Miami police begin pulling cars submerged from a Doral lake. Here's what they found so far.
The Miami-Dade Police Department is recovering multiple cars found submerged in a lake in Doral, Florida.
Divers working for a private company to investigate a missing person cold case said they found 32 cars while exploring a lake nestled in an industrial park west of Miami. They notified the police, which began pulling the vehicles from the lake Tuesday morning.
The cars they removed Tuesday date back to around the 1990s and all have been connected to stolen vehicles. They expect that many will help close decade-old stolen car cases, but they have not ruled out the possibility of finding new evidence linked to homicide cold cases. Without being able to confirm how many cars are littered on the bottom of the lake, police are likely to need several more days to finish the extraction.
Here is what they found on the first day of vehicle recovery.
First car found in the lake confirmed stolen
Miami-Dade police representative Alvaro Zabaleta told WFLA that the first car pulled from the lake was confirmed to be stolen. MDPD spokesperson Luis Sierra later confirmed with USA TODAY that the car is a Acura Legend, which was last made in 1995, according Cars.com.
The final number of cars in the lake is not yet confirmed due to low visibility, but Doral Police commander Alicia Neal said it is approximately 30.
Police also pulled out a Ford Econoline van, Cadillac Sedan DeVille and a Ford Crown Vic on Tuesday. All four cars are linked to stolen vehicle reports dating as far back as 1996, according to Neal.
Zabaleta said they expect all cars to be of an older make and model as they were likely dumped before the surrounding commercial area, including a Walmart Supercenter, a car dealership and several popular chain restaurants, was built.
The New York Times reported that some cars in the lake could have dated back to an international feud in the 1970s and 1980s between Colombian drug cartels and the United States government.
Cars discovered in Florida lake: 32 vehicles found in lake by divers working missing person cold cases
Police won't rule out possibility of new evidence in cold cases
Zabaleta said the the MDPD team investigating homicide cold cases hasn't been led to this lake before, but they would not rule it out as a possibility.
Based on the first vehicle that was pulled, he expected that they were stolen and discarded after a joy ride. But they will continue to examine the recovered cars for evidence linked to outstanding cases.
"We're not gonna discard the possibility of some type fraud that also can occur and some other type of foul play like a homicide," Zabaleta said, noting that the detectives investigating deaths were on the scene.
Volunteer divers found cars while working missing person cold case
Divers Ken Fleming and Doug Bishop with United Search Corps work on a volunteer basis to investigate missing persons cold cases, they told 7News Miami. The organization works on cases that could have started up to 40 years ago.
They were investigating a case where someone drove from Pinellas County to the Miami International Airport to pick up a relative and never returned.
They targeted this lake because it is nearby the airport with easy access, which could lend itself to foul play.
When they found 32 cars, the divers suspected it was a dumping ground for ongoing criminal activity.
“When we discover a spot like this with multiple vehicles, it pretty much indicates that a crime where they’re disposing the vehicles and hiding them from law enforcement,” Fleming told 7News.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Doral lake cars recovered by Miami police divers: What they're finding
