Cold, wet cases: Oklahoma troopers stumble on six bodies in two cars at bottom of lake

[jakeXT]

Source: NBCNews

Two decades-old cars containing six skeletons were recovered from a lake in a remote, sparsely populated area of southwestern Oklahoma, officials said Tuesday — potentially solving a pair of cold cases that have bedeviled local authorities for years.

Oklahoma Highway Patrol officials stumbled upon the mud-covered cars — a blue 1969 Chevrolet Camaro and a 1950s-era car — while testing new sonar equipment during a training exercise last week at Foss Lake, near the tiny town of Foss (population: 157) in Custer County, authorities said.

After initially having reported that five bodies were discovered, Custer County Sheriff Bruce Peoples told The Elk City Daily News late Tuesday that a sixth set of remains had been found.

Officials at the scene were able to identify one of the three bodies in the Camaro, but no names will be released until family members are notified, the State Bureau of Investigation and the sheriff's office said.

Read more: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/09/17/20547251-cold-wet-cases-oklahoma-troopers-stumble-on-six-bodies-in-two-cars-at-bottom-of-lake

[warrant46]

1. Bizarre

[Grins]

16. I'm still wrapping my brain around, "Oklahome", "Police", and "Sonar"?

Bizarre, indeed.

[snooper2]

2. racing?

somebody is going to want that Camaro for a parts car-

[mahatmakanejeeves]

3. One of my coworkers has a 1969 Camaro.

He's looking at the story online now.

[Baclava]

10. Can the cars be restored?

Doesn't look like it

[mahatmakanejeeves]

13. Parts

Nice windshield, nice driver's side window, nice grille, nice wheels, nice trim rings on the wheels....

[Johnyawl]

5. LOL really?

You really think that after sitting under water for 20 years anything on that Camaro will be worth salvaging?

[snooper2]

18. I didn't know glass or aluminum goes bad under water

well, at least at the time frames we are looking at--

couple million years you may have a point. The grill is probably worth $200 alone

[petronius]

7. It seems the two disappearances were almost a decade apart

I wonder if there are other cases of people accidentally driving into that lake and being rescued, or just almost going in - it may be that the road end is a bit unclear at night...

[Xithras]

14. Looks like they were pulled out at a boat ramp.

Talk to the staff or rangers at virtually any lake and they'll have stories about people driving their cars into the water at boat ramps. It's especially common at night with unlit ramps (and nearly all ramps are unlit). Someone is driving along in the dark, takes a wrong turn, and suddenly the road dives beneath the surface of the water.

And except for a few minor parts like the window glass, that Camaro is toast. Most of that car will be little more than a massive lump of rust at this point.

[tabasco]

4. I wonder if people swam in that lake

Creepy.

[Xithras]

15. I'm sure they did. And ate the fish from it.

[Aristus]

6. The people of Foss must be thrilled by the arrival to their town of

hyper-modern, cutting-edge technology like sonar!

[Aristus]

12. Spoken like someone who's been to Oklahoma at least once.

Welcome to DU.

[Blue_Tires]

9. It's like the opening of some Stephen King plot made real life...

[XemaSab]

21. "Boy's Life" by Robert McCammon

opens with a boy who is out with his dad, who is a milkman in the 1960s in Alabama.

They're driving through a rural area at sunrise and they see a car go into an old flooded quarry. The dad dives in to try to rescue the driver, and finds that the only occupant is a dead man who is naked and handcuffed to the wheel.

If you're at all into a good mystery/coming of age story which delves into magic realism in a few places, it's one of my favorites.

[uh clem]

17. I reminds me of...

...the urban legend of a road crew finding an old car with skeletons in it.

[yesphan]

19. They will be finding more of these

missing vehicles.

uh clem. Thanks for the Firesign Theater reference and welcome to DU.

[XemaSab]

22. That's not an urban legend

It's happened to people I know.

[Beacool]

20. This is not that unusual in FL thanks to the many canals.

I remember once when they were looking for a car that had gone into the canal at a point where there was a sharp curve that some people took way too fast. They found that car and a couple of other cars that had disappeared decades ago and no one knew what had happened to their occupants.