Josephine Co. Deputies recover car from Rogue River

Update (04/04 5:40pm) — Police may have recovered the vehicle that drove into the Rogue River at Schroeder Park on March 26th.

According to the Josephine County Sheriff’s Office, a fishing guide saw a vehicle in the water 200 yards down river from Lathrop Boat Landing on Sunday. A search of the vehicle conducted by divers showed that there was nobody inside.

Police, along with the assistance of a local towing company, successfully recovered the vehicle from the water.

The car, identified by police as a 1999 silver Mercury Sable, matches the description of the car that drove into the water in March. Police say it was stolen.

Officers point out that witnesses say they saw a person inside the vehicle when it entered the water. Police are continuing to investigate.

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Grants Pass, Ore. — Josephine County Sheriff’s deputies are on the Rogue River, searching for a car that drove into the water this weekend at Schroeder Park. They say it’s possible someone was in the car, but they don’t know what caused it to go into the river.

Deputies have not located the car. They say the water level is too high, and the current is too strong to find it.

Mike Kane lives near Schroeder Park; his friend was here on Saturday morning, and saw a silver sedan drive down the boat ramp, and into the rogue river.

“The driver appeared to not be aware of the surroundings,” Kane said. “He noticed that it was going… it was not stopping. And it went into the river.”

Josephine County Sheriff’s marine deputy Ernie Fields says he’s searched the area, but so far, has come up empty handed.

“There’s so much water and there’s so much volume that’s out here, we just really don’t know if something like that of a sedan how far it’s going to go down river,” Fields said.

Fire crews responded with deputies on Saturday morning. They searched the banks and came up with the only clue investigators have right now.

“This owner’s manual from a 1999, I believe it was a Mercury, was actually located floating downstream,” Fields said.

The deputy isn’t sure it came from the car, but he says it’s the only thing they currently have to work with.

“You can’t see the bottom, there’s a lot of deep holes, you know right now, it’s just tough to try to find,” Fields.

Deputies say the current is too strong to send in dive teams. The search will pick up when the water levels are lower in late Spring and Summer.

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