NAVARRE — A man who drove his pickup truck into the East Bay River on Monday and died has been identified as Justin Raye Diel, 39, of Navarre, according to the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office.
Diel, a retired Hurlburt Field airman, had borrowed a maroon pickup truck from a friend and told his mother he needed to return it, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
His mother was following him in the borrowed pickup about 1:40 p.m. on State Road 87 when Diel turned his own tan pickup truck onto a road leading to the river, according to the incident report from the Sheriff’s Office. She stopped her truck and tried to open the other truck’s door, but he drove into the water, the Sheriffs’ Office reported.
His mother told deputies that “when she saw the water, she knew what he was going to do,” according to the report.
Members of the Sheriff’s Office’s dive team had visibility of less than 6 inches at times as they searched for the truck, a according to a Sheriff’s Office news release. The truck finally was found at 3:30 p.m.
A commercial tow truck tried to pull it from the water but could not. Divers had to reattach the cables so a second, larger tow truck could pull the pickup from the water, the news release said.
Diel was reported dead at about 5:41 p.m., according to the incident report.
