Funny story takes twisted turn for firefighter

We received a call about a single car motor vehicle accident. Car ran off the road and towards a small pond.

Somebody phoned it in— no telling how long after it occurred— because the car was only about 10 yards from the street.

The report came from someone’s cell phone. They walked around the water and checked the scene as they called, stating they didn’t see a driver.

We met them on-site a few minutes later. We swept the area and didn’t see anyone, either. We called out a few times, and no one answered. It looked like the person crashed their vehicle, and then walked off to get help or something.

No one ever showed up.

The car had to be towed out because the front bumper and front tires were in the water. Other than that, you could get in and out of the door.

A few days later— 2 or 3– some local boys were fishing near the scene of the accident when a corpse floated to the surface of the water. The victim’s identity matched the license plates on that car.

Best we could figure, the driver got ejected upon impact.

What began as a funny “someone ran their car into a pond and walked off” type of story quickly took a weighty turn.

Why didn’t we consider this earlier?

Why didn’t we see a body— or any evidence of an ejection or anything like that?

That was a hard week, and I never was— still am not— sure how to file it in my mind.