The body of a woman who has been missing for 25 years has been found inside her red sports car at the bottom of a southwest Florida pond.
Source: Body of Woman Missing Since 1990 Found in Fort Myers Pond | NBC 6 South Florida
No foul play suspected. Believe it or not, this is not uncommon down here. We are filled with canals for flood control plus ponds and lakes, some natural, lots man-made that bring charm to our neighborhoods.
What you see blue in the map is a body of water and pretty much the big one only and no canals. West of me, there is a lake big enough that supported a Cessna 172 with pontoons and I never figured out how the FAA allowed it since every inch of the lake’s coast had a house and the area is quite suburban.
There was this case where a guy left a hurricane party intoxicated and was never seen after that. yes, he was drunk and left in the middle of a Cat 1 Hurricane which is not the smartest thing to do. He was found in a canal 2 years later a mile from where the party was held and the kicker is that the canal was parallel to a busy road. Nobody ever saw a thing, including me who used to drive by the location at least twice a week.
I have a hole puncher and a knife secured in my center console, same with the wife. Most if the canals are not really deep, but you are sitting trapped in a car under 4 feet of water and can’t get out, you could be 8 feet tall and will be dead just the same.
And that is your charming Friday post.
It’s not unknown in the Midwest either, where there are lots of retention ponds. In one of the suburbs of Chicago, the wife of a local celebrity went missing for several years, prompting a big investigation into the celebrity husband. Eventually, the retention pond at the end of her street was drained for routine maintenance, and there she was, still in her car. She had apparently slid into it during a blizzard; the falling snow hid the tracks, the pond froze over, and the water was deep enough that the car couldn’t be seen from the pond’s edge. The husband was uninvolved and was as relieved that the mystery had been solved, although sadly, as anyone.
I carried, and still do a center punch… Works well to pop a window. I also carry seatbelt cutters in my EMS bag.
From the air, when the light’s at the right angle, Florida looks like a sponge sitting in a tray of water. Some areas aren’t obviously water, but most of it reflects the light.
I’m surprised the gators don’t eat the corpses.
They would have to figure how to open the car door… 😛
Pro tip: secure the window breaker & seat belt cutter somewhere in the center of the vehicle. It needs to be retained in exactly the same place whether the car is right side up or upside down. Mine’s an S&W First Responder knife in a nylon velcro-closure pouch zip tied to the transfer case shifter on the hump.
2nd Pro tip: take your escape tool to a junkyard and practice with it, even if it costs a few bucks to cover the cost of windows you’ll break with it. Try sitting in a vehicle and breaking out the window and cutting the belt. Practice makes perfect.
It’s been about 10-12 years, but Julius Erving’s teenage son died in a similar way in Orlando – he took a short cut through grassy undeveloped property on his way home from his part time job at Panera’s, and had his seat tilted so far back he cold barely see over the hood, missed a turn and went into a retention pond, thunderstorm couple days after hid all the tracks. IIRC, one of the searchers (Orange County Fire Rescue) had the bright idea to dive the pond 2 weeks into the search and found the kid in his car in 20 feet of water. Apparently got knocked unconscious from the impact, inhaled water and drowned.
Cars under water with dead people in them are not at all uncommon all over Florida.
Need to add 3rd Pro tip: When practicing at a junkyard, train yourself to cut the belt first, then break the window….
“It’s been about 10-12 years, but Julius Erving’s teenage son died in a similar way in Orlando – he took a short cut through grassy undeveloped property on his way home from his part time job at Panera’s, and had his seat tilted so far back he cold barely see over the hood, missed a turn and went into a retention pond, ”
No disrespect intended, but this sounds like recklessness tantamount to deliberate suicide.
I’d attribute it to typical teenager stupidity and inexperience and the young’s belief in immortality. It’s “cool” – or at least was back then, don’t know if it still is – to have your seat tilted way back.
Actually, the FAA doesn’t care what lakes you land on, so long as the ground authorities say it’s OK, or at least, don’t say it’s forbidden. Sometimes lakefront homeowners welcome the seaplanes (as at Lake Winnepesaukee (sp?) in NH) and sometimes they’re hostile and get the town to ban them (Reading Pond in Wakefield, MA). As a general rule of thumb, in states and cities where people might trust you with a firearm they tend to trust you with an airplane.
In places where they have an unreasoning terror of Ugh! Firestick! they tend to have a hyperactive imagine about what an airplane ‘way over there might do if the pilot dropped it on The Children.
Oddly enough, people’s public, vocal and theatrical concern for The Children seems to be inverse to the number of actual, physical, and human children they’re raising or have raised.
And that is why I have the best comment people around 😀