Remains Pulled From Lake 43 Years Later Solve Decades-Old Mystery

The remains of a man missing for 43 years were found inside a car pulled from a North Carolina lake this week, finally putting an end to a decades-old mystery.

Investigators in Caldwell County told WSOC-TV that they found the 1968 Pontiac Catalina 30 feet down in Lake Rhodhiss using sonar, and the remains inside are thought to belong to Amos Shook. Shook disappeared in 1972 when he was in his 40s.

Authorities told WSOC-TV they searched the lake in absence of a specific tip and do not believe that foul play was involved in Shook's death. They also don't think he committed suicide.

"It put some closure on something they've been looking forward to for a long time," Caldwell County Sheriff Alan Jones told the television station.

Authorities determined the body inside the vehicle was likely Shook's based on identification found inside the car, according to WCNC-TV.

"We found a wallet and some ID cards were in it," Jones said. "It amazed us how preserved that stuff was."

Officials said they aren't sure how the car ended up in the lake, but it was found in an area that is now a boat launch.

"Forty-three years — that's a long time for somebody to be missing and for a family to wonder where they are at," Jones told WCNC-TV.

Shook, 44 at the time of his disappearance, served in the U.S. Air Force and his family now lives throughout Tennessee, local authorities told The Associated Press. Sheriff's Lt. Aaron Barlowe said that the remains will be studied by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for an autopsy and official identification.

"Unless the medical examiner says the autopsy shows some type of foul play, we may never know what happened," Caldwell County Sheriff's Capt. B.J. Fore told the AP. "We don't know his state of mind, and most of his family members are probably in their 80s now. But we’re glad to have brought the family some closure."

Lake Rhodhiss, about 75 miles northwest of Charlotte, is in Caldwell County, a mostly rural area in the North Carolina foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

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