ASHTABULA TOWNSHIP — A missing Ashtabula man was found dead by relatives early Monday afternoon in the Ashtabula Gulf.
Joseph F. Wilson, 54, apparently lost control of his vehicle Saturday as he drove east on West 58th Street down the steep hill to the gulf. He then veered left of center, off the roadway, flattening the west end of the guardrail and drove off the edge down into the gulf.
His car was not visible from the roadway.
His brother-in-law, Ted Hines, spent Sunday and until 1 p.m. Monday riding his motorcycle throughout the area, searching for Wilson. As he drove through the gulf Monday, he caught the damaged guardrail out of the corner of his eye, said his sister-in-law, Stacie Gregory of Jefferson.
“We knew something happened, Joe has been missing since Saturday afternoon,” said Gregory, who was crying at the scene. “He was drinking. We know that. My mom and dad tried to stop him from driving, but he wouldn’t listen.”
Hines, Gregory, and another one of Wilson’s sisters had scoured Jefferson and Ashtabula, looking for Wilson’s car.
They also reported him missing at the Jefferson Police and Ashtabula County Sheriff’s departments.
When Hines found the vehicle, local law enforcement was notified, and although her relatives tried to stop her, Gregory climbed down the steep incline and rocky terrain to see her brother.
“He didn’t suffer,” she said.
Within minutes, Ashtabula Township and Ashtabula City fire departments, Ashtabula city police, a sheriff’s deputy and several troopers with the Ohio Highway Patrol arrived on the scene.
Troopers and firefighters used a rope to climb down to the vehicle as they waited for Jim Baehr, an investigator with the Ashtabula County coroner’s office.
Baehr pronounced him dead at the scene.
Then the fire departments and OHP went about getting Wilson and the vehicle out of the gulf.
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