More vehicles, including '79 Mercedes, hauled from river
Sep. 16—GOSHEN — Three more vehicles were pulled out of the Elkhart River in Goshen on Thursday.
After responding to a call around 11 a.m., Goshen police and firefighters, and a crew from Thompson's Towing, spent the afternoon hauling the submerged vehicles from the river near the shoreline at Violett Cemetery. The vehicles were clustered near each other under the water, which was approximately 8 feet deep.
The first to be towed out was a 1979 Mercedes 300 SD, police believe. At the scene, police speculated the car may have been under water for several years based on the older Indiana license plate attached to it. Officers also had trouble finding its vehicle identification number as they looked the car over at the scene.
"We suspect that this is a stolen car from decades ago," Assistant Police Chief Shawn Turner said.
Police didn't have information available about the other two vehicles as of Thursday evening, other than to confirm no bodies were found in any of the vehicles.
The operation came about two weeks after a pickup truck was pulled from the Goshen Dam Pond on Sept. 1. An investigation revealed the truck had been reported stolen in 2016 before it disappeared. Police couldn't say how the truck sank into the pond or how long it had been there.
The discoveries of the vehicles come as the river's water levels have been lowered while maintenance work is underway on the Goshen Dam.
Aimee Ambrose can be reached at aimee.ambrose@goshennews.com or 574-533-2151, ext. 240316. Follow her on Twitter at @aambrose_TGN.
