DESOTO COUNTY, Miss. — The Mississippi Highway Patrol confirmed Wednesday night that rescue crews located the body of a Memphis man who’d been missing for days after crashing a truck with his 6-year-old daughter inside into a flooded field near the Coldwater River.
Frederick Street, 53, was last seen leaving the crash site along I-55 near the DeSoto-Tate County line.
MHP said Street’s body found in the Coldwater River bottom around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. The DeSoto County Sheriff’s Office wouldn’t confirm this when reached Wednesday evening.
“I don’t understand. I don’t understand, I don’t understand,” said Street’s niece Jawanna Lee.
Lee said Street was driving his 6-year-old daughter home from her grandmother’s house Sunday night. But at some point during the journey, his SUV ended up going across the median, down an embankment on the opposite side of the interstate and into several feet of water.
Lee said Street’s daughter was unharmed.
But Charles Manscoe, who stumbled across the scene on his way home, said what was most unusual about the crash was Street’s behavior.
“When I got there, he was climbing down off of the hood,” Manscoe said. “The little girl started crying. That’s when he started trying to climb the tree and that didn’t work, and he’s in the water in front of the vehicle.”
“It looked like he was trying to get away,” he added.
Just days before the accident, Street was cited in Memphis for driving without a license. Lee said that isn’t unusual for him.
“He doesn’t have a license. He has an ID and that’s the truth. He drives with an ID,” Lee said.
WREG found Street’s ID at the scene Wednesday and turned it in to the sheriff’s office.
But Street’s family said his lack of driving privileges don’t explain the days of soul-crushing silence that followed.
“After the accident, and then not checking on his daughter’s well-being, and then not going to work and not coming home, getting clothes and stuff like that, that’s out of order,” Lee said.
The sheriff’s office said Street’s sister officially reported him missing Tuesday.
For Lee, the only thing worse than not knowing what happened to her uncle may be hearing the worst.
“Worst case scenario, I pray that it’s no bad news coming this way,” she said.