A vehicle authorities believe to be connected to a couple and their three children who vanished nearly 70 years ago was found at the bottom of a river in Oregon.
The Hood River County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook statement that crews will be attempting to recover the vehicle from the Columbia River near Cascade Locks on Thursday. The vehicle was discovered by an independent diver, authorities added.
Kenneth and Barbara Jean Martin disappeared in 1958, along with their daughters Barbara, 14, Virginia, 13, and Susan Margaret, 11, NBC affiliate KGW of Portland reported. They were reported missing on Dec. 7, 1958, by a neighbor after they failed to return home from a planned trip to collect greenery for Christmas wreaths.
The bodies of Susan and Virginia were recovered from the Columbia River in 1959, according to KGW.
Archer Mayo, a recovery diver, told the outlet that he did hundreds of dives at the river and found the vehicle last year.
“Through predictive modeling that I’ve been doing and my knowledge of the river, I was able to start digging, with Army Corps of Engineer permission and all the agencies involved,” he said. “We’re using a suction dredge, and eventually found a car, within a few days (was) determined to be 99.9% the Martin car. It’s a wagon. It’s a 1954 cream color, very unusual.”
The sheriff’s office said it’s an active investigation and further details will be provided at another time.
