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Discovery at the Bottom of a Murky Lake Unravels a Mystery That’s Been Haunting Tiny Town
theblaze.com ^ | october 23, 2014 | dave urbanski

Posted on 10/24/2014 11:23:39 PM PDT by lowbridge

It was 1970 and the night of a football game. Jimmy Allen Williams was 16, and he was probably on top of the world.

Just six days earlier, he got himself a blue 1969 Camaro with a white top, considered a primo muscle car back then. And what better way to help break in his new wheels than by taking a drive with a couple of friends?

So 18-year-olds Leah Gail Johnson and Thomas Michael Rios — fellow residents with Williams of Sayre, Oklahoma — piled into the sports car and the trio were supposedly headed for the game.

They were never heard from again.

And this wasn’t the first such disappearance in Sayre. Just a year before 69-year-old John Alva Porter was in a green ’52 Chevy with Cleburn Hammack, 42, and Nora Marie Duncan, 58. The car needed a push to help get it started, and that was the last time anyone saw them.

But just over a year ago when Oklahoma Highway Patrol was conducting a sonar test in murky Foss Lake, officers turned up two cars — a blue 1969 Camaro and a green 1952 Chevy, both with human remains inside.

(Excerpt) Read more at theblaze.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Local News; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: cleburnhammack; fosslake; jimmyallenwilliams; johnalvaporter; leahgailjohnson; noramarieduncan; oklahoma; sayre; thomasmichaelrios
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Full title: Discovery at the Bottom of a Murky Lake Unravels a Mystery That’s Been Haunting Tiny Town for Decades
1 posted on 10/24/2014 11:23:39 PM PDT by lowbridge
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To: lowbridge

Very sad story.... those poor families in agony never knowing what happened to their loved ones :-(


2 posted on 10/24/2014 11:24:56 PM PDT by Tamzee
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To: Tamzee

Didn’t read the article. But it looks like town has a killer on their hands. Someone gone now? Or still around.......


3 posted on 10/24/2014 11:29:34 PM PDT by FreedomStar3028 (Somebody has to step forward and do what is right because it is right, otherwise no one will follow.)
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To: FreedomStar3028

Two sets of people disappeared, one a group of teens. Their cars ran off the road and the people all died from drowning. Their cars weren’t discovered until decades later at the bottom of a lake and the families never knew what had happened to them all.


4 posted on 10/24/2014 11:34:19 PM PDT by Tamzee
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To: FreedomStar3028

We should outlaw lakes. They’re killers.


5 posted on 10/24/2014 11:36:21 PM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (Resist We Much)
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To: lowbridge

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2014/10/21/Car-iof-missing-man-found-in-retention-pond.html


6 posted on 10/24/2014 11:39:48 PM PDT by Berlin_Freeper (Obola)
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To: lowbridge

How does a 16 year old buy a new car? I was 22 and in the service for four years before I could afford one and it sure wasn't a muscle car.

7 posted on 10/24/2014 11:42:00 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me.)
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To: Tamzee

Can I also use your time machine?

That’s what the article says at least.


8 posted on 10/24/2014 11:45:26 PM PDT by FreedomStar3028 (Somebody has to step forward and do what is right because it is right, otherwise no one will follow.)
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To: Tamzee
When Seattle decided to work on the floating bridge, they sent divers down to check on the state of the retention cables.

Surprise, they found the car of a woman who had been missing for over a decade.

All those years of the family wondering what happened to her, and they probably drove over the bridge countless times.

Never even imagining that their loved one was down there all that time.

9 posted on 10/24/2014 11:48:26 PM PDT by boop (I was unaware that beating up people is wrong. Until the NFL seminar told me.)
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To: fieldmarshaldj
We should outlaw lakes. They’re killers.

I hear ya. And while were at it, we should pass emissions standards on volcanoes and fine the ones that blow their tops.

10 posted on 10/24/2014 11:58:21 PM PDT by BradyLS (DO NOT FEED THE BEARS!)
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To: lowbridge

Sad story. I marvel that some lakes aren’t routinely surveyed by divers. At least sections.


11 posted on 10/25/2014 12:06:09 AM PDT by BradyLS (DO NOT FEED THE BEARS!)
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To: Tamzee

What was the deal there? A “dead mans’s curve” over a cliff above a deep spot in the lake? One wonders. If so, maybe they should looked there years ago.


12 posted on 10/25/2014 12:11:11 AM PDT by wastoute (Government cannot redistribute wealth. Government can only redistribute poverty.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I was the same age as those kids that year. We were “baby boomers”. A couple of guys in my school were gifted with brand new cars on their 16th birthday. They thought they were hot stuff.


13 posted on 10/25/2014 3:00:32 AM PDT by Bluebird Singing
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To: fieldmarshaldj

Just jumped in here, have they found any semen?


14 posted on 10/25/2014 3:53:31 AM PDT by tupac (the crux of the biscuit is the apostrophe)
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To: FreedomStar3028

Said they looked like accidents.


15 posted on 10/25/2014 4:25:39 AM PDT by Gaffer
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To: lowbridge
Many years ago the wife of major league pitcher Milt Pappas disappeared while going on an errand one night near her suburban Chicago home. Many years later workmen were draining a pond in a housing development in Wheaton, Ill. The pond was located close to one of my sister's homes. I had stared into that pond a number of times while visiting my sister. What I never saw in the murky depths was a car. But a car was there. And when the workmen drained the pond the car was distinctly visible.

Inside the car were the skeletal remains of Milt Pappas's wife. She had probably become disoriented and driven into into the pond. At the time, the housing development was in the early stages, and nothing was marked clearly. Plus, it was raining the night she disappeared, and most likely she didn't realize where she was. The pond is not real deep, but it is murky. You never know sometimes.

16 posted on 10/25/2014 4:30:01 AM PDT by driftless2
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
How does a 16 year old buy a new car? I was 22 and in the service for four years before I could afford one and it sure wasn't a muscle car.

Part time job and living at home - I bought a '69 Firebird at the age of 17 - didn't have money for much else but did have a car...

17 posted on 10/25/2014 4:34:05 AM PDT by trebb (Where in the the hell has my country gone?)
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To: lowbridge

I can understand a kid in his Camaro getting enough air to launch himself good and far into a lake but how the hell does an old geezer fully submerge his barely breathing geezer mobile...and then no one else does it in almost 50 years?


18 posted on 10/25/2014 4:57:28 AM PDT by TalBlack (Evil doesn't have a day job.)
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To: TalBlack

The road was unstriped and curved around the lake. Driving one direction, the road goes left but you go straight to the boat ramp. Dark road, dark night and they drove right into the lake. Panick set in and they never even got the doors open.

I want to die in my sleep like grandpa, not like the screaming people in his car as it went over the cliff!!


19 posted on 10/25/2014 5:06:45 AM PDT by 9422WMR ("Ignorance can be cured by education, but stupidity is forever.")
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To: TalBlack

Most lakes,ponds,and rivers aren’t crystal clear ;once in the water the car continues sliding deeper until something stops it. Many bodies of water have enough suspended particles that you cannot see your fingers at the end of your arm if stuck into the water.

I have little doubt there are hundreds more cars and trucks hidden underwater as a result of driver error or confusion on a dark or rainy night. There were two cars driven into Brookville Lake in Indiana at night by drivers unfamiliar with the area ;evidently drove down the boat ramp by mistake.How many others might have done it but weren’t seen?
Ever notice how many roads are near water with nothing to stop a car?


20 posted on 10/25/2014 5:17:54 AM PDT by hoosierham (Freedom isn't free)
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