A fisherman thought he spotted a car in the Mississippi River. He may have just helped solve a cold case from 1967

By Gordon Ebanks, CNN
Published 8:00 AM EDT, Sat August 16, 2025


WCCO
Investigators search the Mississippi River after receiving word of a car found in the river in Sartell, Minnesota, on August 14.

(CNN) — Two Minnesota fishermen made an unexpected discovery beneath the Mississippi River this week when sonar technology led them to what authorities say could be a break in a decades-old cold case.

Brody Loch, one of the fishermen, told CNN affiliate WCCO he spotted a car in the river using his sonar device last weekend. Three days later on Wednesday, divers located the vehicle and found human remains inside, Stearns County Sheriff Steve Soyka told CNN. … “It was 100% luck, if my buddy wouldn’t have caught that walleye, we would have kept on floating down (the river) and never would have found it,” Loch told WCCO.

Soyka said he feared the car, a 1960s-era Buick, might break apart if it was brought to the surface, given how long the vehicle had been submerged. But when investigators pulled the Buick out of the river, “surprisingly, it came up pretty intact,” he said. … After working with a local towing company to remove the car from the water, investigators then matched the car’s vehicle identification number to Roy Benn, who went missing in September 1967, according to a news release from the sheriff’s office.

The native of Sauk Rapids, Minnesota, was last seen driving a 1963 metallic blue Buick Electra, according to a missing person bulletin from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. … “Based on the human remains, items found in the car, and verification of the VIN number of the vehicle, the (local) Sheriff’s Offices believe this to be Mr. Benn,” the Stearns County Sheriff’s Office said in the release.

{snip}