Foss Lake: Skeletal Remains In Submerged Cars

The skeletal remains of at least five people have been discovered inside two cars at the bottom of an Oklahoma lake, police have said.

The first was an early 1950s model car that had two bodies inside. Police said they believe the remains belong to a couple who were last seen in Canute in the early 1960s.

The second car pulled from the lake had three bodies inside, believed to be teenagers reported missing from the Sayre area in the early 1970s.

Foss Lake: Skeletal Remains In Submerged Cars

Whilst doing my usual perusing of the morning stories I discovered this little piece, and it has piqued my interest.

In short, are we looking at a potential serial killer here? Obviously with a lack of details we can only speculate but my way of thinking, the "victims" were probably killed and then put back in their cars where they were then dumped in the lake (probably in the hope that they would be lost forever).

Once again, speculation, but I would put the culprit as living within close proximity at the time of the "killings".

If I am wrong then I will eat humble pie, but it is an interesting story nevertheless.

Zcustosmorum

The skeletal remains of at least five people have been discovered inside two cars at the bottom of an Oklahoma lake, police have said.

The first was an early 1950s model car that had two bodies inside. Police said they believe the remains belong to a couple who were last seen in Canute in the early 1960s.

The second car pulled from the lake had three bodies inside, believed to be teenagers reported missing from the Sayre area in the early 1970s.

Foss Lake: Skeletal Remains In Submerged Cars

Whilst doing my usual perusing of the morning stories I discovered this little piece, and it has piqued my interest.

In short, are we looking at a potential serial killer here? Obviously with a lack of details we can only speculate but my way of thinking, the "victims" were probably killed and then put back in their cars where they were then dumped in the lake (probably in the hope that they would be lost forever).

Once again, speculation, but I would put the culprit as living within close proximity at the time of the "killings".

If I am wrong then I will eat humble pie, but it is an interesting story nevertheless.

edit on 18-9-2013 by Zcustosmorum because: (no reason given)

or horrible accidents.. you know not everything is a serial killer right?

If the same person did all of this, then yeah, serial killer. Probably a dead one though.

What is the likelihood of two different killers using the same dump site?

What are the chances of one or both of these cases being accidental?

The group of three disappeared in the 70's. The couple in the 60's. Though doubtful, It is possible that they could be drug related homicides, the victims of highwaymen, or unfortunate mob associates.

This article says a 6th set of skeletal remains was uncovered. 3 in each car, a decade apart... the beginning of a pattern?

Guess we will have to wait for some lab reports to come back on this one.

Nice find. It's juicy, but I want a second helping.

reply to post by Zcustosmorum


I wouldn't doubt your serial killer theory. That place is not far from old Route 66 and the modern I-40 corridor. There has been speculation on a serial killer perusing I-40 for years. Lots of mysterious deaths along that route.

Well, multiple deaths in one site of the course of years, yea I figured a serial killer, but either very old or mostly likely dead.
This would make a great episode on Criminal Minds.
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You know for a while there, there was an Oklahoma lake, not sure if its the same one, but it too had a history of makings its visitors "Vanish"....

reply to post by Zcustosmorum


It seems to me that in order to jump straight to the serial killer angle, one would have to know wether or not the skeletons showed any evidence of having been shot, stabbed, bludgeoned, and so on. The other thing you have to consider, is that it is VERY rare for a serial killer to kill two people, wait basically a decade, and then kill again. The sort of compulsion experienced by serial killers does not ordinarily allow for such a long cooldown time between kills.

It could be that the hypothetical killer is mobile, or transient. He may have dropped the first set of bodies, found him self either outside of Oklahoma where they would have continued to kill, or perhaps in jail for an unrelated offense, and then come back and rinsed and repeated.

But thats incredible levels of speculation right there. There is no reason at this point to assume serial killing, when two cars could easily have ended up in the water by way of accident, or even two seperate suicide pacts. I think this is one of those situations where in order to make any sort of assessment, much more data is required. We would need to know as much as the coroner does about the manner of the deaths for a start, and because the bodies are skeletonised it will be tricky to confirm a cause of death like for instance, drowning, because there will be very little left of the lung tissue, and what is there has been submerged for some considerable time, so checking the lungs for water will be moot I would have thought.

So it really will come down to the condition of the bones, and the coroner will be looking for nicks on the bones, which might suggest use of a knife, shattered and broken bones, which would suggest blunt force trauma, and in the case of the skulls particularly, they will be examined for evidence of blunt force trauma, and gunshot wounds. Until we know what the particulars of that examination are, it would be foolish to make any attempt at a copper bottomed theory of this crime, since we are not sure yet whether there has even been one.

reply to post by Arnie123


If i am thinking of the same lake you are then those disappearances were due to a large alligator gar living in the waters...

without knowing the angle the cars were on the floor its going to be hard to work out where they entered the lake from which may give an idea of if its possible for them to of lost control at some point due to bad weather etc and also at what speed they must of been travelling to travel the distance they did, as those details will probably be enough to confirm if its more likely to be an accident or something else

A problem I would mention with the serial killer hypothesis is that in both vehicles there was more than one body in each vehicle. Serial Killers, like other predators, don't hunt multiple prey simultaneously. it's almost always a one on one hunt. there are too many variables when dealing with multiple targets and it increases the chance of something going wrong and one getting away.

reply to post by Zcustosmorum
What an interesting thought. It may be connected sure, but why 20-30 years apart..

You can clearly see the damage on the 70's car (thumbnail pic in the video, taken from helicopter), that was a fatal accident.

The other car has a slight dent in the front right fender that I can see from the pic but no damage that looks like a serious road accident. Possible asleep at the wheel and drove into the lake?

cartenz
You can clearly see the damage on the 70's car (thumbnail pic in the video, taken from helicopter), that was a fatal accident.

The other car has a slight dent in the front right fender that I can see from the pic but no damage that looks like a serious road accident. Possible asleep at the wheel and drove into the lake?

Do you not think that even if that were the case, that someone could have escaped the accident?

reply to post by Zcustosmorum


I actually have been thinking about the couple a bit more and I think they suicided together (I have a crazy theory but I dont want to derail your thread).

It could be murder with the couple in the 50's car, I wont rule that out, but it wouldn't satisfy the category of serial killer, not without an established link to another murder(s), being that the second 70's car IMO crashed there is no other known murder to link it to.

With the couple from the 50's--the finding of the 3rd body is the interesting bit.

It's probably not a serial killer, but a dump site for organized crime.

"Boss, what do I do with the bodies?"

"Dump them and the car with all the evidence in the lake."

I'd be creeped out if I had caught and eaten fish from that lake...

Probably a dump site for organized crime due to the space between the incidents. That is if it isn't just an accident.

I don't know that area but could it have also been due to drunk driving or just accidents in general?

Thorneblood
reply to post by Arnie123

 

If i am thinking of the same lake you are then those disappearances were due to a large alligator gar living in the waters...

edit on 18-9-2013 by Thorneblood because: (no reason given)

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Really??? how about that. The episode that I saw that info on showed a number of lakes in Oklahoma that were pretty creepy, but I was under the impression that it was a large freshwater octopus.
But aside from the animal angle its kind of hard to dismiss the whole serial killer angle considering you have a coulple vehicles in the same spot with skeletons...a sure sign of a serial killer dump site.
Either that, or multiple coincidence that lead to a number of peoples deaths in the same area.

Two peeps commented on an organized crime theory, could also be a possibility.

reply to post by OrphanApology


The reports I've seen over here are a total of six bodies, three in each car, with over a decade in between both witnesses. Also given the age range of the victims, its unlikely to be down to a serial killer and no reason to suspect OC. My bet is that two cars went off the road and into the lake at the same point, but years apart.

Its not that easy to escape from a sunken car, especially if you hit the water with some impact, water pressure on the windows and doors makes them impossible to open until the car is completely submerged the pressure equalised. Breaking the windows is also hard because of the effect of the water pressing against the opposite side of the glass.

For two cars to go off at the same spot on what appeared to be a straight road is strange.

reply to post by Loopdaloop


What is really strange is that the cars were supposedly side by side in the lake.
There are some creepy lakes here. Tom Waits even had a song about a lake in eastern Oklahoma.
The nearest one to me is a city lake where a woman's body was found who has been suspected of being an uncounted victim of Ted Bundy. Apparently he was in the area around the time she was found, but there was no proof he did it.
Another one is Lake Thunderbird, just outside of Norman, where lots of bodies have been found over the years. Even reports of UFO's and all sorts of weirdness.