GADSDEN, Ala. — With the assistance of FBI dive groups, police in Alabama imagine a 39-year-old lacking individuals case has been resolved.
Gadsden Police Chief Lamar Jaggears stated authorities hope to get DNA from the sibling of a person reported lacking in Rainbow Metropolis, Alabama on April 16, 1983 – to substantiate the id of human stays present in an SUV submerged within the Coosa River behind an condominium complicated.
Even with out the DNA identification, they’ve rather a lot to show the determine: the brown 1983 Ford Bronco matches the outline of Alan D. Livingston’s car, and a driver’s license, Goodyear ID and Social Safety card discovered within the car bear his identify.
In January, Chris Overstreet, a scuba diver and EMT from Virginia, who travels round wanting into lacking individuals circumstances, was conducting a water search on the Coosa River utilizing sonar when he found a car in about 18 toes of water, 30 toes from the shoreline behind the condominium complicated.
Overstreet dove and located the car, a Nineteen Eighties mannequin, resting to the hood in silt. He known as Gadsden police.
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The Gadsden Police Division and the Etowah County Dive Crew launched an investigation. Capt. Bobby Jackson stated they decided they’d no means to boost the car, stuffed with silt up the windshield, from the water. “It could have come aside of their palms,” he stated, after a long time underwater.
After analysis, it was found that Livingston, 25 on the time, went lacking in April 1983. He was final seen at what was Forest River Residences (now Summer time Waters).
He owned a 1980 brown Ford Bronco at the moment. Livingston was reported lacking by a co-worker who had not seen him for a number of days.
About two months after Livingston was reported lacking, William Roth Jr. was arrested in Arkansas for a homicide that occurred in Clarksville, Texas. Throughout an interview with Texas/Arkansas authorities, Roth admitted to hitting Livingston within the head with a board after an argument. He stated the crime occurred in Gadsden, Alabama, the place he was staying on the time.
Livingston lived in Rainbow Metropolis on the time and was reported lacking to their jurisdiction. After Roth’s assertion to authorities, the Alabama Bureau of Investigation Gadsden, Rainbow Metropolis investigators went to Texas to interview Roth.
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Roth persistently instructed investigators that he hit Livingston with a board in Gadsden. He was inconsistent, nevertheless, about what he did with the physique and Livingston’s Bronco afterward. Authorities searched in a number of totally different areas, however got here up brief.
Due to the situation of the car, which had disintegrated to the purpose it’d collapse, and the very fact it was encased in mud and silt as much as the windshield, Gadsden detectives and Gadsden Police Licensed Public Security Diver Lieutenant Jon Alred consulted with Police Chief Lamar Jaggears, who requested for the FBI’s help.
FBI Supervisory Senior Resident Agent Will Strunk coordinated with FBI Headquarters in Virginia, who despatched divers from Virginia, Los Angeles and Miami to conduct the search.
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The FBI Dive Crew on Tuesday and Wednesday used a dredge to take away silt and different objects from contained in the Bronco that was nonetheless submerged within the Coosa River. The silt was sifted and what was left was analyzed by the FBI Proof Response Crew.
On the conclusion of the search, skeletal stays and the identification belonging to Livingston had been situated. The stays are being despatched off to forensics for additional evaluation.
Roth, 61, is serving a life sentence in Texas, and is at the moment within the care of a nursing facility due to deteriorating well being.
