An Island man died sometime on March 2 after his car plunged into Lake Washington at Calkins Landing. Mercer Island Marine Patrol divers discovered the car, an Acura RSX, upside down at the bottom of the lake about 40 feet off the shoreline shortly before 6 p.m. on March 2. Officers were notified of the incident when a city employee doing maintenance on the park noticed tire marks in the grass leading into the lake at approximately 4 p.m. A patrol boat was dispatched to the site; however, officers were not able to see anything without sending divers down.

The car was difficult to locate, according to Police Commander Leslie Burns, due to the large amount of lake-bottom silt that it had displaced. Working late into the evening, a tow truck removed the car from the lake.

One man was in the driver’s seat of the car. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Police were able to identify the man, born in 1983, as an Island resident. Due to the cold temperatures of the lake, they were unable to determine how long the man had been dead or when the accident occurred.

“We’re guessing the body was down there at least 12 hours before we got it out,” said Burns.

The body is currently under medical examination at Harborview. At the time of Reporter deadline, relatives of the victim had not yet been notified. There were no witnesses, according to Burns.

Calkins landing is located on the northwest side of Mercer Island at S.E. 28th Street and 60th Avenue S.E.