Officials have confirmed the remains of a New Jersey man and his vehicle missing for more than four decades in a local creek.
The United States Search Corps (USC) have located the car and the remains of Charles "Chip" Murphy, who has been missing since 1982, in a creek in New Jersey.
Officials from the USC Missing Persons Unit provided an update in the case, saying they found Murphy's vehicle on April 30 in Overpeck Creek in Ridgefield Park, within close proximity to where he was last seen.
Investigators used new forensic techniques, as well as professional divers from a private, non-profit dive company to locate the vehicle.
Murphy's body was found with submerged artifacts that led investigators to conclude it was Murphy. However, investigators could not confirm the vehicle found was the Camaro Murphy was driving.
“Extensive forensic testing was required to establish identity,” but “specific circumstances surrounding his disappearance remain under investigation,” a spokesman for the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office said in a released statement.
Following the discovery of the vehicle, the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office has positively identified the remains found as being Murphy.
Murphy went missing on April 29, 1982 when he was 25 years old, with very few updates in his case in the last four decades.
On the day of his disappearance, Murphy first attended the New York Yankees game against the California Angels at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. He then went to a residence in Ridgefield Park, NJ, before leaving in his girlfriend's 1974 silver Chevrolet Camaro to drop off a friend. An attendant of a gas station on Route 46 did say he had a customer that night fitting Murphy's description.
However, that was the last friends or family heard from Murphy.
Originally, police suggested foul play may have been involved in Murphy's disappearance. However, in 1984 police concluded there were no indications of foul play involved.
And ultimately, despite ruling out foul play, authorities had very little to go on in actually locating Murphy and the case was completely cold.
Don Pecile, a lead investigator in the case, told local media in 1984, "Aside from talking to the family and the friends, we never had a lead in this case.”
The investigation included help from the Bergen County sheriff’s Department, Ridgefield Park Police Department, and Maywood Police Department.