A local man died Sunday when his SUV went into a retention pond near Menards and Walmart on the west side of Columbus.

Capt. Mike Wilson, spokesman for the Columbus Fire Department, says that a vehicle driven by 37-year-old Thomas Kedrowitz, of Columbus, left the road and went through a farmer’s field before driving into the pond. A witness told investigators that she did not see anyone surface after the vehicle entered the water.

Wilson says that first-responders arrived within minutes. Firefighters entered the water and performed a surface-water search, but were unable to find the SUV. The Bartholomew County Water Rescue and Recovery Team arrived and deployed two water craft, while CFD firefighters utilized a Rapid Deployment Craft, an inflatable watercraft used for surface ice and water rescues, and began to drag the bottom of the retention pond. Wilson says that dive members entered the water at 12:32 p.m. and found the vehicle about 10 minutes later, some 15 feet below the surface. Divers searched the vehicle and confirmed that Kedrowitz was the sole occupant.

Wilson says the SUV was pulled out of the retention pond at approximately 2 p.m. Traffic was diverted from the area for approximately three hours.

The investigation into what caused the crash is ongoing, as is Kedrowitz’s cause of death.