Mystery at Lake Sarah

Workers last Thursday bring up a Pontiac sports car that had been sitting at the bottom of Lake Sarah for at least 19 years. The car was blanketed in zebra mussels and its windows were gone. Photo / Per Peterson

Surrounded by slowly developing and worrisome white caps, a group of workers methodically but surely pulled a sports car with tabs from November 2003 from the bottom of Lake Sarah on Thursday.

The process, which took more than three hours to complete, ended in front of a small crowd gathered at Sundquist Park on the west side of the popular recreational and fishing lake when the vehicle, submerged in the lake for at least 19 years, was pulled onto a flatbed.

There was no evidence of a body found in the car, and foul play is not suspected, said Murray County Chief Deputy Sheriff Heath Landsman.

“We’re going to try and figure out who the owner is; we’ll have our investigative team go through it and confirm that there was absolutely no one in the car,” Landsman said. “After that, we’ll try to figure out who the owner is. Somebody will have to answer for why this car was in the lake.”

Since the investigation into the owner of the car is ongoing, the Murray County Sheriff’s Department is not releasing any information. Landsman said there will likely be criminal charges against the owner.

See more in this week’s paper!