Relatives and friends of Jacques Lzan Robinson of Itta Bena have been frantically trying since Saturday to find the missing 41-year-old.
On Tuesday, authorities in Sunflower County, investigating a submerged vehicle in the Sunflower River between the cities of Moorhead and Indianola on U.S. 82, found Robinson’s body inside.
Acting Itta Bena Police Chief Ted Washington, who was at the scene Tuesday, said Robinson’s body was identified by family members.
Washington had earlier said family members had come to his office Monday, as well as to the Leflore County Sheriff’s Department, to file missing person reports on Robinson.
In addition, Washington said, Robinson owned a late-model Lincoln Continental similar to the vehicle recovered from the river.
Retrieving the vehicle required a multi-jurisdictional response from the Sunflower County Sheriff’s Department, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and the Leflore County Sheriff’s Department. A diving team from Leflore County was dispatched to the scene.
According to authorities, Robinson apparently hit the bridge’s guard rail and abutment before leaving the roadway entirely and plunging into the river below.
The force of the impact apparently “tore the guard rail off the bridge,” Washington said. The vehicle itself sustained massive damage to its passenger side.
Divers found Robinson, who apparently had been driving alone at the time of the accident, pinned inside the submerged vehicle, Washington said.
He said that the last location of Robinson’s cellphone had been tracked by a nearby cell tower and that helped investigators pinpoint the vehicle’s location.
