Man, 57, drives off cliff into Lake Erie

The province’s Special Investigations Unit is investigating after a 57-year-old man drove his vehicle off of the cliff at the end of Springfield Road into Lake Erie southeast of Aylmer on Friday afternoon, June 23.

Members of the Ontario Provincial Police’s Underwater Search and Recovery Unit started the effort to retrieve the man’s body from the fully submerged vehicle on Saturday morning, June 24 while the province’s Special Investigation Unit (SIU) had taken over the investigation.

On Sunday morning, June 25, SIU spokesman Monica Hudon confirmed the man’s body had been recovered and a post-mortem would be conducted the next day.

OPP Sergeant David Rektor said at 4:43 p.m. on Friday, June 23 an Elgin County OPP officer was on Springfield Road looking for a “suspicious vehicle.”

“The officer observed the vehicle and while turning to conduct a traffic stop, observed something thrown from the vehicle,” Sgt. Rektor said. “The officer stopped to retrieve the package thrown from the vehicle.”

While patrolling the last known route of the suspect vehicle, the officer was contacted by a “civilian” who told them the vehicle had driven over a cliff at the end of Springfield Road ending up in Lake Erie, Sgt Rektor said.

“The OPP has notified the province’s Special Investigation Unit which has invoked its mandate,” Sgt. Rektor said, adding further inquiries should be directed to SIU’s communications line.

No further information was available.

The SIU urged anyone with information on the incident to contact the lead investigator at 1-800-787-8529, ext. 1935.

They also urged anyone who had video evidence to upload the footage to the SIU website.

The SIU is an arm’s length agency that investigates reports involving police where there has been death, serious injury or allegations of sexual assault.