Couple drown when their car crashes in canal at Toledo Beach Marina

LASALLE, Mich. (FOX 2) - Two people are dead in a drowning that police believe may have been accidental.

Jill Parrinello-Davey and Darrin Gabbard had been missing for a week as it turns out, they were not far from where they were last seen. It happened at Toledo Beach Marina in La Salle, Michigan. 

Davy and Gabbard had their first date at the Sandbar Grille on Friday, Aug. 16. They were last seen at the restaurant a little after 1 a.m. on Saturday witnesses say they were having a good time - then they seemed to just vanish.

Family and friends made fliers and began searching, determined to find Jill and Darrin

"Hearing about this area, I drove down to look at it and it is overwhelming when you are talking about a missing person," said Kelly Germotte, Jill's friend. "You have a lot of water; you have a lot of land."

After a week-long search, authorities found the couple Friday afternoon at the bottom of the canal at the Toledo Beach Marina, not far from the Sandbar Grille. They were in Jill's 2004 white Chevy Malibu

"As I came up here last night after the search to do my own investigation, just kind of looking around to get a feel for it, I never would have thought that," Germotte said. "Never in a million years would I think they would be right here."

Investigators say they don't think the couple was murdered nor do they think it was a suicide pact. Police say it was likely a tragic accident, a fatal mistake. Whoever was driving, whether it be Jill or Darrin possibly not realizing where the pavement ended and the water began - it was dark out and raining.

"We had a strong feeling that water has something to do with it," Germotte said. "Their phones were pinged around 1:30 a.m. and then nothing."

Kelly Geromette is still processing the whole thing and remembering a friend she could always count on.

"This is the one thing you need to know, she loved her children," she said. "She was just so proud of them. That is the one thing she would want everyone to know. She loved her family more than life itself."