Skeletal remains of missing person Amos Shook found in his submerged 1968 Pontiac this week means North Carolina’s oldest cold case disappearance has finally been solved.
The U.S. airman and his vehicle had vanished in the winter of 1972, but it seems both were sitting at the bottom of Lake Rhodhiss for all the years that have since passed.
While the car pulled from the water Tuesday morning definitely matches the missing man’s and a wallet belonging to Shook was found inside, the human remains still haven’t been positively identified yet.
But there’s no doubt in investigators’ minds that the bones they found in the badly rusted vehicle are those of the long lost man:
“We believe it's him,” stated Caldwell County Sheriff Alan Jones, who also said it didn’t appear that something nefarious caused Shook’s apparent drowning, although the results of a full autopsy are still pending.
Those could take a few months for the coroner’s office to process, and “they could come back with something different that will push us in another direction,” Jones cautioned, “but at this point in time we don't suspect foul play.”
Authorities began searching the rural Blue Ridge Mountains region anew, including Lake Rhodhiss, on a tip last month from a daughter of Staff Sergeant Amos Shook, the nature of which hasn’t been divulged.
The foothills lake itself is sizable, but sonar equipment -- not available when Shook first disappeared -- helped narrow down the search area, and ultimately his ‘68 Pontiac was located about 150 feet from shore.
Coincidentally, the 43-year-old Caldwell County war veteran vanished 43 years ago; making his the longest unsolved missing persons case in the state of North Carolina.
“This is one of the oldest cold cases we’ve worked,” Sheriff Jones confirmed.
