Sonar pictures reveal more than 100 vehicles sunk in Houston's bayous

Brays Bayou in Houston is picuted Tuesday, May 13, 2014. See what Texas Equusearch has found beneath Houston's waterways. Brays Bayou in Houston is picuted Tuesday, May 13, 2014. See what Texas Equusearch has found beneath Houston's waterways. Photo: Billy Smith II, Chronicle Photo: Billy Smith II, Chronicle Image 1 of / 11 Caption Close Sonar pictures reveal more than 100 vehicles sunk in Houston's bayous 1 / 11 Back to Gallery

Texas Equusearch officials said they have evidence of more than 127 cars submerged in Houston's bayous and they think some could contain the bodies of missing people, perhaps murdered or lost.

Equusearch, a non-profit search and rescue organization designed to help find missing people, also claims the police told them to keep quiet about it because the city doesn't have the money to deal with the sunken vehicles.

The organization's founder, Tim Miller, claims a Houston Police Department detective gagged them after their search for a missing elderly woman turned up more than they expected.

"We were actually searching for Lillian High when HPD asked us to put our boat in the bayou," Miller said. High, 82 went missing Oct. 3, 2011.

Miller said while they did not find High's car, sonar equipment did pick up 127 others in Sims, Braes and Buffalo Bayous.

Houston, we have a problem

"I went to the detective and said, we got a problem. We've found all these cars. He said, 'You need to shut up, the city doesn't have the money and the public will go crazy about this.'"

Texas Equusearch won't name the officer involved. HPD said Miller's version of events is inaccurate.

"We met with Mr. Miller two years ago and spoke with their sonar expert," said HPD spokesman Victor Senties. "We looked at all the images, we had long been aware of most the the vehicles."

Senties said dive teams did investigate two of the "most promising leads" but nothing was found and they were deemed too old to be recovered.

High's car, with her body in it, was eventually found by police divers early in 2012 but the sonar pictures collected during her search have remained hidden until now.

Unsolved Mysteries

Tim Miller believes the cars could hold clues to the dozens of unsolved missing persons cases in the area.

"How many could be an alzheimers victim or a guy that was drunk-driving off the road or how many could be homicide? I guarantee there's going to be bodies in some of these cars," Miller said, pointing to recent cases where bodies have been found sometimes years after missing persons reports were filed.

"Three weeks ago a vehicle was found (in North Dakota) after 43 years that had two teenagers in it. In North Texas, a vehicle was found after 31 years that had two bodies in it," Miller said.

Houston police said they do not believe any of the cars contain bodies because of the length of time most have been underwater. Senties said most would fall apart if they tried to remove them and claimed others are too remote or are in locations where it's impractical to make any recovery attempt.

Environmental hazard

Even without the issue of missing people, Miller points to the potential environmental hazards of having cars corroding in our waterways. HPD maintains that the vehicles cannot be recovered.

Asked why they had not been pulled out of the water before they were too corroded, Senties replied, "I don't know at what point they were found, I can't speak to that length of time ago."

Asked if all the vehicles had been investigated, he replied, "We are aware of the vehicles, we can't say anymore than that."

Miller argues Equusearch does have equipment that could remove cars intact, even those that are years old, and will present his case to City Council Tuesday.

"We would want to get divers in and dive every single vehicle and get license plates numbers and see if it's stolen or missing person," said Miller, who had no estimate for the cost of such an operation. "We would need to survey every single vehicle to see if it's one that can be pulled out by a wrecker," Miller said.

"Houston is known as the Bayou City, I know millions of dollars are spent on the banks of the bayous to make it beautiful, but we've got a big problem that's underneath the water," said Miller.