The skeletal remains of a woman who went missing nearly 35 years ago were pulled out of a truck submerged in a Texas lake, officials said Friday.
Investigators believe the woman is Helen Holladay, who was last seen having an argument with her husband in 1979. The remains were found inside a Chevy pickup that was under the waters of Lake Granbury, the Associated Press reported. A recent drought decreased the lake's water level enough to expose part of the truck, which was discovered by someone passing by.
"We pulled the vehicle out of the water, and we started sifting through the sediment that had settled into the cab and we found the skeletal remains of a body," Hood County Sheriff Rodger Deeds told the Star Telegram.
The vehicle was found so far from the road or any parking lot that police "don't believe it was an accident," Deeds said according to the AP.
Holladay, 45, was last seen on Sept. 29, 1975 arguing with her husband, Herman Holladay, at their weekend motor home at Whippoorwill Bay on Lake Granbury, the Star Telegram reported.
"Early on in the investigation, the husband was looked at as a suspect but he was never charged with a crime," Deeds told the Star Telegram. "We never got any evidence to tie him to it."
Herman Holladay died in 1987.
Family members said Herman Holladay was abusive towards his wife.
"He put [Helen Holladay] in the hospital several times," Karen Boatwright Stuart, Helen's 60-year-old daughter, told the Star Telegram. Herman, Stuart's stepfather, "would always tell her that he would kill her and take her property," Stuart said.
But the officer in charge of the investigation back then told Stuart that her mother left willingly and that he could not do anything about, it, the daughter told the newspaper.
Investigators found no obvious signs of trauma on the skeletal remains, however it is not confirmed if the death was due to a homicide. DNA testing on the remains to confirm the identity will take two months, the AP reported.
