Foss Lake Remains: Remains Of 6 Individuals Found In Lake Have Been Identified

The six sets of human remains found in Foss Lake that were discovered in two vehicles last year have been identified.

This is not the first time bodies have been uncovered in the news. According to an earlier report from the Inquisitr, the bodies of at least seven women have been found in the northwest Indiana cities of Gary and Hammond. A suspect is in custody.

According to the OCME, the Foss Lake remains recovered from the 1952 Chevrolet have been identified as John Alva Porter, 69, of Elk City; Cleburn Hammack, 42, of Sayre and Nora Marie Duncan, 58, of Canute. The OCME said the bodies recovered from the 1969 Chevrolet Camaro have been identified as Jimmy Allen Williams, 16, Leah Gail Johnson, 18, and Thomas Michael Rios, 18, all from Sayre. DNA tests have confirmed all of these.

The case was identified as a cold case because two groups of teens went missing in 1969 and 1970. The first clue resulted when Sayre police tested sonar equipment in Foss Lake, unveiling the two sunken cars.

The three teenagers who disappeared went for a drive around their town in Williams’ blue Camaro with a white top, according to the Doe Network. “Only six days before the 16-year-old and his friends went missing, Williams had bought the used Camaro, a slick muscle car that teenage boys loved at that time,” said Dayva Spitzer, the publisher of The Sayre Record & Beckham County Democrat newspaper.

Regarding the other car, Porter, Duncan and Hammack were last seen when their car was “given a push” to help get it started, according to a July 1969 newspaper article published in Oklahoma.

The Foss Lake remains found in the Camaro matched the general descriptions of three teenagers — Jimmy Allen Williams, 16, Leah Gail Johnson, 18, and Thomas Michael Rios, 18, all from Sayre, the state Medical Examiner’s Office said. The other remains matched the genders and ages of three passengers in the green Chevrolet who went missing in 1969, the medical examiner said last year.

The OCME reported the cause of death for all the Foss Lake remains as “probably drowning” and the manner of death as “accident.”

Although the news is devastating, the families now know the true fate of their children as opposed to guessing and wondering over the past years.

[Image via Elk City Daily News]