Woman found dead in vehicle submerged in Waccamaw River identified

A woman was found dead in her submerged vehicle Tuesday morning after she drove off Lee’s Landing in Conway Monday night.

Authorities were called about 9:30 p.m. Monday after the woman’s car was seen entering the water from the landing, but rescuers weren’t able to thoroughly search the area Monday night for safety reasons, officials said.

“We did a dive last night, attempted to locate the vehicle, but we were unsuccessful last night. First thing this morning, we re-dove the area and located the vehicle,” Dan Shankle, Battalion Chief with Horry County Fire Rescue dive crew, said Tuesday as he organized a recovery of the submerged vehicle.

HCFR divers went into the water about 10 a.m. Tuesday and quickly found the victim and her vehicle.

Donna Anderson, 66, was recovered, but her vehicle was in roughly 20 feet of 41-degree temperature water. HCFR divers, South Carolina Department of Natural Resources divers, and Horry County police worked for several hours to pull the vehicle from the cold river on Tuesday from late morning until early evening, but weren’t able to remove it and decided to resume the recovery Thursday morning, officials said.

Anderson drove into the frigid Waccamaw and died in an apparent drowning, according to Darris Fowler, Horry County deputy coroner.

“I’ve had maybe two hours of sleep last night,” said Bud Jordan, 73, Lee’s Landing resident who called 911. “All I could do is see that lady,” he said about when he tried to rest Monday night after the incident.

Jordan said he was looking out his kitchen window, which faces the landing, to take nightly medication when he saw a vehicle sitting there, but didn’t think much of it at first because people often drive down the landing ramp and stay for a moment then turn around.

“It’s not unusual for people to do exactly what she did, and if I hadn’t been standing there at that very moment I would have never seen it,” he said. “She would have just went down that river and sunk.”

Jordan said he saw her vehicle go into the black water and he grabbed his flashlight, called 911, and ran outside. He shouted at Anderson, but she never responded, he said.

Jordan then ran along the river alerting his neighbors.

“I roused all of them out, but there was nothing we could really do,” he said as the fast-moving river carried the vehicle down into the deep of the cold, dark water.

Horry County officials are continuing to investigate the incident, and the reason Anderson drove into the frigid Waccamaw remains unknown.

This story was originally published January 26, 2016 at 10:49 AM with the headline "Woman found dead in vehicle submerged in Waccamaw River identified."