Husband, wife removed from car found in Lehigh Acres canal

LEHIGH ACRES, Fla.- The bodies of a Lehigh Acres husband and wife were found in a submerged SUV pulled from a canal near North Avenue and East Jasmine Road, the Lee County Sheriff’s Office said on Friday.

Investigators say Marie A. Oszust and Chester G. Oszust, both 63, were traveling south on North Avenue sometime after 9 p.m. Thursday when their car left the roadway and entered the canal.

Friends and family say Chester was a Navy veteran who served in the Vietnam War. He and his wife, who goes by ‘Cookie,’ were very avid in the VFW and American Legion Post in Lehigh Acres. Friends say Chester was a member of the Honor Guard and went to every funeral and memorial service in the area.

“They were very good friends to just everybody around here,” Lester Waide said.

Waide has known the couple for more than ten years.

“I was just totally shocked. I couldn’t believe it.”

Friends say the couple had been at the VFW on Thursday night celebrating their 39th anniversary. They left around 10:30 p.m.

“I noticed that the sheriff’s department came up this way and I looked out and I’d seen the car,” Coleen Spillman, who lives near the canal said.

Several people who live near the canal say this is at least the fourth car that had to be pulled out. They say their street needs more lights, better signs, and possibly even a guardrail.

“On both sides it should be improved, because that little yellow thing doesn’t tell you that,” Marie Combs said.

“If they put something that’s going to stop the cars from going straight to the canal, that’s going to be great I think,” another neighbor said.

Chester and Cookie’s family members were understandably too upset to comment, but lowered the flag outside of the couple’s home to half staff.

“All I can say is they were a couple of great people and we’re going to miss them,” Waide said.

A bill, called Chloe’s Law, is moving through the state legislature that would put guardrails up along every canal in the state of Florida.