Blurry shape spotted by fisherman in lake spurs 33-year-old mystery, Kansas cops say
_fitted.png "A Kansas angler found something unexpected while fishing in a reservoir, bringing a 33-year-old mystery back to the surface.")
A 33-year-old mystery has resurfaced in Kansas after a curious fisherman spotted a strange shape resting at the bottom of a lake, photos show.
John Mounce, of Wichita, was fishing on Cheney Reservoir on May 29 when he made the discovery, he said in a Facebook post.
A sonar device first tipped him off that something unusual was beneath the surface, so he put a livescope into the water for a better look, he told KSNW.
A grainy image appeared on screen: a rectangular object roughly 16 feet below, a Facebook post shows. But it didn’t take Mounce long to figure out what he was looking at.
“I knew 100% immediately that it was a vehicle,” he told KSNW.
While he did eventually contact investigators, Mounce admits he didn’t let the discovery of the Jeep disrupt his day on the water.
“Before I called the authorities, I’m gonna let it be known … I caught all the fish,” he told the station.
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Authorities arrived at the reservoir, located the Jeep with Mounce’s help and pulled it from the water, social media posts show. The vehicle was in bad shape, rusted and falling apart, but still recognizably a Jeep.
Investigators soon learned the Jeep was stolen, the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office told McClatchy News. The theft was reported to the Wichita Police Department in 1990.
McClatchy has reached out to the Wichita Police Department for more information, and is awaiting response.
How the Jeep, stolen 33 years ago, might have ended up in the Cheney Reservoir, investigators haven’t said.
The sheriff’s department has been in contact with the person who owned the Jeep, Fox News reported.
“He said clearly it had been stolen. He made an insurance claim, which was paid out,” Capt. Benjamin Blick, with the sheriff’s office, told the outlet. “We’ve contacted the insurance company and so really, at this point, since they own it, since they paid out on it, it’s up to them what to do from here.”
This story was originally published June 22, 2023 at 12:55 PM with the headline "Blurry shape spotted by fisherman in lake spurs 33-year-old mystery, Kansas cops say."