Mystery deepens: only five bodies found in car
Jason...@virgin.net
The Associated Press
10/26/99 1:30 PM Eastern
ENTERPRISE, Ala. (AP) -- The six friends had been missing for nearly
five months when their car was found submerged in the Pea River below
Ballard Bridge. But a month after the discovery, another grim mystery
has surfaced -- one of the six is still missing.
Forensic scientists said there was no sign that James Anthony Reynolds,
29, of Webb, was in the souped-up Chevrolet pulled from murky river
waters near the Ino community.
Authorities said it still appeared the car plunged into the river
accidentally, and divers are expected to renew the search for Reynolds
while investigators retrace their steps at the site.
"At this point we have nothing to indicate foul play," said a state
trooper spokesman, Sgt. Walter Bowers.
Dr. J.C. Upshaw Downs, director of the Alabama Department of Forensic
Science, said Reynolds' family was informed of the development Monday
evening, after the identification process for the other five was
completed over the weekend.
"We have the same questions as everyone," he said. "We would like to
identify Mr. Reynolds, find him, so we can give his family a resolution
to their grief."
Reynolds' father, James Reynolds Jr., had said when the car was found
Sept. 29 he had steeled himself for the worst, knowing his son would not
stay away from his family so long if he had been alive.
Reynolds was believed to be in a group of six friends, all in their 20s
and from the Enterprise area, who left an Opp night spot early May 8 and
piled into a souped-up Chevrolet belonging to Lamar Stackhouse, 25, of
Enterprise. No one knew where they were headed.
In addition to Reynolds and Stackhouse, the missing were Eula Jossett
Lee, 27, and Angela Roberts Young, 26, all of Enterprise; Valerie Jones
McCoy, 27, of Level Plains, and Tamara Monique Ward, 22, of Ozark.
When the six didn't arrive home, law enforcement officials began
searching the roads they might have taken and probing waterways the car
might have crossed, but turned up nothing until late September.
Divers searching the drought-lowered Pea River discovered the car
resting upside-down on the side of a sandbar on the river bottom.
Investigators speculated that the driver missed a turn in Alabama
Highway 134 near Ballard's Bridge and the car veered off and flew over
the steep river bank into the water.
Although most of the remains were found inside the vehicle, divers
returned to the river site three times to collect additional remains
from the river bottom.
A determination of the causes of death was pending, awaiting toxicology
and other test results, Downs said. The remains showed no evidence of
trauma such as bullet holes or stab wounds, he said.
Downs said every effort would be made to locate Reynolds. He declined to
speculate on whether he might be alive.
"Anything else would be unfair and speculation at this point in time,"
he said.