Bodies Found In Lake Could Solve 2 Decades-Old Mysteries

The skeletal remains of six people were found submerged in two cars at the bottom of Foss Lake in Oklahoma on Tuesday afternoon, and authorities believe they may be a group of teenagers who disappeare...
Bodies Found In Lake Could Solve 2 Decades-Old Mysteries
Written by Amanda Crum
  • The skeletal remains of six people were found submerged in two cars at the bottom of Foss Lake in Oklahoma on Tuesday afternoon, and authorities believe they may be a group of teenagers who disappeared in the early ’70s.

    The Oklahoma Highway Patrol discovered the cars–a blue 1969 Chevrolet Camaro and a 1950s-era car–while testing new sonar equipment on the lake, which is located in a remote area. Only one of the bodies has been identified at this time, but officials aren’t releasing any names until the families have been notified. However, there is reason to believe the remains in the Camero belong to Sayre High School students Jimmy Allen Williams 16, Thomas Michael Rios, 18, and Leah Gail Johnson, 18; the group disappeared in November of 1970 and Williams’ car–a blue Camero–was never found.

    Custer County Sheriff Bruce Peoples said that the clues the other car can yield may put to rest another mystery that he’d always believed was just a rumor.

    “In 1973, I worked for Beckham and Custer County as a state trooper, and I heard rumors that sometime in the early ’60s there were two or three people in a car, and they were last seen in Canute,” Peoples said. “They were headed for Foss Lake and never seen again.”

    Officials say the teenagers had reportedly been on their way to a football game that November when they disappeared; as for the other car, it is not known where the group was from or how they came to be submerged in the lake several years before the other car. Anyone with possible information is urged to call (580) 323-1616.

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