The group that found over 30 cars in a lake in Doral is comprised of volunteers who work with families and law enforcement to try to solve missing persons cases.
Michael Sullivan of Florida-based Sunshine State Sonar spends most of his time underwater searching for cars connected to missing persons cases, but he never expected to find a sunken landscape of dozens of cars in the lake along NW 13th Terrace.
“South Florida is a busy area, and you never know what you’re going to find in the water down there," Sullivan said.
Sunshine State Sonar is a volunteer search team specializing in using underwater sonar technology. With their dive partners Recon Dive Recovery, they have an open list of cases in South Florida — but the case of Ronald Gilchrist, who went missing in the 80s, is what brought them to the area.
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“He was headed for Miami airport to pick up his family, but he never picked up his family," Fleming said. "And that’s one of the reasons we’re focusing on airport-adjacent bodies of water."
Over the past weekend, the groups had their biggest find yet — many of the cars they found had been underwater for over 20 years.
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"It was a huge discovery for us. We actually had 44 that weekend," said Ken Fleming of Recon Dive Recovery. "So across from this 32, there’s seven in a pond across the street, there’s one down the way, and we have multiples around the county.”
The volunteers first use sonar equipment similar to fish finders before they go down into the murky depths.
“It’s equivalent to walking in a dark room at night with four walls and shining a flashlight," Sullivan said. "So what we’re looking for is the shadows. You’re not going to see the vehicle, you’re going to see the shadow behind the vehicle.“
Miami-Dade Police recovered four of the cars on Tuesday. So far two were confirmed as stolen vehicles. None of these cars have been linked to any missing person cases yet, but there are still many cars left to pull out as the investigative work continues.
“We work with families, and when you meet these families, and you see the hurt — their loved ones are missing for 10, 15, 20 years," Sullivan said. "When law enforcement comes up empty and there’s nothing else they can do, that’s when we come in and see if we can sort of fill that void, or that gap, and do the underwater stuff, especially when there is a vehicle involved."
