Brooke County Sheriff Richard Ferguson communicates with a dive team during efforts to recover a vehicle found Thursday at the bottom of the Ohio River near the Fort Steuben Bridge.
A vehicle found at the bottom of the Ohio River does not appear to hold any answers in the search for a Beaver County, Pa., woman who vanished more than three years ago after visiting a local casino.
As it turns out, getting the car to relinquish any secrets at all may prove a challenge, according to Brooke County Sheriff Richard Ferguson - its license plates are missing, as is the dashboard label that should provide the car's vehicle identification number.
Divers found the car Thursday afternoon about 20 feet from the Ohio shore near the Fort Steuben Bridge while doing environmental research in preparation for the bridge's demolition in the coming months.
Ferguson said a wrecker from Nick's Auto Sales in Weirton hauled the vehicle from the river at about 11 a.m. Friday after a lengthy, difficult recovery effort.
Upon discovering the car, Ferguson said, authorities initially hoped the find would shed some light on the disappearance of 57-year-old Karen Adams, who hasn't been seen or heard from since she left Mountaineer Casino, Racetrack and Resort on March 12, 2007. She was driving a maroon, 2005 Suzuki Forenza.
Ferguson said the car pulled from the river is a four-door Pontiac T1000 of indeterminate year. He said there's little doubt the VIN was removed deliberately, leading him to believe the vehicle may have been stolen. He said it is hard to say at this point, but the car could have been in the river as long at 10-15 years.
Snyder Towing of Wellsburg brought the vehicle to the sheriff's department impound facility, where Ferguson said investigators will begin combing through it "as soon as possible" to determine why the car ended up in the river.
"Right now, there's so much muck and debris in the interior," he said, adding the recovery effort turned up no sign of human remains. "I just hope there's no bones in it."
Ferguson praised Steubenville police and the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department for their cooperation in the recovery effort, as well as that of the dive team who found the car. He said divers were in the process of relocating mussels native to the area near the bridge, whose habitats will be disturbed when the span is demolished.
New sonar equipment prompted Beaver County authorities to resume the search for Adams, who reportedly left the casino about 3 a.m. the day of her disappearance. At 4:30 a.m., someone accessed her cell phone voicemail. There's been no activity on her phone or credit cards since. Recent searches of ponds and creeks along Adams' likely route home to Independence Township, Pa., have been unsuccessful.
Adams' story drew national attention when it was featured on the CBS drama "Without a Trace" in February 2008. She is 5 feet 4 inches tall, weighs 120 pounds and has brown hair and green eyes.
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