OK Foss lake Discovery

[dotr]

This is a fascinating story (and, my first WS post, although I've "lurked" for some time). It is interesting to note that if the topography of this lake and the roads leading to it are somewhat conducive to "roll-ins", then, I ask this: have there been other unintentional roll-ins since the 1970s? The fact that this site doesn't have a "stigma" of people just accidentally rolling into the water due to poor visibility, etc., leads me to believe that these are not just tragic accidents. Or, are there more missing persons cases that could be solved under the murky waters of Foss Lake?

Welcome to Ws Sunflower and yes this is an interesting case!

 

[meanmaryjean]

There are more explanations than I can count for that one:

Different models of cars sank differently

Going at different speeds when they hit the water, due to the velocity of one car it might have spun

Due to the Camero going missing in late November he could have spun out on some ice trying to hit the brakes when he realized they were speeding towards the water.

The bigger car that looks like a boat could have floated for a couple minutes, enough time for it to start turning in the water.


It doesn't all have to be alien abductions and serial killers (I'm not directing that at you, I just got done reading through the comments on some of those news sites and I swear it lowered my IQ a couple of points). Sometimes accidents happen

BBM: Exactly! All the serial killer talk is lowering my IQ too! (I've shared in a previous post about my family's experience with car-into-water deaths.)

 

[Really?]

Hi Really! The news reporter said that was a boat ramp. But I agree with you, from that map, it appears to be almost an extension of the road. So I'm wondering if these people didn't see or realize it was a boat ramp, and just kept right on driving straight into the lake by accident. I think that's feasible if they weren't that familiar with the roads and the boat ramp being there. Also, back then, maybe the signage and lighting were not good.:seeya:

Hi ! This case really interests me. imagine after all these years and speculation finding them all like a time capsule . Encased in mud. Sheesh. Sad really. I say dark night, sudden exposure to water fast submersion ..

 

[k4kathy]

I can see both cars driving into the lake, but I cannot figure out how one car would back into the lake???

Slick road?

 

[daisymae]

This is a fascinating story (and, my first WS post, although I've "lurked" for some time). It is interesting to note that if the topography of this lake and the roads leading to it are somewhat conducive to "roll-ins", then, I ask this: have there been other unintentional roll-ins since the 1970s? The fact that this site doesn't have a "stigma" of people just accidentally rolling into the water due to poor visibility, etc., leads me to believe that these are not just tragic accidents. Or, are there more missing persons cases that could be solved under the murky waters of Foss Lake?

:welcome3:

 

[meanmaryjean]

I can see both cars driving into the lake, but I cannot figure out how one car would back into the lake???

Floating before sinking- or just skidding sideways once they realized they were headed for water.

 

[ctkid]

http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2013/sep/19/id-bodies-found-okla-lake-may-take-years/?latest

OKLAHOMA CITY — An Oklahoma sheriff says it could take years to identify skeletal remains found in two cars that were discovered in a lake and may have been submerged for decades.
Custer County Sheriff Bruce Peoples said Thursday it could take a few days or years, or that it may be impossible, to identify the remains depending on quality of DNA samples.
The Oklahoma medical examiner's office says an anthropologist is examining six bodies recovered from Foss Lake.

 

[Mitzki5]

You would be shocked at what a car can do in water and how long it will float. About 7 years ago, just a few miles from my house, an older man was driving down the interstate. He had a heart attack and ran off the road. He crossed a pasture for about 100 yards and went into a pond. This pond is about a 5 acre pond. His car went clear to the other side of the pond from it's momentum and then the wind blew it almost all the way back to the side of the pond that it went into. I was told this by a person who witnessed the accident. The car sank and the man was pulled out but did not make it.

I for one never would have guessed that a car would stay floating that long.

 

[Cincinnati Kid]

I dare say this might be how other missing people may be found one day. How many "missing" are in a body of water somewhere? That some might be discovered in vehicles does help to provide more of a chance of identification when you figure vehicles have VIN numbers and maybe old license plates still with them.

 

[SmoothOperator]

I have been saying this for years,

They need to sonar just about every lake that's accessible by road. Every time I read about a missing person who disappeared with their car and neither their car nor they have ever been found I always check to see where the closest body of water was.


Also, according to the teens in the '69 chevy, they went out hunting and had shot guns in the back of the car. I haven't read anything about finding shot guns in the trunk, but then again looking at the pictures it looks like the back side of the car was pretty destroyed.

I read earlier in one of the articles that they had in fact located rifles, along with a wallet, and a purse in one of the submerged vehicles.. hang on and lemme scan thru my history cache to see if I can post the link to this info re:guns/wallet/purse found in car...

be right back..

OK, here's a snippet along with the link about these details:

Two rifles and a muddy wallet and purse have been found in one of the cars.

http://www.missingpersonsofamerica.com/

 

[inthedark14]

You would be shocked at what a car can do in water and how long it will float. About 7 years ago, just a few miles from my house, an older man was driving down the interstate. He had a heart attack and ran off the road. He crossed a pasture for about 100 yards and went into a pond. This pond is about a 5 acre pond. His car went clear to the other side of the pond from it's momentum and then the wind blew it almost all the way back to the side of the pond that it went into. I was told this by a person who witnessed the accident. The car sank and the man was pulled out but did not make it.

I for one never would have guessed that a car would stay floating that long.

Agreed...especially these very old cars that were actually made of steel. I would think they would sink faster than today's "plastic" cars. I do wonder though about the multiple passengers and that no one made it out. But then I think about the question of whether or not these cars had seat belts of any kind whatsoever. If they rolled down a hill or where in some kind of accident before hand, these people could have been hurt and unable to get out of the car.

This is a very intriguing mystery, that is for sure. I wasn't even born when these people went missing. I have no reference to think about what the mitigating circumstances could be. I'm just so very sad their families had to wait so long to find them.

ALWAYS MOO

 

[Dr. Know?]

Several have mentioned the guns that were in Jimmy's trunk. This video shows they did pull two rifles out of the vehicle/water plus some interviews with some of the family members.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/19/us/oklahoma-lake-bodies/index.html?hpt=us_c1

eta, the video also shows the purse.

 

[dotr]

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/09/1...olved-after-cars-pulled-from/?intcmp=trending

"The cars were submerged in about 12 feet of water and were only about 50 feet from the end of a boat ramp near a marina. But Peoples said it was no surprise that the murky waters held a secret.

“This lake isn’t crystal clear. It’s a typical western Oklahoma lake with a lot of silt in it. The visibility is only 6 to 12 inches on a good day,” Peoples said. “We’ll consider it a mystery until we prove otherwise."

The sheriff said it was entirely possible that people simply drove into the lake and drowned.

“We know that to happen, even if you know your way around. It can happen that quick,” he added."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/09/1...rs-pulled-from/?intcmp=trending#ixzz2fOOZuogJ

 

[LadyL]

What could they do to redesign the boat ramp and adjacent road structures to make it safer, so that these kinds of things don't happen again?

Satch

I have no experience or knowledge about boat ramps but is there any reason a gate can't be built at the top of the ramp?

 

[Mitzki5]

I think an important question to answer is.....Was there a boat ramp there at the time. Maybe it was a dead end road or something. I looked up the lake history and it was filled in 1961. So the lake was not real old.

I tried to post a picture of it but you can go to Google maps and look up that part of the lake. There is a street view and you and retrace the assumed path of the drivers all the way up to the intersection just before the lake. Very straight shot, directly to the lake.

 

[SmoothOperator]

Its just so very...eerie..coincidental...IDK if those are even the correct descriptors, but its downright *something* in looking at what the circumstances are surrounding those 2 cars and 6 sets of remains that they've pulled from Foss Lake..

The first of the two cases began on April 8, 1969 when the following three adults went missing from Canute, Oklahoma:
*Nora Duncan
*John Alvie Porter
*Clayburn Hammock
*an early 1950's model Chevrolet vehicle

Then soon thereafter you have the second of the two cases that began on November 20, 1970 when the following three teens went missing:
*Jimmy Williams
*Leah Johnson
*Thomas Rios
*a blue 1970 Camaro(which Jimmy had just purchased, brand new a mere 6 days prior)

In looking at the decades of time that have elapsed from when these two incidents occurred it becomes all the more...eerie?...coincidental?... In how relatively close in time that these two separate, unrelated incidents occurred..most remarkable of all is that they literally were side by side submerged, under water, in Foss lake for 40 years!!..

Maybe "Remarkable" is the word I'm looking for in attempting to describe in words this amazing, fascinating culmination of events that have occurred within these last few days.. When for 40 years..4 long decades of time these family/friends have had no idea, no answers, no clues, nothing whatsoever to go on in their never ending search for the truth of what happened and where their loved ones had gone all those many, many years ago..

It is simply fascinating, from the POV of being on the outside looking in.. Fascinating!

 

[Tulessa]

I'm pretty sure 52 was the last split windshield in the Chevy's.

 

[vinetec]

The steering wheels were not bent and the glass was intact, the body lines were true to their original form....just saying!

 

[meanmaryjean]

The steering wheels were not bent and the glass was intact, the body lines were true to their original form....just saying!

And you know this how?????

One of the skulls was found outside the vehicles (which is why the original news reports erroneously stated five bodies).

 

[vinetec]

Look at the pics, they show every angle of the cars including the interior.