Miller before the body of the five-year-old girl was recovered in the Cedar River two weeks ago. Team spokeswoman Alison Walding says it’s to help them cope with the stress and trauma of the search.Trained volunteers will do a “group crisis intervention” for those searchers, a session that will entail telling their stories, :validating their feelings,” and hearing what other searchers have gone through. They’ll also be given tools and resources for the future.Walding says it was traumatic for the whole community, and offering the volunteer searchers this help will let them talk through what happened and where they go in the future. Walding says Crisis Response Teams have been dispatched several times to work with witnesses, caregivers, and others affected by homicides that had a widespread impact on a community.They’ve been sent all over the state to help in communities affected by crime-related trauma, and she says they went to New York and New Jersey for several months to help with 9/11 related recovery. Last year two teams also went to Florida, to help with the aftermath of the hurricanes. The Crisis Response Team’s session Thursday evening is at the Floyd Community Center. The five-year-old Miller disappeared from her Floyd home on July first, and her body was discovered five days later along the Cedar River north of Charles City. Miller’s death is still being considered as a homicide, but no suspects have been named in the case.