Four found dead in Lek River likely the family missing after a Rotterdam wedding

Four people found dead in the Lek River were likely killed when the car they were traveling in crashed into the water. The four are believed to be a father, mother, and their two adult daughters, according to Rijnmond. Police have not confirmed the identity of the deceased. Sources told the news outlet they are presumably the same people who went missing after a wedding in Rotterdam.

Family and friends took to social media in an attempt to track them down over the weekend. Messages shared publicly across Facebook noted that the four were at a wedding reception on Saturday evening near Cicerostraat in Rotterdam, and left the event close to midnight. The four adults, all residents of Gouda, had not been heard from since.

They left the wedding in a grey Nissan Micra. Video shot at an investigation site along the Lek River showed that a vehicle of the same make and model was pulled from the river early Monday morning. It also had the same license plate number as the vehicle identified by concerned relatives on social media.

Before the car was found, emergency services records show that a body was discovered in the Lek near Streefkerk at about 3:30 p.m. on Sunday. People along Opperstok spotted the woman’s body, and contacted authorities. Emergency services were sent en masse to the area, but the woman was pronounced dead at the scene. She had apparently been dead for several hours, Rijnmond reported.

Some time later, another woman’s body was found in the Lek, closer to the Groot-Ammers side of the river. Divers searching the water then found the Nissan in the early morning hours of Monday. Two more bodies were inside the vehicle.

An ongoing investigation was attempting to determine how the car wound up in the river. Rijnmond noted that there is a ferry between Streefkerk and Groot-Ammers near the crash site, but no other river crossings were constructed there. Investigators will examine if the driver was using a navigation system, and if bad directions may have played a part in the incident.