Black said muddy conditions in the field prevented him from exploring the mysterious object.

The truck was removed from the drainage ditch at around 1 p.m. by McLead’s Towing of Alexandria.

Dunnichay said the results of Zalinski’s autopsy were pending on Monday and expected them to be released sometime on Tuesday.

“We should possibly know whether this was a drowning or hypothermia death,” he said.

Toxicology reports will not be available for a couple of weeks, he said.

Jan Shipley, the mother of Zalinski’s girlfriend, said the family believes Zalinski’s body would not have been found without Hendricks and attention from the local media. “He could have been out there for a year.”

Though he may have been intoxicated when he crashed his truck on Dec. 20, Jan Shipley said she knows what his intentions were when he took to the road. “He was trying to come home to her and his babies. That was his life. He loved them. He tried his best to come home. It was real slick and nasty that night, but he tried to come home.”

Shipley said she and her daughter drove along the road where he was eventually found and saw no evidence of him.

Shipley said it was not uncommon for Zalinski to use backroads when traveling. “He liked to go through the country. He loved the country.”

Shipley said her daughter had not yet been able to tell her two children about Zalinski’s passing. Zalinski was a surrogate father to the 8-year-old girl and 5-year-old boy, she said. “She can’t go home and tell her babies because she doesn’t know how. She’s all in pieces.”

Stephanie Shipley was too upset to speak with the media on Monday and Zalinski’s family could not be reached for comment.