Car drives into Matanuska River

PALMER -- Emergency crews worked Saturday afternoon to retrieve a vehicle from the Matanuska River after a person apparently drove a car into the raging torrent on Saturday morning in Palmer.

Palmer Police Chief Lance Ketterling said crews believe they had located the vehicle, but fast-moving, silty water was hampering recovery efforts heading into the evening.

“It could be 10 minutes, it could be tomorrow,” he said when asked how long the recovery might take.

Ketterling said crews searching the water with poles found what they think is the car, but as of 5 p.m. Saturday afternoon hadn’t actually seen the vehicle.

“It’s in eight feet of water and visibility is about two inches,” he said.

Palmer Fire Chief John McNutt said emergency personnel were notified shortly before 11 a.m. that someone had driven over an embankment and into the rushing river near Sherrod Elementary School off Gulkana Street. Rescue teams from the Mat-Su Borough, Palmer Fire and Rescue and the Palmer Police Department immediately responded to the scene. A life raft was launched at the Matanuska River Bridge to search for the vehicle or its occupant, which Ketterling said was believed to be a lone male.

As of Saturday afternoon, neither the vehicle nor its driver had been found. Though the effort to retrieve the vehicle was ongoing, McNutt said it's unlikely the search will have a happy ending.

"We've moved from the rescue into a recovery mode," he said.

Ketterling said an eyewitness reported seeing the vehicle go over a bluff near Sherrod Elementary School in an area accessed by an off-road trail. He said the witness told police the car appeared to be occupied by a lone male who was not known to the witness.

“They said they had never set eyes on him,” Ketterling said.

After the initial rescue effort, McNutt said the dive team had only recovered what appeared to be parts of the vehicle.

"We're pretty sure those are the pieces from the car," he said.

At a staging area near the Matanuska River Bridge across the Old Glenn Highway, a Palmer Police Department officer took the car parts -- which appeared to be parts of a grill from the front of a Subaru -- and placed them in a brown evidence bag. The bridge is downstream from where the car is believed to have gone in the water.

Check frontiersman.com for updates.

Contact editor Matt Tunseth at 352-2268 or matt.tunseth@frontiersman.com