LA CROSSE, Wis. (WTAQ) - The ELCA Lutheran Church wants the U.S. Embassy in Haiti to help find and recover the body of a La Crosse native who’s still in the rubble of the earthquake. Ben Larson’s mother used to be an ELCA bishop in La Crosse, and she’s now a pastor in Duluth. ELCA spokesman John Brooks says the church is working with the embassy to see if the U.S. Southern Command could help retrieve Larson’s body and, “bring him home.” The 25-year-old Larson failed to escape from a building that collapsed 13 days ago. His wife and a cousin made it out safely, and they’re back with their family in Minnesota. Larson was in his final year of a degree program at a seminary in Dubuque Iowa, and was conducting ministry work in Haiti as part of a class project. He was a graduate of La Crosse Central High School. And he received his undergraduate degree from Luther College in Decorah Iowa, where 1,200 people attended a memorial service last Friday.
