高性能魚探が水没車を発見！

昨晩にアメリカで放送されたニュース。カンザス州のある湖でバスアングラーがハミンバード（サイドイメージ魚探）で魚探掛けをしていた際に８メーターラインで車を発見し警察に通報。中からはシートベルトをしたままの白骨死体が発見されたらしい。乗っていたのは1992年から行方不明だった57才の男性 オーバーグさんだったらしい。なんでもオーバーグさんは心臓病を煩っていたらしい。

The remains of a Paola man who went missing more than 20 years ago were found in a submerged car at a Miami County lake.

Tim Leeper, of Olathe, was fishing on March 17 when his underwater sonar located the submerged vehicle in about 20 feet of water. The vehicle was found about 40 yards north of the lake’s most popular boat ramp.

“My first reaction was, ‘Wow that has to be a car,'” Leeper said. He then asked his friends’ opinion, and they agreed, so he made a call to the Miami County Sheriff’s Office to report it.

It wasn’t until 5 p.m. Thursday when authorities said a water rescue team pulled the vehicle from the Hillsdale Lake Jayhawker boat ramp. Officials didn’t expect to find anyone inside the car, which is why they didn’t address Leeper’s call urgently.

But inside the car were the human remains of Fremont C. “Dusty” O’Berg, who was 57 when he was reported missing in 1992. The car was a 1981 Chevrolet Citation, which was registered to O’Berg. He was still buckled in.

Since O’Berg was reported missing, there has been no reported sightings or leads on his location. His children said in a statement Tuesday that the discovery gives them much needed closure.

Immediately following his disappearance in 1992, searches were conducted around Miami County, which included bodies of water, even Hillsdale Lake. Undersheriff Wayne Minckley said the area where the vehicle was found had been searched by the sheriff’s office and state wildlife officials.

An autopsy was conducted Friday. The case is still under investigation, but authorities believe that O’Berg has been in the water for the past 23 years. His family said O’Berg did suffer heart problems.

“Our father’s recovery answers many questions and is bringing much needed closure for our family,” the O’Berg family said in a statement. “We are fully confident that the Miami County Sheriff will continue to see this case through to its completion. Our family would like to thank Sheriff Kelly and his department for their professionalism and support through the years. In addition, we want to express our gratitude to the Osawatomie Dive Team and Johnson County Fire District No. 2 for their support and professionalism in bringing our father home.”

O’Berg’s disappearance had been Miami County’s only active missing person case.

Minckley said authorities will now work to determine how and why that the man wound up in the lake, and let the family know their findings.

“It gives them answers but it gives them more questions now he’s been found,” the undersheriff said. “It reopens some old wounds.”

©Remains of man missing more than 20 years found in submerged car