A team of volunteer divers discovered dozens of vehicles sitting at the bottom of a South Florida lake, sparking many questions and intrigue from law enforcement. Ken Fleming and Doug Bishop told WSVN they dove into a lake near Northwest 87th Avenue and 13th Terrace in Doral to tackle an unsolved crime. Their search led them to 32 submerged cars.
“We’re here trying to solve missing persons cold cases,” Fleming told reporters on Sunday (August 6). “When we discover a spot like this with multiple vehicles, it pretty much indicates that a crime where they’re disposing the vehicles and hiding them from law enforcement."
The diver said they were investigating a case where someone vanished after driving from Pinellas County to Miami-Dade to pick up a relative from Miami International Airport.
“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," Fleming explained.
A Doral police spokesperson confirmed to WSVN they got information from a "private search company" locating these sunken vehicles. Come Tuesday morning (August 8), the department alongside Miami-Dade police started searching the lake for the cars. Authorities confirmed one of the vehicles is stolen, according to WFLA.
“These are most likely the type of vehicles we’re going to find in this lake,” MDPD Spokesperson Alvaro Zabaleta said. “Vehicles that perhaps have been abandoned and they wanted to get rid of them, and they got rid of them here, or those that took them for a joy ride, they were stolen and then they were dumped inside the lake.”
Zabaleta stated these abandoned vehicles could be linked to a slew of crimes, from fraud to homicide, though there's no indication they're connected to any murders at this point. While most of the cars are "very old" and in poor condition, the spokesperson said officers can still run their vehicle identification numbers (VINs) to see if they're connected to any cases.
“Let’s see how many cases we can close,” he added.