Police find body inside submerged vehicle in Fernan Lake; missing CdA woman was last seen driving it

Authorities on Saturday located a body inside a submerged vehicle in Fernan Lake last seen being driven by a missing Coeur d’Alene woman.

Sharon Archer, 62, of Coeur d’Alene, was last seen driving the 2013 Toyota Highlander on Sept. 28, according to a Coeur d’Alene Police Department news release. Archer has been missing for almost a month.

Positive identification of the person who was found will not be made until further investigation and after an autopsy by the medical examiner, police said.

A resident contacted police Saturday to report what he believed was a white object submerged in the lake in the area of the boat ramp, the release said. Police said the reporting party fishes from the boat docks almost daily and he told officers he first saw the object sometime last weekend and again Wednesday.

He told police the object was only noticeable when the sunlight hit it just right, and was far enough out from the dock that he could not determine what it was. He saw a Facebook post this weekend about a search party being formed to look for Archer and that she was driving a white vehicle, which prompted him to call the police.

Coeur d’Alene police detectives and the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office Marine Division responded to Fernan Lake and found the submerged vehicle 150 feet from shore.

Detectives notified Archer’s family of the information.