An investigation is underway after a volunteer team of divers that specializes in missing persons cold cases discovered roughly 30 sunken vehicles in a South Florida lake last weekend.
Doug Bishop, founder of the nonprofit United Search Corps, told CNN the Doral-area lake was one of many on his group's radar to search. While Bishop says the vehicles weren't connected to any of the cold cases they were tracking, police said they may be linked to other crimes.
Today, members of our Special Patrol Bureau, Divers Unit along with @DoralPolice and @MiamiDadeFire took part in a vehicle recovery detail after receiving information of several dozen vehicles submerged in a lake in the Doral, Florida area. pic.twitter.com/KLZFeCpMQ7
— Miami-Dade Police (@MiamiDadePD) August 9, 2023
"We just pulled out one vehicle that the Doral Police Department has confirmed that it's a 2002 vehicle that was reported stolen," said Detective Alvaro Zabaleta with the Miami-Dade Police Department. "That's most likely what we feel we're going to find here, is going to be abandoned vehicles that are associated with some type of vehicle theft. Perhaps, some type of possible fraud."
Bishop told CNN that divers didn't discover any human remains, but more information is needed to determine how the vehicles ended up in the lake. After each one is removed, police said they will run their vehicle identification numbers to determine which department will be responsible to take on the case.
Authorities estimate it could take several weeks to retrieve all of the vehicles.
According to police records, there are currently about 2,000 unsolved crimes in the Miami-Dade area.
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