Police confirm body found in river is missing Ormond Beach woman
ORMOND BEACH — Carly Bowie was 7 1/2 miles from home as she drove back after a night of celebrating her 21st birthday with friends.
She never made it.
Bowie called her worried parents about 5:15 a.m. Tuesday to say she was 10 minutes from their home in Halifax Plantation.
"They were all at a friend's house," her mother Donna Bowie said in a brief phone interview. "It was a bunch of friends she had not seen since high school."
But soon after that phone call, Bowie's pickup crashed through a bridge wall and plunged into the Tomoka River.
The truck was found in 10 feet of water Tuesday morning in the 2000 block of North Beach Street.
Police said they found a body in the river at 3:19 p.m. on Wednesday. Three hours later, police confirmed it was Bowie.
Donna Bowie was hoping for the best but feared the worst as she spoke to the media outside their home.
“She was a fantastic young woman,” Donna Bowie said. “This is a tragedy.”
According to a police report, Carly Bowie's northbound pickup failed to negotiate a curve in the 2000 block of North Beach Street and crashed into a guardrail south of Pine Tree Drive.
The pickup apparently bounced off the guard rail three times and then crossed the southbound lane before crashing over the wall of a bridge and landing in the river, the report said.
Police found the submerged vehicle, the report said. Bowie was not inside.
Multiple agencies searched the water near Tomoka State Park on Tuesday after the vehicle was reported in the river at 5:39 a.m., police said.
According to the crash report released by police, investigators believe the pickup was traveling 60 mph in a 35 mph zone when it failed to negotiate the curve.
Several personal items were recovered from the vehicle and submitted into evidence, police said.
The Volusia County Sheriff's dive team, along with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Coast Guard, took part in the search.
Carly Bowie worked at her family's flooring business.
— Staff writer Katie Kustura contributed to this report.
