CBS News
Human remains and car found in creek linked to 1982 cold case, North Carolina police say
Human remains and a car found in a North Carolina creek are linked to a decades-old cold case, police said.
In 1982, three men went missing after leaving a bar in Chocowinity, North Carolina, according to CBS News affiliate WNCT. William Clifton, 30, David McMicken, 24, and Michael Norman, 32, were all in a 1975 Chevrolet Camaro, police told WCNT, but were never seen again.
The car found in Washington, North Carolina is the same make and model, police told WCNT, but the car was “in such bad shape it was hard to even identify that it was a vehicle at all,” from being submerged in a body of water known as Jack’s Creek, according to Sidney Dive Team Captain John Scott Rose Jr. Chocowinty and Washington are neighbors.
Police began searching the waterway after Jason Sourada, a man from Myrtle Beach, learned about the cold case and began privately searching the area. Sourada told WCNT that he identified the creek as being along the route the men could have been driving, so he put a “remote-controlled solar boat” in the body of water to look for anything amiss.
Search efforts continue to identify a submerged vehicle in Jack’s Creek.
Thank you to all of the staff and volunteers that have made this multi-agency effort possible.
Posted by City of Washington, NC on Saturday, February 10, 2024
Sonar footage collected by the boat showed the discovery of a possible vehicle, according to WNCT. A car axle was found on Feb. 9, leading police to start pumping water out of the area to better search for more evidence. When the car was removed from the water after two full days, police were able to match the vehicle’s VIN number to that of the car that went missing in 1982, confirming that it belonged to one of the missing men, according to WCNT.
Investigators found human remains inside the car, but the remains have not yet been identified. Chief Phil L. Rollinson of the Washington Police Department told WCNT that DNA from the remains will be compared to DNA samples collected from known family members of the three missing men. However, he and other officials are “confident” that the remains are those of Clifton, MicMicken and Norman.
“This case has endured in the minds of Beaufort County residents since December 10, 1982, when it was originally investigated by the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Department,” Rollinson said in a news release reviewed by WCNT. “At this time, the Washington Police Department is confident this vehicle and the remains recovered are those of the three Beaufort County men who have been missing since 1982: William Clifton, David McMicken and Michael Norman.”
Boeing’s 33,000 unionized machinists on Wednesday voted to approve the plane manufacturer’s latest contract offer, ending a seven-week strike that had halted production of most of the company’s passenger planes.
The union said 59% voted to accept the contract. Members have the option of returning to work as soon as Wednesday, but must be back at work by Tuesday, November 12, the union said in a statement.
Union leaders had strongly urged members to ratify the latest proposal, which would boost wages by 38% over the four-year life of the contract, up from a proposed increase of 35% that members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) had rejected last month.
The revised deal also provides a $12,000 cash bonus to hourly workers and increased contributions to retirement savings plans. The enhanced offer doesn’t address a key sticking point in the contentious talks — restoration of pensions — but Boeing would raise its contributions to employee 401K plans.
Average annual pay for machinists, now $75,608, would climb to $119,309 in four years under the current offer, Boeing said.
The vote came after IAM members in September and October rejected lesser offers by the Seattle-based aerospace giant.
“In every negotiation and strike, there is a point where we have extracted everything we can in bargaining and by withholding our labor,” the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers stated last week in backing Boeing’s revised offer. “We are at that point now and risk a regressive or lesser offer in the future.”
Acting U.S. Labor Secretary Julie Su has played an active role in the negotiations, after recently helping to end a days-long walkout that briefly closed East and Gulf Coast ports.
The Boeing strike that began on Sept. 13 marked the latest setback for the manufacturing giant, which has been the focus of multiple federal probes after a door plug blew off a 737 Max plane during an Alaska Airlines flight in January. The incident revived concerns about the safety of the aircraft after two crashed within five months in 2018 and 2019, killing 346 people.
Boeing in July agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud for deceiving regulators who approved the 737 Max.
During the strike, Boeing was unable to produce any new 737 aircraft, which are made at the company’s assembly plants in the Seattle area. One major Boeing jet, the 787 Dreamliner, is manufactured at a nonunion factory in South Carolina.
The company last month reported a third-quarter loss of $6.1 billion.
contributed to this report.
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.