Years ago, when the two Vermillion, SD, girls disappeared on the way to a party, I was not watching much news and did not remember anything about the story. I do remember that relatively recently that "closed case" outfits went digging up the Lykken Farm and apparently found nothing. Now years later the apparently crashed remains of the car and apparently the teenager remains as well are found in a stream next to a bridge in the area. The story below has some of the details.
CBS CRIMESTOPPERS NEWS on Old SD Case
Apparently with the benefit of 20-20 hindsight, it would appear that the simplest explanations of the disappearance should have been followed up on immediately. If a vehicle mysteriously disappears, it is unlikely that space aliens took it or that somebody dug a big hole and buried it without leaving a trace.. It just might be that a vehicle crash of somekind is involved and the car went into water deep and dirty enough along a possible route to make it disappear. One might also think that immediately after the disappearance, there might still have been tracks in grass where the car apparently went off the road.
I obviously don't know any actual details on this, but it seems now that the least probable explanations for the disappearnce have been pursued with great vigor and the most obvious possible reasons have been ignored. Maybe somebody with actual recollections of this can fill in some of the early search details or actual information from investigators will turn up in news..
[[Note of September 27, 2013]]-- This morning after I posted above, I saw the Mitchell Daily Republic AP storty titled "Classmates recall night SD girls Vanished". A few lines from that story are interesting. The following was found on an ABC news site:
Iverson said he doesn't think authorities at the time paid much attention to classmates' theories.
He said he remembers the sheriff's search focused elsewhere after seeing tracks going into the Missouri River, but students knew the girls weren't there.
"It should have been easy to find them," Iverson said. "They're somewhere between point A and point B, and the only thing there is a creek."
This 40 year late followup is kind of discouraging. It suggests that some local law enforcement is inadequately equiped to handle even slightly puzzling cases that don't exactly fit their pre-existing assumptions and prejudices. The only tiny good thing about this is that the girls probably could not have been saved no matter when they were found. Law enforcement wild goose chases since have generated a lot of misery and trouble for people however.
*** Stay tuned, and drive sober and carefully-- Doug Wiken
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