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Decades old car removed from Waxhoma Lake

Posted at 7:21 PM, Apr 23, 2018
and last updated 2018-04-23 21:44:57-04

OSAGE COUNTY -- The Oklahoma Highway Patrol pulled a car out of Waxhoma Lake Monday.

A fisherman spotted a truck in the lake using his sonar last week.

The Lake Patrol went out the next day and spotted a second one.

The OHP Dive Team worked Monday to pull the cars out of 18 feet of water.

The visibility at the bottom of the lake was very limited because of the mud. Divers were able to feel the raised letters and numbers on one of the license plates.

OHP said the truck was last registered in 1993, so it may have been at the bottom of the lake since then.

"It’s been so long that it’s no longer registered to a person," Trooper Dwight Durant said. "It’s registered as being written off by the insurance company."

Water poured out of the truck as it was removed. The front seats were out of the 1993 GMC truck.

OHP did not know much about the other one, but they were both filled with silt.

"If you look in it, it’s got a foot or two of silt in it," Trooper Durant said. "You don’t know if there’s a body in it because if it is it’s going to be deteriorated."

Human remains were not found in the first truck.

OHP worked to remove the second one Monday.

The trucks will be transferred to a wrecker yard and insurance will have to claim it. That is when OHP will hopefully be able to figure out how exactly it ended up at the bottom of the lake.

Trooper Durant said they always remove vehicles in lakes because they could be linked to a crime. They can also be a danger to boaters and swimmers.

"If somebody is out here swimming and the water level is low... the other one is older than this one," Trooper Durant said. "I’m sure it’s got some jagged rusted edges on it. You can see how far out it was. That’s in the boating lane."

 

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