A probe has commenced following a startling discovery by a group of volunteer divers who focus on unsolved missing persons cases. They unearthed nearly 30 submerged vehicles in a South Florida lake the previous weekend.
Doug Bishop, the brains behind the nonprofit organization, United Search Corps, shared with CNN that this Doral-area lake was among several they intended to explore. Although these vehicles didn’t correspond with any of the unsolved cases his team was investigating, authorities have hinted that the cars might have ties to other criminal activities.
“We just pulled out one vehicle that the Doral Police Department has confirmed that it’s a 2002 vehicle that was reported stolen,” said Detective Alvaro Zabaleta with the Miami-Dade Police Department. “That’s most likely what we feel we’re going to find here, is going to be abandoned vehicles that are associated with some type of vehicle theft. Perhaps, some type of possible fraud.”
Bishop told CNN that divers didn’t discover any human remains, but more information is needed to determine how the vehicles ended up in the lake. After each one is removed, police said they will run their vehicle identification numbers to determine which department will be responsible to take on the case.
Authorities estimate it could take several weeks to retrieve all of the vehicles.
According to police records, there are currently about 2,000 unsolved crimes in the Miami-Dade area.