FOR more than 40 years the murky waters of Foss Lake – near America’s iconic Route 66 highway – had kept their grisly secret.
Mud had settled and aquatic plants had long since grown over the watery graves of no fewer than six people, while loved ones mourned their disappearances with no idea what had become of them.
Until now.
It was an accident that led finally to their discovery this week — and to the possible conclusion of two tragic mysteries.
Highway Patrol divers were testing out new sonar equipment in the reservoir in Custer County, Oklahoma, on Friday when they stumbled upon the rusting remains of two cars — a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro and a 1957 Chevy.
The cars were found side by side in just 12ft of water.
Highway Patrol officers assumed they were probably stolen vehicles long ago dumped in the camouflaging waters of the Washita River.
Divers who went back into the water found a skull missing from one of the bodies close to where the vehicles had rested.
From then on, the communities around Elk City in Oklahoma buzzed with rumours linking the morbid find with distant tales of people who had seemingly disappeared from the area without trace.
Jimmy Allen Williams was just 16 when he vanished in November 1970 — along with his friends Thomas Michael Rios and Leah Gail Johnson, both 18.
Their disappearance came just six days after Jimmy had bought himself a brand-new Camaro “muscle car”.
It was only when they returned with cranes on Tuesday to retrieve the wrecks that they discovered the skeletal remains of three people inside each car.
The teen, who worked part-time in a grocery store, told his parents he was going with mates to an American football game in Elk City around 25 miles away.
In fact, with the help of one of his younger brothers, he had loaded the boot of the car with shotguns ahead of a planned hunting trip.
A friend, Wayne, later confirmed the subterfuge when he revealed that he too had planned to go with his pals.
But he had changed his mind at the last moment as he felt there was not enough room in the car for four people.
He was the lucky one. The trio — all students of Sayre High School — were last seen driving around the town the school is named after.
Local woman Kim Carmichael, who had been a friend of Jimmy’s, said: “I just remember how devastated everybody was. We lived in a little town. Nothing like that ever happened in Sayre.”
Her late father was the under-sheriff in nearby Beckham County at the time.
Ms Carmichael said: “He said there was nothing — there were no leads, no nothing.
“He said it was just like they vanished into thin air. I can’t imagine what his family was going through, even if I could see what my dad was going through.”
The teens last made headlines in the local papers just three years ago, when the community held a candlelight vigil to mark the 40th anniversary of their disappearance.
Jimmy’s brother, Gary, has said that he is convinced it IS his sibling’s bones found in the Camara.
He said he and his family had prayed for many years for an answer to the mystery, and called the discovery “God’s timing”.
Conflicting stories have emerged about who the occupants of the second car might be. At first it was suggested two of them might be a couple last seen in the early 1960s in the nearby town of Canute, ten miles south of the lake.
They had apparently been on their way to Foss Lake with a friend and were never seen again.
But yesterday it was suggested that the car belonged to 69-year-old grandfather Alvi Porter, who vanished in 1969 — just a year before the
disappearance of the three teenagers.
Porter’s granddaughter Debbie McManamman, 57, was 13 at the time her relative went missing.
She told local media: “I remember that green car. It’s so very sad. I can see his tall, lanky body walking up to the car. He always had a smile on his face. It’s been very traumatic.
“I remember my dad having dreams at night and then getting in his car as soon as he finished his day job, taking my mom, and they would look and look and look.”
If the previously submerged Chevy does turn out to be Mr Porter’s car, there was still no clue yesterday as to the identities of the other two people inside.
Mrs McManamman said: “There’s a lot of mystery.”
But she added: “We never gave up. We always wanted some clue that somebody knew someone.”
All six sets of remains were turned over to the local medical examiner’s office, which is expected to use DNA from surviving family members to help to identify the bodies. The process could take weeks.
Betsy Randolph, of Oklahoma Highway Patrol, said dive teams had been at Foss Lake reservoir conducting training with the new sonar gear when they came across the vehicles.
Trooper George Hoyle drove the boat that located the vehicles.
He said: “On the first pass, we found both cars.
Trooper Hoyle added that they had no idea what was in the cars until each was retrieved from the lake on Tuesday and put on the shore awaiting collection.
Custer County sheriff Bruce Peoples said he believed the bodies in the Camaro were of the three missing teens from 1970. But he added: “The decomposed nature of the cars makes it difficult to positively identify here at the scene. It’s been under water for 40 years. It’s a mucky mess.”
Betsy Randolph added: “When they pulled the cars out of the water, the first one that came out they found bones in the car.
“We thought it was just going to be stolen vehicles. That’s not what it turned out to be, obviously.
“We’re hoping this is going to bring some sort of closure to some families out there who have been waiting to hear about missing people.
“If that’s the case, we are thrilled we were able to bring that to those families.” It was, in all likelihood, two separate road accidents, a year apart, that claimed the lives of the six victims.
Foss Lake, located in the Foss State Park, was first flooded in 1962 after a dam was built on the Washita River to provide water for towns in western Oklahoma.
Custer County was formed at the end of the 19th Century from lands that were previously home to Southern Cheyenne native Americans massacred by US Army general George Armstrong Custer — himself famously killed by Northern Cheyenne, Lakota and Arapaho natives at the Little Bighorn.
Now the Washita River has another grim tale to tell.
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