Four decades later, disappearance of 2 missing S.D. girls blamed on fatal wreck

[Drache]

(CNN) -- South Dakota investigators have put to rest a 42-year-old cold case about two missing 17-year-old girls, declaring they died in a car accident that ended in a creek at night in 1971, with no signs of foul play.

Cheryl Miller and Pamela Jackson were high school students when they disappeared May 29, 1971, while driving to a party at a gravel pit.

It took 42 years for their car to be discovered -- last September -- just a half-mile from the girls' intended destination near Beresford, South Dakota. Last year's weather -- a wet spring followed by strong creek currents and then a drought -- caused the car to become visible and recovered, caked in mud, authorities said.

Subsequent DNA, forensic and anthropological analyses confirmed the identities of the two sets of remains found in the car and also concluded that the girls' deaths were accidental, South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley told reporters Tuesday.

Their 1960 Studebaker Lark's ignition and headlights were turned on, and the transmission was in the top, or third, gear, Jackley said. Their clothing contained bones and remnants of shoes were found, and no evidence of alcohol was found in the car, he said.

"No evidence indicates that there was foul play. This would appear to indicate an accident," Jackley said.

The announcement "brings a closure" and gives the families "some answers," Jackley said. The families will now be able to collect the two girls' remains, he added.

The attorney general said investigators don't know what caused the accident, but he noted that one car tire was damaged, though authorities don't know whether a blowout caused that. He also cited how the tread on the tires were low.

Jackley showed reporters some of the personal belongings found in the car, including two classmate notes and Miller's purse.

Kay Brock, Jackson's sister, told CNN affiliate KSFY that the DNA confirmation finally ended the long uncertainty.

"I'm relieved to have no foul play," Brock told the station. "It's nice to have a permanent answer after 42 years."

(Reuters) - The remains recovered from a car found overturned in a South Dakota creek last fall have been identified as those of two teenage girls who disappeared in 1971, and no foul play is suspected, authorities said on Tuesday.

The girls, Cheryl Miller and Pamela Jackson, were both 17 when they headed out to a party in a 1960 Studebaker and never came home, according to authorities.

A sportsman spotted the car last September in Brule Creek in rural Union County, about 50 miles south of Sioux Falls, and authorities found remains in the driver and passenger seats.

The remains were recovered and tested, and identified as those of the missing girls. Test results were "consistent with a car accident," South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley told a news conference.

"There is no type of injury that would be consistent of or caused by foul play or inappropriate conduct," he said.

Jackley said the car was in third gear with the lights on when it ended up in the creek, leading investigators to conclude the teenagers died in a crash. Evidence indicated a tire may have blown and there was no evidence that alcohol played a role, he said.

The girls had visited Miller's grandmother in the hospital the evening of May 29, 1971, before meeting up with three boys in a church parking lot, Jackley said. The group then set off for a nearby party, with the girls in one vehicle and the boys in another, he said.

"They indicated they were being followed by the girls and at one point they had missed a turn and when they looked back, the girls had vanished," Jackley said.

Their disappearance had been investigated as a crime by a state cold case squad and an imprisoned rapist was even indicted for their murders, but in 2008 prosecutors dropped that case, finding that other inmates had faked a tape recorded confession.

A wet spring in 2013, along with drought conditions and a change in water current had helped to expose the car in the creek near a bridge, Jackley said.

(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; editing by Gunna Dickson)

[Drache]

Cheryl Miller's licence. Attorney general Marty Jackley said tests showed 'it's consistent with a car accident.' Photograph: AP

Two South Dakota girls on their way to an end-of-school-year party at a gravel pit in May 1971 drove off a country road and into a creek where their remains lay hidden until last fall when a drought brought their car into view, authorities said Tuesday.

State and local officials held a news conference Tuesday afternoon confirming that the 1960 Studebaker unearthed in September included the remains of Cheryl Miller and Pamella Jackson, both 17-year-olds who attended Vermillion High School.

The investigators showed dozens of photographs of well-preserved clothing, Miller's purse and even her driver's license complete with a smiling photograph. Those personal items and DNA were used to identify the girls, said Attorney General Marty Jackley. Jackson didn't have her purse along.

Classmates who saw the teens before they disappeared and other evidence indicated that they had not been drinking, he said. In addition, mechanical tests on the car pointed away from foul play, Jackley said. He noted that the car was in the highest gear and the headlight switch on the dashboard showed the lights were on.

"It's consistent with a car accident," Jackley said. "To start with, the forensic pathology and anthropology reports indicate that there's no type of injury that would be consistent with or caused by foul play or inappropriate conduct."

He said the bodies were found in the front seats, as opposed to the back seat or trunk, and that their clothing did not appear to be missing — all of which points away from their deaths being caused by a crime.

There is no way to know whether a blown tire might have cause a crash, but one was damaged and the tread was quite thin, he said.

Family members, law enforcement and others had searched the area countless times without luck.

"They were searching and they simply didn't find it," Jackley said.

Jackson's father, Oscar, died September 18, five days before the car was found.

"If you look at that obituary, it indicates one of the saddest parts of Oscar's life is not knowing about the disappearance of his daughter Pam," Jackley said.

The girls' disappearance was one of the initial investigations of South Dakota's cold case unit in 2004.

A September 2004 search of a Union County farm turned up apparently unrelated bones, clothing, a purse, photographs, newspaper articles and other items, but not the car.

In a warrant authorizing the search, authorities said that David Lykken, who lived at the farm in 1971 and was a classmate of the girls, might have been involved in the disappearance of Miller and Jackson as well as three other unnamed people. Lykken is in prison serving an unrelated 227-year sentence for rape and kidnapping.

In July 2007, a Union County grand jury indicted Lykken on two counts of premeditated murder, two counts of felony murder and two counts of murder in the disappearance of Miller and Jackson. But state prosecutors dropped all six murder charges after concluding a jailhouse informant apparently lied about Lykken supposedly admitting to causing the deaths.

Attorney Mike Butler, of Sioux Falls, represented Lykken and said the state has yet to apologize to the family for the search and allegations that turned out to be false.

"This whole thing with a man being charged, the Lykken family farm being plowed under," Butler said of the search. "That family suffered needlessly for a long time."

Jackley said two federal courts upheld the search and concluded it was done appropriately.

"With that said, it's unfortunate that when we are searching and trying to help families that we disrupt things, that we affect lives," he said. "That search was done legally and with full intention of trying to help the family of a community find two missing 17-year-olds."

Union County Sheriff Dan Limoges said Tuesday he had no regrets about the investigation.

"The only unfortunate thing I would add is for the Lykken family, for what they had to go through. But I don't make any apologies for doing our job," he said.

The girls' remains will be returned to family members for burial. Family members of Miller and Jackson attended the news conference but didn't speak, though Jackley read a statement from them: "Our day has come through this journey for answers pertaining to our sister Sherry and dear friend Pam, for we will be able to finish the last chapter of this journey."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCazkSgNf-4

[RECHRGD]

Wow, just think of the poor family members not knowing anything all those years.....

[Drache]

Wow, just think of the poor family members not knowing anything all those years.....

One of the father's of the girls passed away five days before they discovered the car 

[Mopar Nut]

R.I.P.

[bakerhillpins]

Wow, that is just crazy.

So sad that the one girls father died just before the truth was known. 

[Mike DC]

     
I'm surprised they didn't find them a long time ago.  The car was in a creek, half a mile from where they were going, and probably not too many yards from the road.

[tan top]

Wow, just think of the poor family members not knowing anything all those years.....

One of the father's of the girls passed away five days before they discovered the car 

aww that's a shame , he never knew what happened

[timmycharger]

Wow, that's unreal...