The remains were those of Timothy Woodman, 61 at the time he went missing, and his sister Terry Woodman, 60, the OSBI announced on Thursday, Nov. 5. Both had been living in Wright City, a small town in McCurtain County about a 30-minute drive from the lake.

The siblings were reported missing to the Wright City Police Department in September 2022. According to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, a Justice Department database, neighbors saw Timothy and Terry leave their residence in a van and they were not seen again. Terry Woodman had told others she was going to visit family in California.

The break in the case came in October when Eddie Carper, an outdoorsman from Valliant, was fishing on the lake despite dangerously low water levels. He initially thought he had struck an old boat trailer or flatbed truck.

"It is barely visible just under the surface," Carper wrote in a Facebook post on Oct. 14. "It might be an old flatbed truck. I couldn't tell for sure but it has an axle & 2 wheels. Found it with my trolling motor today. A $3,200 ... mistake!"

It turned out to be a van submerged just off a boat ramp. Carper reported the discovery.

"I ran into it with my boat," Carper told The Oklahoman. "I reported it. ... I'm just glad we found them and their kin gets closure."

The Medical Examiner's Office is still working to determine the cause and manner of death, the OSBI said.

The discovery echoes a similar case in Oklahoma. In 2013, Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers testing new sonar equipment found the remains of six people at Foss Lake in the western part of the state. They discovered a rusted-out 1952 Chevrolet and a 1969 Camaro on the lake bottom near a boat ramp. Inside each car were the skeletal remains of three people. The drowning victims in the Chevrolet had been missing since 1969, and those in the Camaro since 1970.

Oklahoma has more than 200 lakes, and the recovery of submerged vehicles with human remains inside has occurred before, though such discoveries remain rare.