KNOXVILLE, IA — A gender-reveal party in Iowa ended in tragedy Saturday when a piece of flying debris from an explosion hit a 56-year-old woman and killed her. The accident happened about 3 p.m. at the rural home in Knoxville about 40 miles southeast of Des Moines, authorities said.
Pamela Kreimeyer, who was standing about 45 feet from the device with four other family members, died instantly when she was struck in her head, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office said Monday. The piece of metal that hit her continued to travel for another 144 yards, authorities said.
“This family got together for what they thought was going to be a happy event with no intent for anyone to get hurt,” Sheriff Jason Sandholdt said in a statement. “What ended up happening was that Pamela Kreimeyer, a wife, mother and grandmother was killed by a piece of metal where a metal stand, gunpowder and colored powder were involved.”
Word of the tragedy spread quickly in the town where almost everyone knows one another.
“I’m sure no one thought that this would end tragically,” Gary Roozeboom, a retired pastor who has lived in Knoxville for about 20 years, told news station KCCI. “My heart just aches for the family. It’s something that was supposed to be fun and exciting. I mean, you have the family there, and then, wow. In an instant, everything changed.”
Sandholdt said the tragedy is a “reminder that anytime someone mixes these things there is a high potential for serious injury or death” and that the makeshift device inadvertently became a pipe bomb.
Other gender-reveal parties have similarly gone awry. In 2017, U.S. Border Patrol agent accidentally sparked a wildfire with a gender-reveal explosion that burned about 47,000 acres and caused $8.2 million in damage. The agent pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor violation for causing a fire without a permit.
Last year in Australia, a car rigged to belch blue smoke in a gender reveal burst into flames. The driver escaped, but was convicted of dangerous operation of a car.
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