OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — Divers have uncovered human remains submerged in Lake Crescent near a car that plunged into the lake 75 years ago.
A diver from Mill Creek who first spotted the missing vehicle of Russel and Blanch Warren said he unintentionally found a human femur and skullcap about 100 feet from the car during a commemorative dive last Saturday.
“I was not expecting to find human bones, so it was a bit of a start that I saw those,” John Rawlings told the PDN on Wednesday.
Olympic National Park announced the discovery of human remains Wednesday afternoon.
The find has prompted a temporary restriction for diving in part of Lake Crescent until the bones can be uncovered, park spokeswoman Barb Maynes said.
The park will begin its standard procedure for identifying remains sometime this month, Maynes said.
Though the bones were found near the Warrens’ 1927 Chevrolet, they could belong to anyone, she said.
Several people have disappeared in the general vicinity of the car, west of Barnes Point, within the last 40 or 50 years, she said.
“It’s intriguing that (the bones) were found so close to the Warren vehicle, but we have no way of knowing at this point whose remains these are,” she said.