Officials ID man whose car plunged into Ohio River

FORT THOMAS, Ky. — David Bouma's office was less than 10 miles from his home, but almost two weeks ago when he was coming home from a job across the Ohio River, he found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The 32-year-old who lived in Milford, Ohio, was killed as his red Pontiac Grand Prix was pushed to the side and over a barricade on the Interstate 275 bridge as 12 vehicles became involved in four to five separate accidents. He was unable to escape, Kentucky Medical Examiner's Office officials said Sunday.

Divers, who finally were able to recover his car Saturday from the Ohio River after rough currents prevented earlier attempts, found Bouma's body inside.

"On every project, David was the guy that would always go above and beyond what was asked of him," officials with Cardinal Solutions Group said on their Facebook page Monday. Bouma had worked in the Cincinnati-based computer software developer's applications development group for almost five years. They called him an "invaluable asset to the team."

Body found in car pulled from Ohio River

Bouma died from head trauma, not drowning, according to autopsy results.

Bouma's mother, Ann Bouma, had called Milford police two days after the accident, asking officers to make a welfare check at her son's house. When officers arrived, they found no one home and notified Kentucky police officials that David Bouma was missing.

Officials from Cardinal Solutions had called the man's mom in Jenison, Mich., when her son didn't report to work the morning after the wreck, WCPO-TV, Cincinnati, reported. He had clocked out from General Cable in Highland Heights, Ky. at about 4 p.m. the day he died.

David Bouma will be memorialized in his hometown Thursday, according to an obituary published Monday in The Grand Rapids Press.

What is remains unknown is whether David Bouma had other passengers in his car, which was surrounded with debris and filled with river silt and sand when divers found it. Initial police scanner reports described a red vehicle with three passengers that fell into the river around 4:30 p.m. ET March 15.

The Grand Prix had flipped in its descent and was resting on its hood on the river bottom in about 40 feet of water. A camera attached to a nearby pier captured video of the car falling off the bridge.

Kentucky officials have taken the lead in the investigation because that state owns much of the Ohio River. A Supreme Court ruling in 1980 puts the boundary between the states at the low-water mark on the north side of the river in 1792, when Kentucky became a state; Ohio didn't become a state until 1803.

Contributing: Kate Murphy and Mallorie Sullivan, The Cincinnati Enquirer. Follow Kevin Grasha in Twitter: @kgrasha

David Bouma, 32, of Milford, Ohio, died March 15 during a chain-reaction accident when his red Pontiac Grand Prix plunged off the Interstate 275 bridge that spans the Ohio River between Fort Thomas, Ky., and Cincinnati.