They weren't found under water, but the area where they were found has been known to flood. I'm pretty sure that I read that the nearby bridge was washed out several years ago, and the fact that the bridge was not rebuilt is one of the reasons that the park was abandoned as a recreational site. If the water levels were high enough to wash out a bridge, then the area where the girls were located - near the bank of the river - is prone to flooding.
When I look at the aerial photos of the remains (perhaps my eyes are playing tricks on me), they appear to be in a depression in the ground, which I called a shallow ditch, but a depression in the ground is perhaps more accurate. It looks like the river bank rises to the trail, and the girls are found on the opposite side of the trail in what looks like a depression in the ground.
The remains were not described as bones. Shoes were used to identify the remains. The girls had been missing for six months when their remains were found. I'm assuming that the girls were killed within the first few hours after abduction (per statistics) and that they were exposed to the elements for six months. If that is the case, they would be nearly bones and one of the few quick ways to identify them would be through clothing that would not deteriorate - such as shoes.
The girls were not swimming in Meyer's Lake. "For Tim Roney, 60, it’s hard to recall a time when Evansdale has received the amount of attention it has this week. Roney said he recalls swimming in Meyers Lake in the 1960s. At that time it was a smaller, stream-fed lake, he said. “You don’t go swimming there now, or
you’ll get leeches.” (
link).
We know that there were appliances dumped in the lake because when the lake was drained, appliances were exposed.
