A local man died after his Jeep SUV left the roadway behind the west-side Menards and Walmart and drove into a retention pond.
Bartholomew County Coroner Clayton Nolting identified the victim as Thomas Kedrowitz, 37, Columbus, whose body was recovered inside his black Jeep Liberty when it was pulled out of the retention pond by a wrecker at 2 p.m. Sunday. Nolting said an autopsy will be performed Monday.
A female witness called 911 after she saw the Jeep, traveling toward Jonathan Moore Pike on Carr Hill Road, leave the roadway several hundred yards from the pond, traveling through a farm field and over a curb and embankment before entering the water, investigators said.
Kedrowitz was found in the driver’s seat of his vehicle in an estimated 15- 16-foot deep water, said Capt. Mike Wilson, Columbus Fire Department spokesman. Nolting was at the scene when the car and victim’s body was recovered.
A witness reported seeing the vehicle traveling toward Jonathan Moore Pike on Carr Hill Road at about noon Sunday when it left the roadway and continued several hundred yards through a field before going into the retention pond, investigators said.
Divers from the county water rescue team, Department of Natural Resources and Indiana State Police assisted at the scene. The divers helped locate the vehicle before a wrecker pulled it out of the water.
For more information on this story, see Monday’s Republic.
