The Missoula County coroner has identified the man whose body was pulled from a vehicle in the Clark Fork River as a 71-year-old from Missoula.
Officials recovered Melvin Arthur Beedle’s body Wednesday, a day after a maroon SUV drove off a fast-food parking lot and into the river.
The coroner’s office said Thursday the cause of Beedle’s death has not yet been determined.
Missoula Police Department spokesman Travis Welsh says searchers found the vehicle completely submerged and upside down near a trestle about 200 yards downstream from where it entered the river.
He says a line attached to the vehicle caused it to turn right-side up with the top at the surface, and a rescuer was able get access through a window.