The man whose body was found in a vehicle overturned in a pond along the Baltimore-Washington Parkway Monday afternoon had been reported missing 10 days prior, U.S. Park Police said.
Marcus Lee Freeman 26, had been reported missing Oct. 16.
Around 2 p.m. Monday, a Park Service worker cutting grass found Freeman's Silver Camry submerged in water on the northbound side of the BW Parkway near Laurel, Maryland. The worker called for help, and a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Officer and a U.S. Park Police lieutenant went into the water.
They found Freeman's body in the vehicle.
His father, Mark Freeman, said the news was devastating.
"I laid across my bed, put my jacket over my head last night, and I said, 'Lord, please wake me up. When are you going to wake me up from this nightmare?'" the city employee said Tuesday.
He'd been looking for his oldest son since he'd disappeared, but that search came to a painful end Monday.
"I never thought it was going to happen," he said. "It was a shock."
On Oct. 15, Marcus Freeman and his brother went to a bar in College Park. They returned home and the man told his family he needed to get gas, his father said. He wasn't seen or heard from again. A missing flier showed his silver Toyota Camry.
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Freeman's family waited for 10 agonizing days before that vehicle was found with Freeman inside.
The ravine where the Camry was spotted is deep and cannot be seen from the parkway because of heavy brush and large trees.
It's unknown how long Freeman was inside the car. Investigators spent hours Monday examining tire tracks and other evidence to determine how and why Freeman's car left the road.
Debris was scattered in the area.
Tire tracks indicate the path the car took as it left the roadway, past the exit to Route 198. The car continued across a grassy strip and into the woods. It flipped over onto his roof, ending up in a pond about 100 feet below.
Mark Freeman said he wants his son's love and humor to stay alive.
I don't want people to remember him by the mistakes he made or by the mistake he made that night when he decided to go out," he said. "I want them to remember for the contribution he made in the hearts of the people he knew."
