Two Cars Containing Skeletal Remains Found at Bottom of Lake in Oklahoma
Police have confirmed the discovery of two cars at the bottom of Foss Lake in Oklahoma and the remains of up to six people. The cars were found three feet apart and may provide clues as to the disappearance of three teens missing since 1970 and three other people who disappeared around the same time.
"New sonar that they've got discovered two echoes that indicate that there were two cars, so today they pulled them out and when they pulled them out, they discovered human remains in both vehicles," Custer County Sheriff Bruce Peoples told KOCO News.
"Our guys just naturally assumed this may have been a stolen car pushed off into the lake," Oklahoma Highway Patrol spokeswoman Betsy Randolph told ABC News. "As soon as they pulled up the first vehicle, they found a femur bone in the driver's seat."
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Authorities have been working around-the-clock to identify the bodies but believe that they have it narrowed down to Jimmy Williams, 16, Thomas Rios, 18, and Leah Johnson, 18. The three teens were last known to be driving around the area in 1970. One of the cars found at the scene looked similar to his 1969 blue Chevrolet Camaro.
The Oklahoma State Medical Examiner's Office has taken possession of the remains and will continue to do testing in order to confirm the identities of the bodies. Meanwhile, police are searching through records of missing persons in order to help identify the bodies of the three people found in the other vehicle.
"Missing persons reports from 1969 and 1970 that originate from a neighboring jurisdiction show real similarity with the vehicles that were recovered from the lake and the investigation is proceeding along those lines," the sheriff's department said in a statement. "However, no positive identification has been made."
"It's closure for those families that no longer have to wonder what happened to their loved ones and that's one of the reasons, of course, we investigate this, to determine if a crime was committed," Peoples added.
