GEORGETOWN, Ohio — Authorities have identified the owner of the 1998 Buick Le Sabre pulled from the Ohio River in Aberdeen, Ohio, on Wednesday.
Brown County Sheriff’s Sgt. Chad Noble said the vehicle was registered to a man named Jesse Flaugher, who is listed on namus.gov as a missing person from October 2006. He was 85 years old at the time of his disappearance.
On Wednesday, officials arrived on scene near the Aberdeen boat ramp around 9:30 a.m. with crews from Task Force One.
During the operation, they pulled a Buick Le Sabre from the river and discovered remains inside. However, the remains are still being tested to determine if they are human or animal remains.
The remains are currently located at the Montgomery County Crime Lab waiting a positive identification, according to officials.
“The car did come back as being registered to Jesse Flaugher,” Noble said on Thursday. “We are still checking to confirm whether or not the remains inside the vehicle are human.”
Janet Brammel, Flaugher’s niece, however, is certain the remains will prove to be Flaugher.
“When I saw the picture of the car they brought out of the water, I knew it was the same,” she said.
According to Brammel, Flaugher disappeared on Oct. 1, 2006, from Brookville, Ohio and the family was almost certain he had committed suicide.
“On Oct. 1, 2006, he went missing,” she said. “He dropped off an envelope on his sister’s porch and it contained his apartment key, wallet and cash. We never saw him again. He had a lot of problems and we knew something was wrong. His mind wasn’t right. We knew something had happened.”
Brammel said she and the rest of Flaugher’s surviving family, have lived with uncertainty for the last 13 years, but they feel as if they are finally getting closure.
“It’s been stressful,” she said. “It will be 13 years in October — we’re finally getting some closure. We needed closure.”
The Buick was only one of two cars pulled from the river on Wednesday.
The second car was a pickup truck and was not found to have anything inside, according to Aberdeen Police Chief David Benjamin.
The vehicles were pulled from the river, after officers received a report of five vehicles being under the water.
“We had a fisherman who said he thought he had located a vehicle under the water just off the boat ramp,” he said. “We don’t have any missing persons or missing vehicles, so we asked Task Force One, who covers the Southwestern region of Ohio, to come down and assist us. They have a dive team.”
The three remaining vehicles are expected to be pulled from the river sometime in July, according to Benjamin.
The investigation is being led by Noble. The Federal Bureau of Investigations have also been called to assist with the investigation, according to officials.
