Human remains have been found inside a submerged vehicle pulled from a lake in Scottsdale, after a Maricopa County Sheriff's Office helicopter happened to spot the car while circling near McCormick Parkway and Hayden Road on an unrelated call. The vehicle's registered owner is linked to a 2015 missing persons case out of New Mexico, and investigators are now working to determine whether the remains found inside belong to that same person.
The chopper crew's discovery, reported by AZ Family, prompted Scottsdale police to take over the investigation. Officers first sent up a drone to confirm the car was indeed resting in the lake before calling in the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office Dive Team, which responded to help remove the vehicle and, once it was out of the water, found the human remains inside.
The lake sits within Scottsdale's Indian Bend Wash Greenbelt, an 11-mile engineered flood-control system whose development took almost 20 years and which the city finished in 1985, according to Rides N Motion. The Greenbelt includes ponds, waterways, golf courses, and the McCormick Ranch area.
How the Dive Team Pulled the Car From the Water
The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office Dive Team helped remove the vehicle from the lake.
The human remains have since been transferred to the Maricopa County Medical Examiner's Office, which will determine the victim's cause of death. Scottsdale police said there does not appear to be evidence of foul play, though officials caution the identification process will take time.
How Officials Will Confirm an Identity
The Maricopa County Medical Examiner's Office is working to identify the remains and determine whether they belong to the person linked to the 2015 New Mexico missing-persons case.
To establish identity when remains are decomposed or otherwise unrecognizable, the medical examiner's office may use forensic anthropology, fingerprint records, and comparisons of antemortem dental radiographs, a process detailed by KTAR News. AZFamily reported that identification in this case will take time as officials work to determine whether the remains belong to the person linked to the 2015 New Mexico case.
A Greenbelt With a Painful Recent History
A Greenbelt With a Painful Recent History This is not the first time Scottsdale's greenbelt waterways have factored into a death investigation. Just last year, an Uber driver drowned after flash flooding submerged his vehicle in the same Indian Bend Wash Greenbelt, a tragedy Hoodline previously covered.
For now, the central questions remain open. Investigators have not said how long the car sat submerged before the helicopter crew noticed it, and the Medical Examiner's Office has not yet confirmed whether the remains belong to the person tied to the 2015 New Mexico case. Scottsdale police say the investigation is ongoing as forensic testing proceeds.
