Car goes into Thornapple River, Driver Dies

CASCADE TWP., Mich. (Newschannel 3) - One man is dead after apparently driving his car into the Thornapple River on Thursday.

It happened by the intersection of Thornapple River and Laraway around 4:30 in the morning.

Emergency crews got several phone calls from the man after his car plunged into the water, but when rescue crews arrived, they could barely see the roof of the car above the rapids.

"With the amount of water you see out there now, this is the highest the Thornapple River's been in recent years, obviously it's never this high this late in the season," said John Shipley with the Cascade Fire Department.

There were no skid marks leading up to where the car went into the river, and that leads investigators to believe that the driver didn't want to stop.

Sandi Kothe lives right by where the car went under on the Thornapple, and says she fears this could happen to someone else.

It's kind of tragic, it's dark here," said Kothe. "If he's not familiar with the area, it's all speculation... we don't know what happened."

Investigators aren't sure what happened either, but here's what they don't know: Richard Bowman, 57, was from the Lansing area, and was driving a rented Chrysler 300. He died on the way to the hospital after he was pulled from the sinking car.

In a twist to this story, Newschannel 3 has learned that Bowman was to be sentenced for several fraud-related federal crimes on Thursday.

Bowman made several emergency phone calls while he was in the water, and investigators are now taking a look at those calls as evidence in the case.

Kent County Sheriff's deputies say that not once during any of the emergency phone calls, did the man in the river actually tell a dispatcher he was in the water.