WEST CHESTER TOWNSHIP, Ohio -- Divers found a body and a car in a retention pond along Union Centre Boulevard on Monday afternoon.
Capt. Joseph Gutman didn't say if the victim was a man or woman. He said it was too early to determine if there are other bodies in the water.
Here's a first look a the car as it comes out of the water. Appears to be a black sedan @WCPO pic.twitter.com/igETnnYk2i
— Briana Harper (@BrianaWCPO) July 10, 2017
Township spokeswoman Barb Wilson said police were called about noon for a report of property damage at Frontgate Outlet Center. It appeared a vehicle had gone from the parking lot through a hedgerow and into the pond.
In this exclusive Chopper 9 photo, a gap in some bushes appears to show where the car went through.
Divers first found the vehicle in the pond, but there was no body inside. Crews found a body in the water about 30 minutes later.
Wilson said it's not clear when the vehicle may have gone into the water.
Dive crews have made their way out into the middle of the pond to possibly begin the process of removing the submerged car @WCPO pic.twitter.com/JnfGFBL4WP
— Briana Harper (@BrianaWCPO) July 10, 2017
There were two similar incidents of cars driving into ponds in the area in recent years.
In May 2016, a good Samaritan saved a driver from a retention pond just down the road, at JP Flooring.
And in 2009, another driver died after driving into a retention pond only a few miles away on Plum Tree Drive. Patrice Battle, 33, was missing for four days when her body and car were spotted in the water.
The car found in a pond in West Chester is now completely out of the pond and getting ready to be towed @WCPO pic.twitter.com/LDODQV7gND
— Sarah Sikora (@_SarahSikora) July 10, 2017
WCPO will update this developing story.
