Two bodies were found near this location inside a car submerged in an Irving canal on January 4, 2012. (credit: Google Maps)

IRVING (CBSDFW.COM) - Two bodies were found Wednesday afternoon in a car that was submerged in an Irving canal.

Irving Police Department spokesman John Argumaniz said that staffers with the Dallas County Water Utility and Reclamation District were in the canal performing routine maintenance when they noticed debris scattered around them and guardrail damage along a nearby bridge. The team saw something that resembled a car, but they were not positive. They called assistance and the Lewisville Fire Department brought a dive team to help, Argumaniz said.

Divers found a submerged Porsche with two bodies –– one male, one female ––  inside the vehicle as they were checking it out. The man has been identified by the Dallas County Medical Examiner’s Office as 41-year-old Ronald Eddins. The woman has not yet been identified. And police investigators returned to the canal on Thursday morning to search the water for a possible third body.

Argumaniz explained that the initial investigation found that the vehicle was traveling westbound on Northwest Highway at Riverside Drive when the driver is believed to have lost control, hitting an abutment and then sailing down an embankment, striking the guardrail before landing in the canal.

No witnesses saw the car land in the canal, but there is a clear trail leading into the water. Investigators have speculated that the crash happened sometime within 24 hours of when the car was discovered. “It probably happened late at night or early in the morning, when traffic is a lot less,” said Officer Steve Burres with the Irving Police Department. “Otherwise, someone would have probably called it in a lot earlier. Someone would have seen it.”

Argumaniz said that speed is believed to be a factor in the fatal crash.