JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A high-speed chase leads to a watery death for a Jacksonville man.
The man's body was pulled from the Little Trout River near the Dinsmore boat ramp around 8:15 Saturday morning after police said he tried to get away from deputies after a police chase.
Nassau County deputies said they attempted a traffic stop around 1:30 a.m. in Callahan but the man in the SUV drove away and a chase began.
Deputies say the driver tried to ram a patrol car, but missed. They said the chase reached speeds of about 100 miles an hour.
Three deputies chased his SUV into Duval County, when they say the driver ditched his SUV along a tree line, ran across the road and jumped into Little Trout River near the boat ramp and did not resurface.
"He swam out into the creek. The officers were on the edge of the water. They observed him go in there. And that was the last anybody saw him," Ly John Slebos with the Nassau County Sheriffs Office said.
Deputies said they did not go into the water after the man.
Jacksonville Sheriff's officers arrived to help deputies with the Nassau County sheriff's office and JSO divers recovered the man's body from the river.
No word on why the man was trying to get away from deputies or what was in the vehicle.
Deputies said the SUV was not stolen and the man's girlfriend who owns the vehicle came to pick it up.
Jacksonville Homicide detectives are now investigating since the chase ended in Duval County.
The medical examiner will do an autopsy to determine his exact cause of death.