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November 13, 2009

Police find three cars in Ohio River

All the vehicles are believed to be stolen

By TARA HETTINGER

Police are investigating to find out what happened after discovering three cars in the Ohio River off of the Middle Creek Road Ramp in Floyd County.

Detective Joel White, with the Floyd County Sheriff’s Department, said the department received a call after someone spotted the first vehicle, a Jeep Grand Cherokee, in the water. The Indiana State Police Dive Team was called out to check if anyone was inside and to assist in pulling it out of the water.

During the process, they found another car, one that had been crushed after a river barge ran over it, White said.

While pulling that one out, a third was found. However, White said only about a foot of that vehicle’s roof is free to try to pull it in. The rest has sunk into the mud under the water and can’t be pulled out yet, he said.

“It’ll probably just rip the roof off,” he said.

He said the barge company likely will be asked to help pull that auto out.

Nobody was found in any of the three cars. White said the first, the sport utility vehicle, had been stolen from Louisville in August.

White said he doesn’t think the cars ended up in the water by accident.

“Apparently, people have been dumping cars down here,” he said.

White said the SUV was a stolen car. He said he believes the rest are too. However, the Vehicle Identification Number, or VIN, on both will have to be checked to be sure.

“Basically, I think the reason [they dump cars in the river] is that they don’t want it to get back to them,” White said. “It’s a good place to keep them out of sight ... nobody is going to know it’s there.”

He said he also believes it’s the criminals’ way of trying to cover up evidence, such as fingerprints or DNA.

This isn’t the first time cars have been discovered off that boat ramp, according to Trooper David Miller, one of the divers. Miller said the divers come out to the area for training.

“We come here at least once a year to see if we can find anything and we usually do,” he said.

He said the current wasn’t an issue for divers Thursday. However, he said the visibility was with, them only being able to see about 6 inches in front of them.

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