Posted on 09/25/2013 12:16:43 AM PDT by Impala64ssa
Cold cases are those murder or missing persons cases that go unsolved for years, or even decades. Some of these cases, like the disappearance of union leader Jimmy Hoffa, have inspired countless books and movies, while others never gain any traction until an accidental discovery or confession.
NBC News reports that Oklahoma State Troopers who were testing new sonar equipment in Foss Lake stumbled across not one, but two cars. What they first thought was merely a couple of stolen cars came with a grisly discovery; six bodies, potentially solving two cold cases that had long gone unsolved.
Troopers pulled a 1969 Chevy Camaro and an unspecified early 50s Chevy sedan from Foss Lake, initially finding a total of five bodies between the two vehicles. Divers, however, found a sixth skull, and police have so far only identified one of the victims. The three bodies found in the Camaro are thought to be a trio of high school students missing since 1970, when they were last seen in a blue 1969 Camaro.
A quick scan via Google maps reveals several hairpin turns on the very edge of Foss Lake, and the cars were found side-by-side, prompting speculation that speed or loss of control may have been to blame. Families of the victims are being notified before the names are released, hopefully bringing some closure to these long-open cold cases.
Old news. Damage is due to a corrosion and inflicted while pulling vehicles out of water. Camaro has drove in in 1970, another Chevy is about a decade before.
If so, one of them was about a decade ahead.
A quick scan via Google maps reveals several hairpin turns on the very edge of Foss Lake, and the cars were found side-by-side, prompting speculation that speed or loss of control may have been to blame. Families of the victims are being notified before the names are released, hopefully bringing some closure to these long-open cold cases.
Hair-pin turns? Lessee ...
Looking at Google, you can see that Route 44 is the only highway that runs right along the reservoir. It has a guard rail and a fairly wide embankment down to the water. Also, no sharp turn.
If they had managed to lose it and drive off 44, the guard rail would have been breached, and I would expect someone would have investigated. Or maybe there was no guard rail back then.
Other possibility: Behind the marina, there is a little picnic area with water on three sides and a road running through it. So, maybe it was nighttime, and they were drunk and screwing around back there and managed to drive into the water without leaving an obvious clue.
This Demorro guy needs to detail exactly which "hairpin turns" are in question. Or else admit that he is just a moron filling a news hole.
Hey, he's just doing his job :-(
Exactly. Things like that happens way too often. I have no idea why has it made news this time. It doesn’t usually take that much time to find and retrieve victims but it seems like they had a really lazy LEOs in Oklahoma in the 60s.
“news hole.” Now there’s an interesting phrase ... have to think on that one ... other uses spring to mind.
They drove their Chevy to the levee.
40 and 50 years ago the road may not even have been paved yet..making it even more dangerous for speeding vehicles.
Ted Kennedy would have found a way.
Remember, that’s all new mapping information. What it looked like in the 60’s and 70’s... anyone know?
But I agree, even looking at the other roads by the lake, which probably haven’t changed much, I saw maybe three or four turns I would describe as sharp.
But if one lived in the area, one would know that.
Nope, we’d need to know where they were pulled from, what road they were on, to know for sure.
Things have probably changed since 1970.
I moved to Colorado Springs in 1986, and drove on a old narrow road with barbed wire fencing that still had natural tree branches for posts.
Today that same road is paved, 6 lanes wide, double turn lanes and carries heavy traffic.
Rear end damage? Could have they been pushed in by another vehicle from behind?
Google is fairly current, my guess is the road and the rails are after the fact.
We are dealing with roads 40+ and 50+ years ago.
Certainly the state route would have been improved in that time. This usually deals with horizontal and vertical geometry improvements, safer and wider “clear zones” adjacent to the roadway, adding or replacing guardrails, improving the signing and striping, adding turn lanes, etc.
As for public or private roads accessing parts of the lake, who knows what was there a half-century ago?
Just watched a video of a car going down the grade at regular speed. Must of have been a lot of “fun” in the winter.
I moved to Colorado Springs in 1986, and drove on a old narrow road with barbed wire fencing that still had natural tree branches for posts.
Today that same road is paved, 6 lanes wide, double turn lanes and carries heavy traffic.
Colorado Springs is a special case. My sister lives there. Her first exposure to the place was attending summer camp at Star Ranch in the 1960's. She remembers Academy as a dirt road.
We also lived in a small town in northern Indiana for a time in the 1960's. It got its first traffic light while we lived there. It now has two or three.
We rented a place on the lake, an old house on a point pretty much by itself. There is now a townhouse condo development there. But the roads around that lake are much the same. Minor safety improvements here and there, perhaps. But nothing like the changes the Springs has seen.
The two cars were found right next to each other in 12 feet of water about 50 feet from the marina. Reportedly, due to drought, the lake depth is down about 13 feet from normal. So, when the two cars went in, the depth might have been closer to 25 feet.
Also, the cars went in separately. The one carrying the 69-year-old and his two friends disappeared in April, 1969. The one with the three teens went missing in November, 1970.
Last July there was a case in which two women and a dog died after driving off a boat ramp in Roque Bluffs, Maine. They had just been rescued after getting lost on a hike. It was a rainy and foggy night. The car was found about 175 feet off the ramp with its doors closed and windows up. They called 911 while the car was filling up (and getting ready to sink?). GPS from the phone call lead investigators to the boat ramp. Nothing was showing, so they summoned a diver, who located the car. Who knows how the investigation would have turned out in 1970?
My guess is something similar happened in the Foss Lake cases.
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