KELSEYVILLE ? A Redwood Valley couple was taken to Sutter Lakeside Hospital for medical clearance after their car was found submerged in the lake Monday morning.
Onlookers at Lakeside County Park watched as a cherry-red, convertible 2006 Chrysler Sebring was pulled from the water. A fisherman had called California Highway Patrol to report an antenna sticking up out of the water and an air tank floating nearby just before 10 a.m. Kelseyville Fire Captain Dave Bosserman and paramedic Scott Crawford found no one in the car during an initial search. County park maintenance employee Jennifer Lyon found the car”s owners, Russell and Sandra Troxler, 69, in one of the park bathrooms, where she said it appeared that they had slept.
“They told me their car was two miles down the road,” said Lyon. She said she gave them a ride, and that the couple became confused once she began to drive and said they didn”t know where their car was. Lyon said she felt sorry for the couple and took them to the Kelseyville Fire Station so they could get a bus schedule and a ride.
Having received a report of the car in the lake, fire personnel “put two and two together” once the couple said they had lost their car, according to Kelseyville fire chief Howard Strickler.
At the scene, CHP officer Craig Van Housen said a unit was bringing the couple to the scene to confirm that the convertible belonged to them, but that they were taken instead to Sutter Lakeside Hospital for medical clearance.
“They were very disoriented,” said CHP officer Adam Garcia. “They thought they were at the Pacific Ocean.”
Garcia said the CHP believes that the couple may have driven the car into the lake Sunday night, but wasn”t sure of where they had spent the night. Lyon said at the scene that the couple didn”t appear to be wet when she found them at around 7:15 a.m. Monday.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com.
