Simpsonville, Kentucky: Michelle and John Peterson Identified in Lake of the Ozarks Plane Crash

The two people killed in a small plane crash at the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri on Tuesday were identified on Thursday as Michelle Peterson, 51, and John Peterson, 52, both of Simpsonville, Kentucky, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

Michelle Peterson won the District 1 seat on the Shelby County Board of Education in Tuesday's election, hours after the crash, according to preliminary results reported by WLKY-TV and carried by the Courier Journal.

What happened on Tuesday

The plane crashed on Tuesday afternoon, Nov. 3, shortly after taking off from Lee C. Fine Memorial Airport in Kaiser, Missouri, the highway patrol said. The Miller County Coroner's Office said the plane went down in Lake of the Ozarks State Park in central Missouri and was on fire when first responders arrived.

The Courier Journal reported that the fire engulfed the aircraft, and that after the fire was put out, two dead people were found inside the wreckage. The highway patrol said the crash happened around 2:30 p.m.

The identification on Thursday

The coroner's office said earlier that preliminary identifications had been made and that people believed to be the next of kin had been told, while positive identification was still pending. On Thursday, the names were released publicly, and Louisville stations and the Courier Journal reported them the same day.

The coroner's office said it found no suspicious circumstances around the deaths, according to both the Courier Journal and WDRB and WAVE in Louisville.

A school board win on election night

Simpsonville sits in Shelby County, east of Louisville. Michelle Peterson was a candidate for the District 1 seat on the county board of education, and preliminary results on Tuesday night showed her winning the race, the Courier Journal reported. WDRB and WAVE also reported that she won the District 1 seat in Tuesday's midterm election.

The reports on Thursday did not say what the school board will do next about the District 1 seat, or when she had been due to take office. No funeral or memorial information was included in the reports.

The investigation

The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash, the highway patrol and the coroner's office said. K105 in Kentucky reported that the safety board had not yet entered information about the crash into its database as of Thursday.

Officials have released no cause for the crash. The highway patrol has not said where the flight was headed, and neither agency has given a timeline for its findings.