TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — A Florida nonprofit has made a discovery that may shed light on a number of unsolved crimes.
Guardians for the Missing, which helps families of missing people locate their loved ones, was testing a sonar device on Sailboard Lake in Deerfield Beach when it found “13 targets identified as possible sunken cars,” according to the Broward County Sheriff’s Office.
WTVJ reports dive teams went to the lake on Tuesday and pulled a Bentley from the water. A video provided by the sheriff’s office shows another vehicle being pulled from the lake.
“Waterways is a pretty common place for vehicles or evidence or anything to go missing, if you’re either trying to hide it or stay hidden,” chief diver Alexander Beer told WSVN. “Know that there are at least eight vehicles in this lake, behind me. There’s another lake to my left that have a few more vehicles in it.”
Authorities believe the cars could help them solve a number of cold cases.
“We’ve had a dozen or so cases of thinking we’re pulling just a vehicle and it turns out to be related to a missing persons case,” Beer told WTVJ.
Authorities are still investigating the discovery and are trying to determine how the cars ended up in the lake.
Alison McManus founded Guardians for the Missing in 2006 after her nephew went missing and was tragically found deceased in a Florida waterway.
“My family had to hire a helicopter. We hired divers. We did everything we could to locate him,” McManus told WSVN. “After six months, Broward Sherriff’s Office did finally locate him in a canal off U.S. 27.”
Now she works to provide underwater investigative searches for missing people through the organization.
“We search waterways, canals, ponds, lakes, wherever the area they were last seen or where we think they were headed,” she said. “I have a small boat with side scan sonar. I have a diver that comes out and helps me.”