An independent dive team trying to solve a missing persons cold case from 1970 has uncovered 97 vehicles in the Chicago River.
Married couple Edward and Stephania Andrews, both 62, were last seen on May 15, 1970, leaving a party in a 1969 yellow Oldsmobile 442. The two drank alcohol at the party, and a garage manager saw the car driving northbound in the southbound lanes on Chicago’s Michigan Avenue, according to the Doe Network database of missing persons.
The Chaos Divers team, going on the theory that the car went into the river and that the couple drowned, searched the Chicago River Wednesday and found 97 vehicles, far more than they expected.
“Once we kind of reached that like 50, you know, 60 number point, it was kind of, ’OK, this is even a little more than we had expected to find,’” the dive team’s manager Lindsay Bussick told Chicago’s WBBM-TV.
Among the cars found was a 2023 Nissan stolen in 2023 — the team called the Chicago Police Department to have it removed because it was damaging boats, according to WBBM-TV.
Some of the cars are clumped together, though the team is more focused on finding individual cars that they say are more likely to be linked to an accident or other incident.
“A lot of these are in piles, we have three piles that are ranging anywhere from 12 to 19 cars in one spot … We are a little bit more interested in those cars that’s kind of the one-off, or just one vehicle by itself because that’s going to be more indicative of an accident, or even self-harm or foul play,” Ms. Bussick told Chicago’s WFLD-TV.
The Oldsmobile, however, was not among the cars found Wednesday. The Chaos Divers team told WFLD-TV they planned to stay in Chicago through Friday to complete their search efforts.
