Photo: WFOR
A 2002 Nissan Altima, in any normal context, is nothing special. But when this very vehicle is the first of 32 pulled by a skilled team of divers from the bottom of a South Florida lake, it was the beginning of an almost movie-like story of a lake teeming with the remains of dozens of cars and trucks. According to local authorities, many of these vehicles could be linked to the coverup of a crime.
As reported by the local station of CBS News in Miami, an unassuming lake not far from their headquarters in Doral, Miami-Dade County, had played host to an insidious secret hidden in its depths. At first, Miami-Dade County police were none the wiser that what very likely is a hidden crime scene lurked beneath the gloomy water, possibly for decades. But as local wrecker crews pulled mangled hulks of steel out of the murky waters the morning of August 8th, it was clear something other than hapless accidents could be to blame for how all these cars and trucks wound up at the bottom of one of countless lakes in Miami-Dade County.
"We received information from a citizen on Sunday that apparently he was diving out here. He appeared to observe what appeared to be several dozen vehicles that had been dumped in this lake. Once we received this information, our divers unit immediately collaborated with other agencies at the police department and Miami-Dade Fire Rescue so we could put this operation together in order to be able to recover all of the vehicles," said Detective Alvaro Zabaleta told the awaiting media at the Miami-Dade Police Dept's press release on the matter.
"These are most likely the type of vehicles that we are going to find here dumped in this lake. Vehicles that were abandoned, and they wanted to get rid of them. Or those that were taken for a joy ride, they were stolen and were dumped inside the lake." In what might not come as a shock to most, the 2002 Altima that was first to be pulled from the mysterious lake came back as a stolen vehicle when police ran the license plate. 258 homicides were reported in Miami-Dade County in 2022, and homicide investigators are actively on the scene assisting police officers at the lake in the event any of the vehicles yields evidence of more serious crimes like murder or armed robbery.
For now, Miami-Dade authorities are still sifting through the considerable mass of steel and rubber in the hopes of finding clues to the origin of these vehicles. Though no word of a lead on cold cases has come yet, there's always the chance circumstances change in a hurry. Whatever the case, we owe the United Search Corps, the non-profit diving team that cracked this case, our deepest thanks.
"We received information from a citizen on Sunday that apparently he was diving out here. He appeared to observe what appeared to be several dozen vehicles that had been dumped in this lake. Once we received this information, our divers unit immediately collaborated with other agencies at the police department and Miami-Dade Fire Rescue so we could put this operation together in order to be able to recover all of the vehicles," said Detective Alvaro Zabaleta told the awaiting media at the Miami-Dade Police Dept's press release on the matter.
"These are most likely the type of vehicles that we are going to find here dumped in this lake. Vehicles that were abandoned, and they wanted to get rid of them. Or those that were taken for a joy ride, they were stolen and were dumped inside the lake." In what might not come as a shock to most, the 2002 Altima that was first to be pulled from the mysterious lake came back as a stolen vehicle when police ran the license plate. 258 homicides were reported in Miami-Dade County in 2022, and homicide investigators are actively on the scene assisting police officers at the lake in the event any of the vehicles yields evidence of more serious crimes like murder or armed robbery.
For now, Miami-Dade authorities are still sifting through the considerable mass of steel and rubber in the hopes of finding clues to the origin of these vehicles. Though no word of a lead on cold cases has come yet, there's always the chance circumstances change in a hurry. Whatever the case, we owe the United Search Corps, the non-profit diving team that cracked this case, our deepest thanks.
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