PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — Crews with a private dive team and Pinellas County Sheriff's Office found themselves at a Lake Tarpon canal Monday morning after searching for a car that could be connected to a missing persons case from 1995.
The search comes just two days after the private team says it made an unexpected discovery.
On Facebook, Sunshine State Sonar says they were looking for a car that belonged to Brenda Starr, a Palm Harbor woman who vanished in 1995.
Instead, they found a 1970s Chevy Vega.
"We [were] just talking to the divemaster over there, and they felt around inside the vehicle, and they did not find any human remains in it, which is, which is a good thing," Mike Sullivan said. Sullivan is the founder of Sunshine State Sonar, the volunteer dive group.
"And so they attempted to take it out, which we knew it was going to be an extremely difficult task. The car was so brittle. It's been underwater for 30-plus years, most likely, and yeah, it's, you know, the axle broke apart. And, you know, they did the best they can."
Sunshine State Sonar surmised there may be a connection between the year, make and model of the car found to one related to a decades-old missing persons case in Florida involving two sisters who owned the exact same car and disappeared in 1979.
Two wheels were pulled out from the canal as crews were trying to remove the car. And according to Sullivan, there were no human remains inside after feeling around.
When the car was initially located, the dive team pulled parts off to identify its make and model.
"He pulled up a piece of the steering wheel with the Chevy emblem," Sullivan said, referencing one of his divers. "And he pulled off a piece of plastic from the eight-pillar with a GM part number, we were able to reference that part number on that eight-pillar to an early 1970s Chevrolet Vega."
"These things sometimes are absolutely impossible. If these guys can't get it out, nobody can get it out."
So far, the private dive team has searched 12 bodies of water looking for the car belonging to the missing Palm Harbor woman. While Pinellas County continues its investigation and recovery efforts of the Chevy, Sunshine State Sonar will continue