Authorities have not released the names of the man and the woman, who were found dead inside their van, after it reportedly drove into the water near Jetty Park in Venice.
According to Venice Fire Chief Shawn Carvey, the van drove into the water near the bathrooms at the Jetty park shortly after 4:00 p.m.
Venice Police and Fire Rescue, along with the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office and beach lifeguards, were able to locate the van after searching for a few hours. Crews indicate a strong current made it tricky for divers to find the van underneath the water.
Members of @sarasotapd assisting Sheriff's Underwater Recovery Force (SURF) team. pic.twitter.com/LQPAHXh76x
— SarasotaSheriff (@SarasotaSheriff) May 8, 2017
Our Dive Team is continuing to assist @SarasotaSheriff & @CityofVeniceFL PD at incident with submerged car at south jetty in Venice. https://t.co/CPAdmA95Wy
— SarasotaPD (@sarasotapd) May 8, 2017
“I just happen to be looking right there when the van started to go down,” My Demy said.
Demy witnessed when the van drove off the jetty and into the water.
“Then it started drifting with the tide,” Demy said.
People rushed to help. Some even jumped off their boat into the water.
“I thought they were going to get saved for sure. It was floating for a while like all the way down the jetty and then it just sank and I was like…,” Matt Fuentes shook his head.
Crews towed the van to Higel Park where they processed it for evidence. Authorities said preliminarily they were treating the investigation as a traffic homicide. The man and woman did not survive. Their identities have not been released. The investigation continues.
