by Chris Conley

UPDATE: The white SUV was pulled from the water at 2:54 p.m., and was covered by a tarp. Captain Clayton Schulz confirms one male occupant was inside the gold Lincoln Navigator SUV. No other information is being released until the investigation is more complete, the victim is positively identified, and his family is notified.

SCHOFIELD, Wis. (WSAU) -- A vehicle was discovered in the Eau Claire River in Schofield Tuesday morning, just west of the Grand Avenue bridge.

Everest Metro Police Captain Clayton Schulz says the investigation began just after 8:00 a.m. “We had a call shortly after eight this morning. A passerby noticed that there was a vehicle in the river. A call came in (as) he ran to a neighbor business and said to call 9-1-1. When we arrived on scene, we could observe what looked like a lighter colored vehicle, the roof just under the surface in the middle of the Eau Claire River on the west side of the Grand Avenue bridge.”

Schulz says the Marathon County Sheriff’s Department dive team has been busy trying to determine if anyone is still inside. “We’re taking pictures of the vehicle underwater. They’re working with their sonar. We do know that the vehicle owner, we are looking at contacting right now to find out if that person had the vehicle or if he or she knew who had the vehicle this morning.”

At this point, Schulz says they are not sure if anyone is inside the vehicle because of the water clarity and the locked doors. “The windows are up. We can’t see in to determine if there’s anybody in there. Being with the time frame, it would be a recovery mission at this point if there were anybody located inside. The plan is to float the vehicle using floatation devices and bring that whole vehicle back towards shore, at what time it will be brought up to shore and let the water drain, and then we’ll examine the contents.”

Schulz says they are working the scene carefully because they don’t know yet if it is a crash or a crime scene. “We are treating this as we do any potential scene, that it was a crime. We don’t know that right now, but that’s what all of the precautionary measures are. That’s why we’re not under the water breaking windows and doing that, because if there’s something more that we don’t know, we want to preserve that.”

The Captain says they know very little about the crash right now, and they don’t know exactly when it happened. “Right now, we don’t know why the vehicle is in the water, who took the vehicle, who had the vehicle, we don’t know if anybody’s in there. Without having any information, we have to treat it, you know, as we’re preserving evidence at any scene.”The passerby tried to help after getting a neighbor to call 9-1-1. “No, nobody saw it go in. I did not speak directly to that individual, but he did jump in the water and did go under the water and could not access the doors because they were locked. Shortly thereafter, we arrived on the scene.”

The recovery effort is expected to take much of the day.