Identified! KS - Lake Shawnee, Human remains in submerged car, Jun'11 - Leonard Jordan

[Missizzy]

Randy Leach, age 17, went missing from a party near De Soto, KS on the night of April 15, 1988. That's about 40 miles due east of Lake Shawnee. He was driving his mother's mid 80s grey Dodge but it had Kansas plates. Neither Randy nor the car were ever found.

http://www.randyleach.com/

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_28933738286 (The Find Randy Leach Group)

 

[wfgodot]

Someone started a thread yesterday in The Unidentified for this one; lots of posts already:

KS KS- Lake Shawnee - Human Remains Found in Car Pulled From Lake 6-11-11

 

[Missizzy]

Some updated info. Hmmm. Right time frame but the wrong kind of car for Randy, unless he was driving (or was driven in) another vehicle than the one he drove to the party. How I hope some family gets closure soon.

http://www.kake.com/home/headlines/Body_Found_Inside_Car_Pulled_From_Lake_Shawnee_123714599.html

New Information On Body Found In Car Pulled From Lake Shawnee

"....Shawnee County sheriff's deputies, along with the Shawnee Heights Fire Department diving team, pulled a car out of the lake with human remains inside. Deputies said the car's Wisconsin license plate had a 1984 sticker, a clue authorities say leads them to believe the car has been submerged since the 1980s.

Authorities uncovered the mid-70s, two-door, Oldsmobile 98, Saturday afternoon near the Lake Shawnee Yacht Club. That's when they found the bones of one body inside...."

more at link

 

[looksbetterinred]

There was a tornado in that area in 1983. However, it doesn't look like the car had storm damage. Make a person wonder though.....

 

[CarlK90245]

There was a tornado in that area in 1983. However, it doesn't look like the car had storm damage. Make a person wonder though.....

If the car was registered in 1984, then the 1983 tornado had nothing to do with it.

 

[webrocket]

as per Namus, there were 17 people missing from WI prior to 12/31/1985. I used that date as the registration could have been a year old:

removing anyone under the age of 18 from the list, here are all the names (namus case #on the left):

777 Wright, Candace J. 12/29/1985 Green Bay, WI Female White 38
9475 Antczak, Joseph E. 05/12/1984 Milwaukee, WI Male White 64
11168 Homberg, Ruth A. 11/04/1983 Dunkirk, WI Female White 44
10817 Ordonez, Manuel J. 11/06/1982 Milwaukee, WI Male White 45
9614 Gibson , Jeffrey P. 07/17/1979 Milwaukee , WI Male White 22
9586 Christian, Robert L. 09/16/1977 Madison, WI Male White 18
363 Pierce, Carol J. 09/08/1975 Sturgeon Bay, WI Female White 35
10300 Egan, James C. 08/06/1972 Mequon, WI Male White 18
9699 Backeberg, Audrey J. 07/07/1962 Reedsburg, WI Female White 20

 

[little726]

They described the car as a mid-70's Oldsmobile 98 Regency, possibly 1974.

Here's a 1975 Oldsmobile 98 Regency

Seems to me, this type of car would be driven by older folks or the "well -to-do."

 

[CarlK90245]

Seems to me, this type of car would be driven by older folks or the "well -to-do."

The car would have been 10-years old in 1985, so by then it might have been just a second-hand car.

 

[webrocket]

from one of the articles already linked on this thread.

http://cjonline.com/news/2011-06-11/body-found-car-pulled-lake-shawnee

I could not pass this up:

The car had been discovered a few months ago by the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks. The agency had been testing new radar equipment on the lake's waters and identified what it believed to be two vehicles beneath the surface and notified the parks police, who scheduled a time to retrieve those vehicles.

The dive team only got to one vehicle because of the discovery of human remains.

I'd be surprised if there is not at least one body in the other vehicle. I guess they were in no rush to pull the cars out.

 

[maggieo]

Seems like we should be looking at people who went missing in 1984 or AFTER, since the sticker's from '84... if they went missing in 83, say, then registered the car in 84, they wouldn't be missing any longer. KWIM? Even if it wasn't their car, it seems less likely that a person missing for years before 84 would show up in a newly registered car.

The Charley Project info on Candace Wright says her car was found; though of course, she could be in someone else's car. I think Mr. Antczak is a possibility, if only because there's so little info.

Lots of the 80s era Wisconsin missing are connected to Jeffrey Dahmer. He's not supposed to have killed anyone between 1978 and 1987, but I wonder.

 

[looksbetterinred]

If the car was registered in 1984, then the 1983 tornado had nothing to do with it.

In most States, the year shown on the tag is the year it is due, not the year it was registered. So if it has '84' on it, it would have been registered in '83'.

 

[diamond414x]

Everyone, there is a new article on this case about an activist that created a FB page for tips. I hope you don't mind, but I told him about your group and gave him a link to this page so he would ask investigators to check out ALL leads, and not just missing persons/vehicles with WI plates. I hope that's ok with everyone here. I've also asked him to let us know when they remove the 2nd vehicle, in case that one holds a missing persons mystery as well.
Tracey in Baltimore, MD

http://cjonline.com/news/2011-06-18/activist-looks-web-tips-lake-shawnee-case

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Who-Killed-Me-In-Topeka-KS/162031927195416?ref=ts

 

[little726]

Everyone, there is a new article on this case about an activist that created a FB page for tips. I hope you don't mind, but I told him about your group and gave him a link to this page so he would ask investigators to check out ALL leads, and not just missing persons/vehicles with WI plates. I hope that's ok with everyone here. I've also asked him to let us know when they remove the 2nd vehicle, in case that one holds a missing persons mystery as well.
Tracey in Baltimore, MD

http://cjonline.com/news/2011-06-18/activist-looks-web-tips-lake-shawnee-case

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Who-Killed-Me-In-Topeka-KS/162031927195416?ref=ts

Thank you, diamond! I check several times a day for an update on this story.

I will check out the links you posted.

 

[reasypeasy]

If the submerging of the vehicle is 1983ish, then there is a slight chance it is Maurice Jefferson? A long way to drive from Florida to dump a car and a body, but then again there was a report of him being seen apparently safe and well a few hours after his abduction so maybe the story is an unusual one.

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/49dmfl.html

 

[Ms Suzanne]

I am interested in this.Especially if it was in 1983.Has any one heard any more on the remains found if they were male or female?

 

[Noway]

Suzanne, nothing I've seen so far narrowed any further than "adult human remains."

 

[Missizzy]

Another short article about the FB page:

http://www.kansaspublicradio.org/newsstory.php?itemID=29515

 

[wfgodot]

Interesting FB post indicates researcher thinks body found in Lake Shawnee may be a missing person from Minnesota, 1985.

This one fits the facts given in the FB post:

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/k/kulas_donald.html

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Who-Killed-Me-In-Topeka-KS/162031927195416?sk=wall

 

[webrocket]

Interesting FB post indicates researcher thinks body found in Lake Shawnee may be a missing person from Minnesota, 1985.

This one fits the facts given in the FB post:

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/k/kulas_donald.html

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Who-Killed-Me-In-Topeka-KS/162031927195416?sk=wall

Donald Kulas seems like a remote possibility for this match. his own car was found abandoned in MN. not sure how he would wind up in a car with WI plates that was sitting on the bottom of a KS lake.

 

[wfgodot]

Donald Kulas seems like a remote possibility for this match. his own car was found abandoned in MN. not sure how he would wind up in a car with WI plates that was sitting on the bottom of a KS lake.

Agreed. The "car with Wisconsin plates in Lake Shawnee" aspect is baffling enough without added variables.