LORIS, SC (WBTW) – Horry County Fire Rescue crews confirm divers have pulled the bodies of two victims from a pond in Loris after searching the water Saturday morning.
Sunday afternoon, Horry County Deputy Coroner Michelle McSpadden identified the two victims pulled from the pond as Edgar Domenico-Torres, 23, and Phillip Taylor, 26, both from Tabor City, NC. The coroner says both men died as a result of drowning.
According to Horry County Fire Rescue spokesperson Mark Nugent, rescue dive operations began around 10 a.m. Saturday morning. Rescue divers started searching the pond, located off of Hulls Island Road, when someone called 911 around 2:42 a.m. to report a vehicle submerged in the water.
The caller told rescue crews that a person was on top of the vehicle. Horry County Fire Rescue requested rescue dive teams and Loris Fire also responded to the call. Dive rescue operations began in the early morning hours, but no victims were found. Divers resumed their search at 10 a.m. Saturday, according to tweets from HCFR.Officials say the car was submerged in 18 feet of water, and after searching for a little more than two hours, rescue divers recovered the bodies of two victims.
South Carolina Highway Patrol was on scene, according to Nugent. Law enforcement is the lead agency on the investigation. Officials have not commented on what caused the car to crash into the pond.
