18-year-old Rodrigo ‘Rico’ Montes remains missing following the discovery of the truck in Lake Station, Indiana’s Deep River

Family and police have been searching for Rodrigo 'Rico' Montes, who is a senior at River Forest High School in Hobart, after a truck was found submerged in Deep River, near 27th Avenue and Wyoming.

Rodrigo “Rico” Montes.Credit : Lake Station Police Department

A high school senior from Indiana told his family he was riding home with a friend. After a truck was found overturned in a river, officials and family members are urgently searching for the missing teen.

On Monday, March 23, at approximately 4:20 a.m. local time, officers responded to 27th Avenue and Wyoming Street following a report that a vehicle was found overturned in the Deep River in Lake Station, the Lake Station Police Department said in a statement.

Officials said the department and other agencies launched a search for “a male subject believed to have been inside the vehicle,” later identified as 18-year-old Rodrigo “Rico” Montes.

Hobart Fire Department responded on a mutual aid request to the Lake Station area for a report of a vehicle overturned on its roof in the river.

A truck was found submerged in a body of water in Lake Station, Ind.Hobart Fire Department Facebook

“This was a large, coordinated effort involving multiple agencies working together under challenging conditions,” the Hobart Fire Department, a responding agency, said in a statement on Monday.

The Lake Station Police Department and the Hobart Fire Department did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s requests for additional information.

As of Wednesday, March 25, the River Forest High School senior remains missing, The Chicago Tribune, CW affiliate WGN and NBC affiliate WMAQ reported.

The teen was last seen at a gathering on the night of Sunday, March 22, his family told ABC affiliate WLS.

“All we know is he was at a cookout. He was going to go home, and he never made it back,” Montes’ brother, Adolfo Montes, told the outlet.

Just hours later, the truck was found in the river.

Hobart Fire Department responded on a mutual aid request to the Lake Station area for a report of a vehicle overturned on its roof in the river.

First responders in Indiana have been searching for the missing teen for days.Hobart Fire Department Facebook

The teen’s brother, Saul Montes, told WLS that the most difficult part of the situation is not knowing Rico’s location.

“He could be anywhere. He could be walking somewhere. He could be in the water. He could be out unconscious,” Saul told the outlet. “We just, we just want to know where he’s at.”

On Tuesday, police helicopters continued to search from the air as canines searched along the riverside, The Chicago Tribune reported.

Rico is described as Latino, with brown hair and brown eyes. He is 5 feet, 7 inches tall, and weighs 150 pounds. The teen was last seen wearing white and gold shoes, a red hoodie and black jeans, the outlet reported.

Anyone with information about his disappearance is asked to contact the Lake Station Police Department by emailing [email protected].

One of the most unsettling details in the case emerged only after the search teams recovered personal belongings from the water near Deep River. Among the items was a phone believed to belong to Rodrigo “Rico” Montes, the missing teen from Lake Station. According to reports, the device appeared to still be attempting to transmit a final location signal even after being pulled from the river. Investigators are now examining the phone’s data to reconstruct the final timeline, as the last digital signals could reveal where the vehicle was, how long it remained in the water, and what may have happened in those final moments before everything went silent. The discovery has added another layer of mystery to the case, with many believing the phone may hold some of the last clues to what really happened that night.