Car in lake may solve 72-year-old mystery

Volunteer divers and a National Park Service search team believe a car they spotted 166 feet below the surface is the 1927 Chevrolet driven by Russell and Blanch Warren when they disappeared July 3, 1929.


	Blanch and Russell Warren vanished on their way home from Port Angeles in 1929 with a new washing machine. Click for larger photo

Yesterday, divers hoped to take video images of the car to match the make and model, but high winds, choppy waves and slushy snowflakes kept them out of the water.

They say the car is remarkably intact, resting on its left side and tilting downward on a steep slope. It is only 60 feet from the shore near Ambulance Point on U.S. Route 101, about four miles from the west end of the 10 mile-long lake.

There's a slim possibility that the searchers have found a different car, as they had twice last fall, but all clues point to this being the Warrens' car.

Investigators believe the Warrens missed a curve before their car hurtled off the narrow dirt road. Then the westbound car apparently hit a diagonal shelf in the water, causing it to spin clockwise before it stopped and pointed back to the east.

It is near mile marker 223. The highway now is elevated and has guardrails, unlike in the Warrens' time.

No human remains or traces were found in or around the car, but its location is consistent with a debris trail that divers have found over the past five months.

The discovery brings some peace and closure to the family of Russell and Blanch Warren, who lived at a logging camp on the Bogachiel River west of Forks. Their two sons, then 12 and 14, were devastated by their disappearance and faced painful rumors that their parents had abandoned them.

"I'd like to thank everyone for doing this," Kristine Coachman, 32, great-granddaughter of the Warrens, said to the search team.

"You're most welcome," replied Dan Pontbriand, the district ranger who oversees 144,000 acres including Lake Crescent, and the man who headed up the effort. "It's been a labor of love."

Rollie Warren, of Whidbey Island, always felt that the grandparents he'd never met or knew much about, were in the lake.

"I definitely think they should be left there," said Warren, 61, whose blue eyes watered with unspoken emotion. "I think it's a fitting place for them."

His wife, Geneil Warren, agreed. "What a beautiful resting place," she said.

The family said if any remains are found they might like to have a DNA sample tested for positive identification.

And they said they'll likely hold a private memorial sometime for Russell and Blanch Warren.

The Saturday find is the culmination of an 11-month investigation overseen by Pontbriand, 46. He became interested after a local man, Bob Caso, came to him with the story and a file of newspaper clippings. A retired diver and amateur sleuth, Caso, 77, had known of the case for years and always felt sympathy for the two boys orphaned by their parents' disappearance.

Both boys died in tragic circumstances as well. Charles Warren, father of Rollie Warren, died at the age of 47 when his fishing boat went missing off the coast of Northern California in 1964. His older brother, Frank Warren, died in the Maple Valley area in 1972 at the age of 57 of pulmonary congestion and edema from acute alcoholism.

Divers in December found several items that narrowed their search to an area 1000 feet long, 400 feet wide and up to 400 feet deep. They found a black flower vase, a tire pump, a rusted car step and a round lid presumed to be the top of a washing machine.

But no car.

Last month, they brought up part of a wooden grocery box and some Mason jars, with the tops rusted away. A glass bottle of Ace shoe polish still contained some of the white cleaner.

On Saturday, they were searching not for the car itself, but for what they believed was a washing machine that Russell Warren had purchased in Port Angeles. Russell Warren, believed to be 35, picked up Blanch, 33, who was at a Port Angeles hospital for an unknown reason, and left for home. They had promised to spend the 4th of July with their sons.

The searchers were aided by Gene Ralston, a Boise environmental consultant who brought an expensive, high-tech tool called side scan sonar in exchange for $50 in gas money.

Ralston uses a "towfish," a 6-foot long metal probe that resembles a missile. Dragged behind a boat, it emits sound waves from two windows on either side.

Objects that reflect the sounds cast distinct shadows and can then be pinpointed for further exploration.

Ralston, who recently aided the Tuolomne County, Calif., sheriff's office and the FBI in finding four bodies of suspected Russian mafia killings near Yosemite, saw a semi-circular shape casting a shadow. Figuring it was probably the washing machine, he plotted the location and dropped a line to it.

Specialized volunteer deep divers descended to the spot in the 44-degree water. They saw a shadowy object and swam closer.

"We found it. We got the car," shouted John Rawlings, of Mill Creek, when he surfaced with diving partner Jerome Ryan of Lynnwood.

"There are chrome parts that are just as shiny as the day they were made," Rawlings said in wonder.

"That's right where it's supposed to be. It lines up with all the other clues," said Bill Walker, an avid diver who reviews building proposals for King County. "It's right on that debris trail."

Walker and his son, Joe, volunteered many weekends diving on the Warren case and tracking down other clues.

Pontbriand, waiting on a boat for the divers, was thrilled, though it was clear he would have loved to be in the water for the moment of discovery. "Excellent work," he shouted back.

"I was elated," Pontbriand said later of the team effort. "For me, it's not closure like it is for the family. For me it's the culmination of an 11-month investigation and a lot of digging on personal time."

"It's been a big day on Lake Crescent," he said.

P-I reporter Kristin Dizon can be reached at 206-448-8118 or kristindizon@seattlepi.com

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