Rocky Mount, N.C. — Authorities recovered the bodies of a missing South Carolina couple from inside a vehicle submerged in water along Interstate 95 in Rocky Mount, the North Carolina Highway Patrol said Monday evening.

Wayne Anthony Guay, 57, and Dianne Guay, 55, of Myrtle Beach, S.C., were positively identified as the occupants inside the white Mazda with South Carolina registration, the Highway Patrol said.

Troopers were notified at about 3:30 p.m. about the vehicle, which was found in a swampy area located between mile markers 139 and 140. Sgt. Keith Stone, with the Highway Patrol, said the vehicle apparently ran off the road, hit a tree and landed in a creek.

Authorities did not know how the couple died. The cause of wreck is under investigation but troopers said they did not think speed was a factor.

The Guays were on their way to visit family members in Queens, N.Y. for an early holiday. Christmas gifts were still in the back seat of their four-door sedan when crews pulled it from the creek.

Last week, Nash County 911 Communications had notified the Highway Patrol of a traffic collision near the location where the vehicle was recovered, but emergency personnel were never able to locate a collision at the location or see any debris, the Highway Patrol said.

"A lot of times, these accidents are given out on I-95 in the northbound lane, and it could be a three- or four-mile stretch," Stone said.

A Department of Transportation employee doing work along the highway Monday spotted some luggage floating in the creek. When he went for a closer look, he found the car submerged, authorities said.

The Guays' son-in-law, Mike Liendo, said Monday evening that the family was shocked when it learned that the Highway Patrol was called to the scene but found nothing. He criticized the Highway Patrol for not conducting an immediate or thorough search for the couple.