EVESHAM TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) -- Police dispatched Tuesday to tell a woman that her boyfriend had survived a vehicle's plunge into a river found the couple's house on fire and the woman dead inside.
Authorities have not said whether the case is a botched murder-suicide attempt or came about through other circumstances.
Emergency operators received a call about a vehicle splashing into the Delaware River shortly before 2 a.m. Firefighters used a boat to rescue a man who managed to climb atop the partially submerged vehicle, said Jack Smith, spokesman for the Burlington County prosecutor's office.
Smith said the man, Joseph Morice, 28, was believed to be alone when the vehicle belonging to his girlfriend went into the river. He was taken to the hospital and released.
Shortly before 3 a.m., police in Evesham were sent to the man's home _ more than 15 miles south of where the car plunged into the river _ to tell his girlfriend he had survived.
When they arrived, the three-story townhouse was ablaze. The body of Lauren Noble, 29, was found outside a bathroom. An autopsy was under way Tuesday afternoon.
Denne Keller, a neighbor of the couple and former neighborhood association president, said other neighbors had told them they heard the couple fighting in recent weeks.
