27-Year-Old Cold Case Finally Solved After Teen Discovers Key Evidence During Boat Ride
A 13-year-old sleuth unintentionally uncovered the answers to a missing person’s case nearly three decades in the making when he discovered a car submerged in a Canadian lake in August.
Max Werenka never set out to solve a mystery. In fact, the teenager was just having a day of fun on a boat with friends, enjoying the summer weather on Griffin Lake in British Columbia. The group was cruising around the lake when Max noticed something unusual in the water.
He thought the mysterious shape looked like a car.
Diving down for a better look, he discovered that there was, in fact, a car submerged upside down in the water.
Max took photos of the car on his GoPro and the family alerted the authorities.
“The boy was able to jump into the water, go down and take a photo,” Thomas Blakney of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police told CTV News. “Not too many abandoned vehicles turn upside down,” he added.
As it would turn out, the car wasn’t abandoned.
Police arrived, along with a dive team and a tow truck. They extracted a black 1986 Honda Accord — and a woman’s body.
Janet Farris disappeared in 1992 on her way to a wedding in Alberta. Once it was discovered that she never made it to her destination, Farris’ family members, along with the police and search and rescue teams, hunted up and down the highway, searching for any clue as to what might have happened. Her last known location was at a gas station nearly an hour away from the lake.
For almost three decades, Farris’ family was left wondering what had happened during that drive.
Police now believe that her car drove directly into the lake, likely as a result of Farris swerving to avoid an animal or obstacle in the road.
Max’s family has extended its sympathies to the Farris family.
“I just feel for them that 27 years of your loved one missing — how do you deal with that?” Nancy Werenka, Max’s mother, told KIDK-TV.
“I think the worst thing was not knowing,” Janet Farris’ son, 62-year-old George Farris, told CBC. He added that it’s been a relief to finally get answers to the mystery of his mother’s death.
“Given a sad situation, it’s the best of all outcomes.”
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