VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – Virginia Beach Police are working to learn if a missing male is somehow connected to the car that went off the Virginia Beach Fishing Pier on Saturday.
A family contacted the police about a missing relative, according to a Virginia Beach Police spokesperson.
Police said the missing person case has many similarities to the circumstances surrounding the car that plunged off the Fishing Pier into the water, although they didn’t share the specific correlations between the two cases. Police have not officially confirmed that the two cases were related.
They did share the following statement about their investigation:
“Though we have indicators these cases are related, at this time, we are unable to confirm this missing person is associated with the car that still has to be recovered. The ROV HAS NOT been able to discern if the submerged vehicle has a license plate attached.
Once the vehicle is recovered, we will need the local office of the Medical Examiner to confirm identity of any occupant(s). The ongoing recovery efforts remain focused on reuniting any occupant(s) with their loved ones and maintaining the integrity of the investigation.”
On Saturday, Jan. 27, a car broke through multiple gates and drove onto the Fishing Pier before plunging off the end into the ocean.
The car now rests on the ocean floor a few hundred feet from the Virginia Beach boardwalk, according to police.
On Monday, Virginia Beach Police made a series of posts to X, formerly Twitter, walking followers through each step of the process as many wonder why a body or bodies still have not been recovered.
"Because it is a crime scene, we want to leave it encapsulated as best we can," Sgt. Brian Ricardo, with VBPD's Special Operations Bureau, said. "If we open up that portal to the ocean, we're going to lose evidence."
Ricardo said Monday the car is on its roof leaning towards the beach.
In the series of X posts, VBPD shared two clips of video footage taken by a remotely operated vehicle where, through the murky water, images of what appears to be the vehicle can be seen. In one clip, a tire briefly appears; in the other, a flash of red.
Videos of the incident and aftermath at the pier spread widely since Saturday, generating more than 10 million views on social media sites Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. In the comments, many express dismay at a lack of updates on the car's occupants.
"The car is unstable," Ricardo said. "The fear for us is not that it will drift but that one of the divers will get entangled in the car."
A VBPD X post adds, "The goal of this mission remains to safely retrieve the vehicle, reunite any & all occupants with their loved ones, & maintain the integrity of all evidence."
On Sunday, VBPD worked with a team from Crofton Industries, a group they said brought "extensive experience & access to the appropriate equipment to salvage objects form the ocean floor" but ultimately, "tumultuous surface conditions" prevented the effort.
Chains and mooring lines were broken, and Crofton was forced to return for repairs.
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