'belong to three teenagers who went missing more than 40 years ago'

Sheriff's office 'confident' remains in Camaro belong to three friends who disappeared in 1970
Bottles of beer were also found in wreckage
Two wrecks found as police tested sonar near boat ramp

Jimmy Williams, 16, Thomas Michael Rios, 18, and Leah Gail Johnson, 18, vanished on way to football match


Remains found in rusting car pulled from Oklahoma lake 'belong to three teenagers who went missing more than 40 years ago' | Mail Online (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2425971/Remains-rusting-car-pulled-Oklahoma-lake-belong-teenagers-went-missing-40-years-ago.html)


I heard about this a couple of days ago on the news but this is the first article ive seen with pics of victims as well as a pic of the boy beside his brand new car at the time a 1969 Camaro. Hopefully any remaining family members can have some final closure.

Makes you wonder what they'd find if they would systematically check boat ramps around the state. Pretty amazing find for just playing around with the new sonar.

Makes you wonder what they'd find if they would systematically check boat ramps around the state. Pretty amazing find for just playing around with the new sonar.

You know - that should be a standard routine operation if the technology is available. Here in Florida cars go into retention ponds and canals a lot and people who have been missing for decades are pulled out of them all the time. The retention pond down the street from us has had at least 2 cars that I know of go into it, one of which I found half submerged at midnight with the headlights on. Fortunately the drive was able to get out because I did not want to pull a dead body out of it.

" . . . vanished on way to football match."

A mystery wrapped within a mystery: Were football games referred to as "matches" in 1970?
And why?

(or did this all have something to do with SOCCER?)
[insert Theremin arpeggio . . . accompanied by pounding tympani and descending bass notes]

A mystery wrapped within a mystery: Were football games referred to as "matches" in 1970?
And why?

(or did this all have something to do with SOCCER?)
[insert Theremin arpeggio . . . accompanied by pounding tympani and descending bass notes]


As to the former, cant speak for western OK, but certainly not in southeastern OK or east central OK.
As to the latter, were they already playing soccer in western OK in the early 70's? I don't recall even
seeing any sandlot or parking lot soccer where I grew up before the late 70's, let alone anyone having any organized teams.

A mystery wrapped within a mystery: Were football games referred to as "matches" in 1970?If you followed the link, that leads to a tabloid in the UK. Mystery solved.

0:08
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I remember when the Hefner area was being renovated, @1990. The Duck Pond
was being dredged and a Cadillac with the remains of two women were found.
It was from an incident that happened around 1963.

That was the first thing that I thought of when I heard the news about the Foss Lake finds.
I am, however, ASTOUNDED that the creepy Hefner Lake thing was 13 YEARS AGO.... it seems like only yesterday.

P.S. The 1963 "accident" at Lake Hefner occurred the day before JFK was shot in Dallas.
Is it possible that this is a coincidence? (see background music link, above)

23 years

23 years
DANG!!!!!! You're RIGHT!!!!! It's 23 not 13!!!!! (that's even worse! . . . =)

Yea! My neighbor was actually telling this story, he was the medical examiner at the time, and the other neighbor knew her husband.

DANG! You're RIGHT! It's 23 not 13! (that's even worse! . . . =)
Back when I was in school with would have been 27 years.

1963+27=1990

The "creepy thing" wasn't the wreck itself (1963) it was the discovery of the wreck (1990).
2013 - 1990 = 23. Not 27. (Nor 13 neither.)

The "creepy thing" wasn't the wreck itself (1963) it was the discovery
of the wreck (1990).2013 - 1990 = 23. Not 27. (Nor 13 neither.)
Oh, you were talking about when the car was discovered. I wasn't. But
sometimes it's hard to tell.

Is this the new "math thread?" It would be interesting to try out the SONAR around boat ramps. Of course we have some lakes in Oklahoma that periodically give us looks into the past. Besides Hefner, Lugert comes to mind.

Am not familiar with Foss Lake, but how easy would it be to miss a turn in the road and go right off the boat ramp?

Makes you wonder what they'd find if they would systematically check boat ramps around the state. Pretty amazing find for just playing around with the new sonar.

+1
I would bet that there are several more such cases in our lakes.
It would take a very long time but our state should make an effort to check out all our lakes

+1
I would bet that there are several more such cases in our lakes.
It would take a very long time but our state should make an effort
to check out all our lakes
It shouldn't take too long since virtually every lake as a patrol.
They could use Billy Bob's bass rig to scan the place.

Am not familiar with Foss Lake, but how easy would it be to miss a turn in the road and go right off the boat ramp?

I grew up going to the lake. and They had to have been playing around by it or something, because there is no way they just went accidentally took a wrong turn off the boat ramp.

I grew up going to the lake. and They had to have been playing around by it or something, because there is no way they just went accidentally took a wrong turn off the boat ramp.

Did any roads back then end at Foss Lake? In 2000 two women while in a car drowned in Lone Chimney Lake after following a road that lead into the lake.

I grew up going to the lake. and They had to have been playing around by it or something, because there is no way they just went accidentally took a wrong turn off the boat ramp.

Did any roads back then end at Foss Lake? In 2000 two women while in a car drowned in Lone Chimney Lake after following a road during the night that lead into the lake. Fortunately, their accident was soon discovered.

When you look at the aerial shots, the road leads straight to the boat ramp. It would have been very easy to drive right into the lake.

""I remember when the Hefner area was being renovated, @1990. The Duck Pond
was being dredged and a Cadillac with the remains of two women were found.
It was from an incident that happened around 1963.""




I remember that. We used to ride dirt bikes out around that pond, never knowing that those people were resting under water just a short distance away.

Back when that incident happened, the road around that portion of the lake was very different as compared to when the construction that prompted draining the pond took place.

The people in the car were a Nichols Hills woman and her daughter, and it is suspected that they failed to negotiated the curve in the road and ran off into the pond, which back then was a dark two lane road.

So in relation to current times where was the duck pond located exactly? I am guessing it was around the first body of water north of the dog park.

It was east of the parkway, or maybe just beneath it. Follow Wilshire west from May; it doesn't connect to the parkway. Before the Duck Pond was drained, Wilshire curved to the south and the pond was to its east shortly after making the turn; I think the road became Lakeshore drive and went on to the west but it's been a long time ago...

So in relation to current times where was the duck pond located exactly? I am guessing it was around the first body of water north of the dog park.

It was immediately west of the Hefner Parkway and north of where Grand turns into the bridge that goes over the Parkway and becomes lake drive.... If you go to Stars and Stripes park at Portland, and take the first right after you enter the park, and go back east past that ball field to the Parkway, where the bike trails begin to curve north , and on your right,... that's the place.

To see it, go to http://www.okctalk.com/okc-1969/29438-wishire-portland.html (which actually shows the Wilshire/May intersection) and in the lower left quadrant of the photo, look straight northwest from the "GRAND BLVD" label. You can see Lakeshore Drive curving to the west of a fairly large pond, and curving into Wilshire straight north of it. That pond is the Duck Pond.

To see it, go to http://www.okctalk.com/okc-1969/29438-wishire-portland.html (which actually shows the Wilshire/May intersection) and in the lower left quadrant of the photo, look straight northwest from the "GRAND BLVD" label. You can see Lakeshore Drive curving to the west of a fairly large pond, and curving into Wilshire straight north of it. That pond is the Duck Pond.

So its the body of water that is directly west of where the dog park sits today it looks like. I also see a football field north of what used to be the Hefner optimist center{pool}which I don't remember.
Thanks for the link.

The same thing recently happened again in South Dakota.

Another car submerged for decades may solve missing persons case in South Dakota - U.S. News (http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/09/24/20679372-another-car-submerged-for-decades-may-solve-missing-persons-case-in-south-dakota?lite)

With so many cases like this it is good idea to learn how to get out of the car if it goes in the water. So many people drown because they exhaust themselves trying to open door. Your best bet is to roll the windows down right away. If the window doesn't roll down (lots of pressure against the glass) you will have to break the window. If all else fails, you have to wait for the car to fill up with water and the pressure equalizes.

So its the body of water that is directly west of where the dog park sits today it looks like. I also see a football field north of what used to be the Hefner optimist center{pool}which I don't remember.
Thanks for the link.

It is south of Wilshire, and north of the lake road, on the west side of the Hefner parkway. If you are southbound on the parkway, south of Wilshire, it will be on your right hand side about 1/2 way between Wilshire and the bridge at the lake road. The pond is still there. it did not get covered up by the highway.

""I remember when the Hefner area was being renovated, @1990. The Duck Pond
was being dredged and a Cadillac with the remains of two women were found.
It was from an incident that happened around 1963.""





I remember that. We used to ride dirt bikes out around that pond, never knowing that those people were resting under water just a short distance away.

Back when that incident happened, the road around that portion of the lake was very different as compared to when the construction that prompted draining the pond took place.

The people in the car were a Nichols Hills woman and her daughter, and it is suspected that they failed to negotiated the curve in the road and ran off into the pond, which back then was a dark two lane road.

Now, its just creepy, looking at the 1969 aerial photo of the area, knowing that at the time it was taken, that car was still in there

That "Tulsa Incident" was pretty high up on the creepiness scale, too . . .
http://www.automotoportal.com/media/images/vijesti/070615001.jpg

That "Tulsa Incident" was pretty high up on the creepiness scale, too . . .
http://www.automotoportal.com/media/images/vijesti/070615001.jpg
What a time capsule that didn't go so well in the end.

1957 Plymouth Belvedere Buried Car Tulsa Oklahoma Tulsarama Boyd Coddington (http://www.unburiedcar.com/)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/07/automobiles/collectibles/07RUST.html?_r=0

As I recall, Mrs. Elston was known to have a substantial drinking problem which likely contributed to the accident. Additionally it seems her daughter had some sort of major disability that likely prevented her from escaping either.

After 10 years, they have de-rusted and restored it to this:
15969

Article here: https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2017/06/28/after-10-years-of-de-rusting-miss-belvedere-finds-new-home-in-a-museum/