Vehicle recovered from Little Sunflower canal

After two attempts a vehicle was recovered from the Little Sunflower Canal by Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace, the Vicksburg Fire Department Dive Team and Ward’s Wrecker service.

The Vicksburg Daily News is purposefully withholding some information until the Sheriff’s Department has had time to do a full investigation on the vehicle.

We can tell you a white ford sedan was recovered from the Little Sunflower. A live report from the Vicksburg Daily News documented the event.

The fire department’s Tim Love and Sheriff Pace on the water. Photo by David Day

Ward’s Wrecker, led by Dusty McCrory, pulled in two pieces of equipment Monday in an attempt to free the submerged vehicle in a story reported by the Vicksburg Daily News. A determination was made to bring in more equipment and attempt to recover the vehicle on another day.

Today, at about 10 a.m., the Dive Team started to show up and soon thereafter Warren County Emergency Management was on the scene and they were joined by Sheriff Martin Pace and Deputy Johnny Beauchamp.

The team works to recover the vehicle from the Little Sunflower Canal. Photo by David Day

The Dive Team on Monday had successfully connected some heavy chains to the vehicle, but the wire back to the tow truck wasn’t long enough to make a safe connection. Today Ward’s had doubled the length of the wire and it proved to be more than enough to reach the vehicle. At one point about 150 feet of line was out from the truck and diver John Terry was able to safely attach the wire to the chains on the vehicle, some 28 feet under the surface of the water.

Once everything was safely in place Wards began pulling the vehicle in and had it to the shoreline of the canal within a couple of minutes. Ward’s then repositioned their trucks to lift the vehicle out of the water. The right taillight came into view first and then the rear of the vehicle. On the side of the vehicle, there were several spots where the metal had rusted through, indicating the vehicle had been in the water for a very long time.

The vehicle coming out of the water. Photo by David Day

A cable snapped on the tow truck and they once again repositioned to retrieve the vehicle. The first attempt ended up breaking through the metal bumper on the rear of the vehicle. It had decayed to the point it was unable to support the weight of the vehicle. The second attempt to lift the vehicle also broke through, freeing the right rear wheel and suspension. On the third attempt, they were able to pull the vehicle to the shore and reveal the driver’s side window was broken.

The Sheriff visually inspected the interior and was able to ascertain some information. Unfortunately, the license plate heavily deteriorated and was unable to provide any quick answers. The VIN was also not readable.

The vehicle will be towed to an undisclosed location for further inspection.

The Vicksburg Daily News will update this story as more information becomes available.