CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N.Y. (WKBW) — Two weeks after Daniel Scott Emerson disappeared from Lakewood, authorities say they have found his truck in Chautauqua Lake.
Family members reported the 64-year-old Lakewood man missing earlier this month.
Lakewood Busti Police learned a state trooper pulled Emerson over in his red Ford F-150 pickup truck for a traffic infraction at about 12:30 a.m. March 3 in Lakewood, but let him go with a warning.
Then the Chautauqua County Sheriff's Office got a tip.
"We received some information that the vehicle had been driving on Chautauqua Lake," Chautauqua County Sheriff James Quattrone told 7 News. "On the ice."
Lakewood Police posted an alert on Facebook, asking lakeside residents to check cameras for any sightings of a vehicle driving across the ice-covered lake.
"Between the tips that we got after putting that out and the tips that we got from family members over the weekend, it really helped the Chautauqua County Sheriff's Department dive team pinpoint an area to search. And once they started, which I believe was around 9 a.m., it was an hour or so after they had located the vehicle," Lakewood Busti Police Chief Matthew Bentley said.
WATCH: Missing Lakewood man's truck found in Chautauqua Lake
But wintry weather got in the way.
"We haven't been able to see in the vehicle or to be able to get a door open to inspect the inside of the vehicle," Quattrone said.
"Still a ways away. We need to get the vehicle out of the water, see what condition it's in, and see what else we can find from an evidence standpoint inside the vehicle," Bentley said.
Quattrone said he has never personally seen a vehicle other than snowmobiles out on the lake.
"I'm not saying that it hasn't happened," Quattrone said.
Authorities hope to be able to recover the vehicle as early as Thursday, depending on the weather.
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