Posted on 09/24/2013 4:19:51 PM PDT by nickcarraway
State and local investigators on Tuesday will continue excavating material from a submerged car believed to be tied to the 42-year-old disappearance of two Vermillion, S.D., girls.
Cheryl Miller and Pamella Jackson, both 17, were last seen in a beige 1960 Studebaker Lark on their way to party with classmates from Vermillion High School on May 29, 1971. Their bodies were never found.
Officials believe they found the Studebaker in Brule Creek in rural Beresford, S.D., on Monday. It was about a half mile from the gravel pit Jackson and Miller were believed to be going to when they disappeared.
Investigators plan to wade back into Brule Creek to continue to excavate material from the scene Tuesday. They'll also analyze material already recovered.
"Hopefully this is going to shed some light on this whole case," said Union County Sheriff Dan Limoges said Tuesday.
Authorities tried to raise the vehicle from the creek, but stopped because the vehicle was in poor condition. It now rests in water shallow enough for crime scene investigators to wade out and collect material. Authorities stayed overnight with the vehicle to preserve the scene.
Limoges wouldn't say what officials have found so far or reveal whether human remains were located.
A South Dakota State Penitentary inmate, David Lykken, of rural Alcester, S.D., was indicted in the case in 2007. The murder charges were dismissed when authorities learned the jail house informant who claimed to have taped Lykken confessing to the crimes had faked the recordings. The informant, Aloysius Black Crow, pleaded guilty to perjury in 2008.
Officials wouldn't say whether Lykken was still a suspect in the case. They said their focus is on bringing closure to the Jackson and Miller families.
-- Journal reporter Molly Montag
Our earlier story ...
ELK POINT, S.D. | The discovery of a car in a creek in rural Union County is expected to shed new light on the 1971 disappearance of two Vermillion girls, officials said Monday.
Cheryl Miller and Pamella Jackson, both 17, were last seen driving a beige 1960 Studebaker Lark on their way to a party with classmates from Vermillion High School on May 29, 1971.
A license plate and hub cap on the car found submerged in Brule Creek, north of Elk Point, indicate it is the Studebaker, South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley said at a news conference at the Union County Sheriff's Office in Elk Point.
“We’re not going to say anything else until we’ve had an opportunity to excavate the vehicle and take it in for forensic testing to ascertain more information,” he said.
Sheriff Dan Limoges said he got a call Monday from someone familiar with the case saying there was a car in the creek north of 310th Street in the county.
Limoges said the spot was about a half-mile from a gravel pit believed to be the girls' destination the night they disappeared.
“Upon my arrival the vehicle was submerged, and you could see the undercarriage of the vehicle and four tires sticking out of the water.” Limoges said.
Officials were not able to remove the vehicle from the creek, he said, but they had been able to raise it out of the water a bit.
“We decided to leave it where it was and keep it intact as much as possible,” he said. “We have identified the plate on the vehicle.”
Jackley said Miller's and Jackson’s family members were informed of the find. Members of the Jackson family were brought to the scene as well, he said.
Dexter Brock, of Sioux Falls, who is married to Pamella Jackson’s sister, Kay Brock, said they were notified early Monday afternoon.
“The police department called at about 2 (p.m.) to tell us they found the car,” Brock said when reached by phone. “I really don’t have anything else.”
Journal attempts to reach other relatives were not immediately successful Monday. Both girls' parents have died. Jackson's father, Oscar Jackson, of Alcester, died Wednesday at age 102.
In the 42 years since Miller and Jackson vanished, authorities have searched the rural Alcester family farm where then-chief suspect David Lykken had lived, and a gravel pit near Hawarden, Iowa, just over the state line from Alcester, trying to find the Studebaker or other clues to solve the case. The girls' bodies have not been found.
Lykken, who was 16 when the girls went missing, was indicted in the case in 2007. His younger sister, Nancy Bell, was to testify at his 2008 trial that she remembered seeing Miller, Jackson and a car on the family farm and that the car was buried there.
But the murder charges against Lykken were dismissed after authorities learned a jailhouse snitch had faked a recording of Lykken supposedly confessing that he had killed the girls. Aloysius Black Crow pleaded guilty to perjury in 2008.
Lykken was already serving a 227-year sentence in the South Dakota State Penitentiary for the 1990 rape and kidnapping of a former girlfriend when he was arrested in Miller and Jackson's disappearance.
On Monday, officials sidestepped questions about whether Lykken is still a suspect in the case.
"At this point this case is focused on our taking a look at what evidence we’ve found, to take a look at a vehicle, to do what we can to try to give closure to the Miller and Jackson families," said Jackley. "And we’ll go from there depending on what the evidence may or may not show."
He said recent high water followed by low water levels made the discovery possible and that investigators want to examine all the evidence, including anything that might be in the car, and search the surrounding area.
"We would anticipate in days to come, or weeks or months to come, releasing further information," he said.
Other than the fact that the City Fathers wouldn't let a local, near the Interstate, business put a nice large Bison Statue in front of their place, it's a pretty reasonable place close to where my ancestors homesteaded.
Ted Kennedy sure got around...
I grew up on the other side of the river in Iowa. I know all those places. Had friends from all those places. Camped in all those places. Creepy to hear about this stuff.
Where was Ted Kennedy at the time?
“....Cause I’m a Kennedy....Yes I’m a Kennedy....the car skids round and round and round and round.....”
Vermillion is a ways away, though miles out west of the Missouri are shorter.
Places close to out west of the Mo. anyway.
That is two instances of cars being pulled from the water in the last week.
Looks like their remains were found in the car.
Sounds like a auto accident. No foul play. Just lost in the water.
I graduated from high school in 1973. Since these girls were juniors in 1971 it makes them just a year or maybe two older than I am. Makes me feel old to look at their pictures in the linked articles.
So all this time they’ve been a few yards off the road along their known path. Did anyone even look for them there at the time?
- almost.
Limoges said the spot was about a half-mile from a gravel pit believed to be the girls' destination the night they disappeared.42 years ago no one could figure this out?
There are even older crime mysteries that will probably never be figured out, at least not completely.
Remember that we'll be coming up to the fiftieth anniversary of the JFK assassination in November. It will be interesting to see what and how many conflicting theories regarding the perps and MO will be thrown out again in the media.
The Warren Commission Report? Anyone who believes its single assassin, single bullet theory can be sold the Brooklyn Bridge. Yet the Warren Commission Report was a best seller in its time. Just as today, there were way too many who believed everything that government told them.
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