DORAL, Fla. — Divers discovered dozens of cars submerged in a single lake in South Florida near Florida's busiest airport, according to multiple reports.
The divers are part of United Search Corps, a nonprofit based in South Beach that works to crack missing person cold cases in collaboration with other organizations, including Sunshine State Sonar and Recon Dive Recovery. This mission brought a team of divers and volunteers to an area close to the Miami International Airport.
Specifically, to a lake in Doral near NW 13th Terrace, not too far from the CBS News Miami studios, the TV station explains.
What divers say they found — 32 cars submerged under the murky water.
South Florida media outlet WSVN spoke with two of the divers, Ken Fleming and Doug Bishop about what they found. Fleming reportedly told WSVN many of the cars found in the lake were likely dumped due to someone trying to cover up a crime.
“When we discover a spot like this with multiple vehicles, it pretty much indicates that a crime (happened) where they’re disposing the vehicles and hiding them from law enforcement,” Fleming told the outlet.
CBS Miami reported Police Detective Alvaro Zabaleta said the first vehicle pulled out of the water was a 2002 Nissan Ultima – confirmed to be a stolen vehicle.
One missing person's case the team is looking into is the 1980 disappearance and death of Ronald Gilchrist, who was living in Clearwater at the time. Gilchrist left his home on Oct. 28 and drove down to Miami in his 1977 Ford 4-door to pick up his in-laws at MIA. He never arrived.
More than 40 years later, authorities were able to positively identify a John Doe found dead in November 1980 as Gilchrist. Still, what happened to him remains unsolved at this time.
“We have a case where someone drove from Pinellas County down to pick up their relatives at the airport, and then they disappeared,” Fleming told WSVN, referencing Gilchrist's case, “so, in this spot, we’re near the airport, it’s a large body of water, it has easy access to get into, so we would target that as a potential foul play spot.”
USA Today says Doral police confirmed the divers informed them of their discovery and that the agency is working to "gather further information." Miami-Dade Police reportedly told USA Today the agency is investigating the case and has plans to get the cars out of the water.
Zabaleta told CBS Miami that homicide detectives are standing by just in case one of the cars pulled from the body of water is actually linked to a death investigation.
When WSVN asked why United Search Corps does this, largely with just volunteer help, Bishop said, “It’s about providing answers for families where they don’t have them. Departments, respectfully, have to justify their use of resources, and when a case goes cold, we have the ability to step in.
"We don’t have to justify our use of resources, and we can help eliminate the drag on personnel locally. We can do this, we specialize in it, we can do it on a high level and do so as volunteers.”