Update: Sheriff's office identifies adult, children found in submerged car
<p>Kootenai County Sheriff, Coeur d'Alene Lake Fire and other emergency personnel respond to a submerged car fatality on Nov. 3, 2016 at the Fernan Lake boat launch. The Kootenai County Sheriff's Office has confirmed two children and an adult female died on-scene.</p>
<p>A Coeur d'Alene Fire responder comforts a diver after the dive team responded to a submerged passenger car fatality on Thursday at the Fernan Lake boat launch.</p>
<p>Two law enforcement members counsel the man who discovered a fully submerged sedan at the Fernan Lake boat launch Thursday morning. The Kootenai County Sheriff's Office has confirmed two children and an adult female died on-scene.</p>
FERNAN LAKE VILLAGE — The bodies of an adult and two small children were recovered from a submerged car Thursday morning by rescue divers at the Fernan Lake boat launch.
The Kootenai County Sheriff's Office did not release any further information about the three victims.
"Due to this being an ongoing investigation and all family members not being notified as of yet, no other information can be released at this time," KCSO Lt. Joe Jovick said late Thursday afternoon.
Jovick said more information about the three people is expected to be released today.
Jovick declined to say whether foul play is suspected or whether alcohol or drugs were a factor, citing the active investigation. An approximate time when the car went into the lake was also not released.
Emergency crews responded to the boat launch on the west end of the lake around 10:45 a.m. and found a Ford fully submerged.
The car was pulled from the lake with its front end facing the boat launch as if it had entered the lake in reverse. It was pulled from the water between the two docks at the site.
The KCSO declined to comment on that detail of the investigation.
A man at the scene, who declined to be identified, told The Press he spotted the car in the lake.
"I found the car as I was headed out getting ready to fish," he said, adding he immediately reported the discovery.
He said he witnessed divers pulling the bodies from the car.
The man watched the investigation at the launch in disbelief from a park bench for about two hours. Rescuers stayed with the man and, at one point, prayed with him. He then sat in his pickup in the parking lot, still visibly distraught.
Fernan Lake Village Mayor Heidi Acuff, who responded to the scene, called the incident "a city's worst nightmare."
"It's such a tragedy," she said.
The KCSO was assisted by Coeur d'Alene Police, Coeur d'Alene Fire, Kootenai County Fire and Rescue, Kootenai County Emergency Medical Services and the U.S. Forest Service.
The boat launch was closed most of the day during the investigation.