After two days of dredging, a crane on Friday pulled a Ford station wagon from the Columbia River that officers consider belonged to an Oregon household who disappeared whereas on a visit 66 years in the past to gather Christmas greenery.
The automobile got here aside within the course of and solely the body with wheels connected got here out because the crane lifted it out of the water. The physique, which was seen in diving movies, got here off the body within the retrieval course of, which began about 3:44 p.m. Friday and took about 10 minutes.
The automotive shall be wrapped and despatched to a warehouse the place a forensic group will attempt to study extra about its homeowners, mentioned Pete Hughes, a Hood River County Sheriff’s deputy. However officers felt sure the discovered the automotive they had been searching for, he mentioned.
‘‘The whole lot matches,‘’ he mentioned. ‘’It seems to be the colour, make and mannequin of the Martin automobile,‘’ Hughes mentioned.
The automobile belonging to Ken and Barbara Martin was discovered final fall by Archer Mayo, a diver who had been searching for it for seven years, mentioned Mayo’s consultant, Ian Costello. Mayo pinpointed the seemingly location and dove a number of occasions earlier than discovering the automotive upside-down about 50 ft (15 meters) deep, lined in mud, salmon guts, silt and mussel shells, Costello mentioned.
The Martins took their three daughters on a trip to the mountains on Dec. 7, 1958, based on AP tales from the time. They by no means returned. Officers narrowed their seek for the household after studying that Ken Martin had used a bank card to purchase fuel at a station close to Cascade Locks, a small Columbia River group about 40 miles (64 kilometers) east of Portland.
After Mayo supplied a part of the license plate quantity and different automobile identifiers, the sheriff’s workplace and the Columbia Gorge main crimes group, together with the Oregon State Crime Lab, organized to have the automotive pulled out, mentioned Pete Hughes, a Hood River County sheriff’s deputy.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows under.
