The King County Medical Examiner’s Office has determined that asphyxiation due to drowning caused the death of the Island man who drove his car into Lake Washington at Calkins Landing on March 2. The death was listed as a suicide. Mercer Island Marine Patrol divers discovered the car, an Acura RSX, upside-down at the bottom of the lake about 40 feet off the shoreline shortly before 6 p.m. on March 2. Officers were notified of the incident when a city employee noticed tire marks leading into the lake at approximately 4 p.m. After the vehicle was pulled from the lake, police discovered a man in the driver’s seat of the car. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Police were able to identify the man, born in 1983, as an Island resident. The body was transported to the King County Medical Examiner’s Office at Harborview. The man’s family, who were in Thailand at the time of the accident, have been notified.

The Reporter does not release names in cases of suicide. Information on the man can be obtained through the King County Medical Examiner’s Office at 206-731-3232.