November 1965:
“Thanks for looking after Shannon Mom. Jerry and I just want to spend some time together on his last night.” Donna said.
“Don’t worry about a thing dear, Shannon will be fine with me.” Her mom replied.
“Where are we going Jerry?” Donna asked.
“We are going to have dinner at the steakhouse, and then after dinner we will drive up and look at the moon over the water at the old gravel pit.” Jerry told her.
“You mean we will do some smooching and petting just like we did before Shannon was born.” Donna giggled.
“Is that all right with you honey?” Jerry asked.
Donna told him that anything he wanted to do was fine with her, so they headed for the steakhouse and ate their favorite meals. After they finished they went to the car and Jerry drove out of town to the old gravel pit that had filled almost to the top with water. All the kids from town had been coming here, first for swimming, and then as they got older for making out in their cars in the evenings. Tonight it was early enough that there were no other cars there yet.
“I wish you didn’t have to go Jerry,” Donna told him.
“I have no choice honey. If I don’t report in the morning they will put me in jail. At least this way I can still earn enough money to support you and Shannon.” Jerry said.
“But there are so many soldiers getting killed in Vietnam Jerry, I want you to promise me you will come back.” Donna said.
“I will do whatever I can to come back safely.” Jerry replied.
“Oh Jerry, take my glasses off and put them on the dashboard. I don’t want you to smear them.” Donna told him.
“Jerry the car feels like it is moving.” Donna screamed.
“You are right Donna. We have to jump out.” Jerry said.
“Where are my glasses Jerry. I can’t see a thing.” Donna screamed.
“I can’t find them Donna. They must have slipped off the dash.”
Late July 2013:
“Hey Craig did you hear that they pulled an old Buick with a couple of bodies in it out of the swimming hole on old man Jones’s place?” Bobby asked.
“I hadn’t heard anything about it yet. But that is likely what I will be working on today then. How did they find it Bobby?’” I queried.
“It has been such a dry winter and spring that the water level in the old pit was pretty low anyway. I guess that construction company that is putting in the new highway made a deal with old man Jones to buy the water they needed for the road compaction, and they almost have sucked the pit dry. Yesterday, late in the afternoon they uncovered an old car on its side at the bottom of the hole.” Bobby replied.
“I have to get to work. If I find out anything I’ll let you know.” I replied.
“Great man, I’ll see you later.” Bobby said.
I did have to get in to work. My boss was a very strict man, and being late was not something that was easily forgiven. I really liked my job and this was the third summer that I had worked in the forensic science lab at the main police station in the city. Actually it was a large complex that housed the police station, the forensic lab and the morgue. I had always been interested in forensics and had done well enough in high school sciences that I had been offered summer employment there the summer I graduated. I came back last summer after my first year at university, and now after my second year I was back again for a third year. I had high hopes that when I graduated from university I would be offered a job.
I managed to clock in before 9 and I headed to the lab where I had been doing fiber comparisons for a murder case. I was finished and only had to complete the paperwork so I was working on the last of that when my boss came over to me.
“When will you be finished with that Craig?”
“I am done Sir.” I replied.
“Good. There is a car in the examination garage that I need you to work on. There are a couple of skeletons in it, and we have to determine if it was murder or suicide.”
“I have just e mailed you my comparisons report so I’ll head over there now Sir.” I answered.
I reported to the supervisor at the garage and went into the morgue to get a couple of tables to lay out the skeletons on. I worked at that until noon and when I broke for lunch I asked the supervisor if anyone had run the plate on the car. His answer was no, so I gave him the plate number and asked him if he could have someone run it through the archives. . By the end of the day I had both skeletons laid out on the stainless steel tables. There appeared to be no damage to either skeleton, and if the couple had been shot there were no signs of any bones being broken or even chipped by a bullet. The supervisor came over to tell me that the plate had finally been identified as having belonged to a Jerry Carstairs. They had run that name and had discovered that Jerry and Donna Carstairs had been reported as missing in the fall of 1965. But Jerry had not reported for induction into the army and since the car never showed up everyone had figured that he and his wife had run off to Canada so he could avoid being sent to Vietnam.
The following day I had to go through the car. There was some clothing, but it had pretty much disintegrated from being underwater. The most interesting thing I found - to me anyway - was a pair of 60’s ladies glasses with very thick lenses. After soaking the gunk off the glasses I then cleaned the lenses as carefully as I could. Then I took my own glasses off and tried to look though the lenses to see if I could determine the prescription. They were a lot stronger than my own -12D glasses.
I am weird. That is the best way I can describe it because I don’t know anyone else like me who absolutely loves glasses. I like the way they look on a person, especially a woman. To me there is nothing finer than a lady wearing a pair of attractive frames with thick minus lenses. I first discovered this when I was about 10 years old. By the time I was 11 I was determined to get a pair of glasses for myself so I kept complaining to my teacher that I couldn’t see the board and I needed to move closer. She did move me up to the front of the room. Then I went home and told my mom that my teacher moved me to the front of the room because I couldn’t see the board clearly. That got me my first appointment with an eye doctor. He felt I didn’t need glasses at this time. I had to work at it harder, and I started to complain about having headaches along with not being able to see the board clearly. Eventually I ended up with another appointment at a different doctor’s. This time I was given a prescription for glasses. Finally I had my own glasses even though they were only -0.75D for each lens and I really think the doctor had prescribed me the glasses just to shut me up.
I was only supposed to wear my glasses when I felt I needed them, but to me that was all the time. I did my best to read everything as close to my face as I could and when the reminder notice came in the mail saying that it had been a year since my last visit to the eye doctor I hoped I was ready to get stronger glasses. I managed to come away from there with a prescription for -1.75D and I was thrilled. I doubled my efforts over the following year, reading everything I could get my hands on. I studied for hours and since I was interested in science I read so much that my marks placed me at the top of the class.
The next appointment saw another -1D added to my glasses and at age 13 I was wearing glasses that looked as if they were real glasses. Now I had a little meat to my lenses. Finally by the time I was 16 I walked away from my annual eye exam with a prescription for -6.75D for my next glasses. I had the prescription filled because I wanted to get my drivers license and I needed to be able to pass the eye exam, but I had found an online optical store that would make a pair of glasses for you without a prescription.
After I had my license I ordered a pair of glasses online that had -8D lenses. I liked them a lot and I wore them all the time. When I went in for my eye exam when I was 17 my real prescription had jumped to -7.50D so I ordered a new pair online that were -9D and I started wearing them. I did the same thing for the next couple of years and now at age 20 I was wearing -12D glasses. My real prescription was likely only -11.50D, and I was determined I was going to get my prescription up to somewhere around -15D if I possibly could.
The one thing that was really bothering me though was that I was having a hard time finding reasonably good looking girls who wore strong glasses. I knew there were some of them around, because a couple of years ago I had gone to an appointment with my doctor at the medical clinic where he has his office along with a number of other doctors. I walked in and glanced around. I spotted a very attractive young lady sitting there cleaning the lenses in her glasses with one of those soft cloths, and when I saw how close to her eyes she brought the glasses to see if they were clean I knew that this was one special lady. Then when she actually placed her glasses back on her face and slid them up to her nose I knew that this the girl for me. Her lenses were myodiscs, but instead of the usual lenticular myodiscs made from a positive rear curve these myodiscs were made on a lens blank that was plano on both sides. Her frames were gold wire frames in sort of a rectangular shape and with the whiteness of the new lenses they looked fabulous on her. I was in love, but before I could even go over and attempt to talk with her the nurse came and took her away to her appointment. I know she is out there somewhere, and I know there are others, but they sure are hard to find.
I reluctantly placed the glasses on the table with personal effects and I continued my examination of the car. The car was a 1955 Buick 2 door hardtop. It was sort of a strange car because Buicks were a class above Ford and Chevrolet and most cars of this class had automatic transmissions. But this one had a 3 speed standard. It was equipped with power steering, power windows and seats and power brakes so the original buyer had money to pay for the options. He must have just not liked automatics. The driver’s side of the car was caved in a little bit and that told me the car must have come to rest on that side.
The tires had completely rotted and the car was sitting on the steel rims on the concrete floor of the garage. I wanted to get in underneath so I got the jack, some jack stands and a creeper I jacked the car up and set the jack stands. Then I went in under the car on the creeper with a trouble light. The first thing I noticed was that the cable to the parking brake was all frayed and had snapped in two. Nothing else looked out of place under the car. No brake lines were broken and everything seemed as it should.
I came back out and looked closely at the inside of the car. The ignition was set to accessory and the radio was turned on. The stick for the transmission was in neutral. And the parking brake lever was pulled out all the way which indicated to me that Jerry had put the brake on.
I was coming up with a theory that maybe this was nothing more than a tragic accident. I couldn’t say anything yet because I needed to know more facts about their circumstances. I went back to my desk and started to place my findings into the computer. One of the police investigators had apparently located Jerry and Donna’s only child Shannon, now aged 50 with 2 children of her own. She had been raised by her grandmother and in the statement she had given to the officer who went by to see her, her grandmother was convinced that Jerry and Donna had run into foul play. She had told Shannon that there was no way that Jerry and Donna would have abandoned her.
This made my theory all the more likely. Now I was almost ready to put it down on paper. I would have liked to talk to Shannon myself, but the officer had gotten everything I needed.
In my report I noted that the car had been retrieved with the ignition on accessories and the radio on. I noted that the transmission had been in neutral, and the parking brake was on. I also noted that the parking brake cable under the car had been frayed and was snapped. Then I went out on a limb and I suggested that it was highly possible that the parking brake cable broke when the couple was sitting on the hillside above the abandoned water filled gravel pit. The parking brake cable snapped and the car rolled down the hill. Even if Jerry had tried to apply the power brakes, those old cars required a heck of a lot of force to apply the brakes unless the engine was running and the vacuum booster was working. The car then rolled over the edge and into the water, sinking rapidly and landing on the driver side. Since the car was on it’s side even if the car filled with water quickly and equalized the pressure it would have been next to impossible for Jerry to have the leverage to open the heavy passenger side door in order for them to escape.
When I finished I e mailed my report to my boss and I prepared to go home. I didn’t know if my boss would buy my theory, but I hoped he would because I hated to think that this couple would have committed suicide, leaving behind a 2 year old daughter.
I clocked out and headed home. When I got there I called my best friend Bobby and told him about the bodies in the car, and I also told him that it looked to me as if this had been a tragic accident.
I didn’t feel like going anywhere after supper so I read for a while and then went to bed early. The next morning I headed off to my job and when I reported to my boss for my days assignment he asked me how much I believed in the theory that I had given in my report.
“Well Sir, either it happened like I surmised or it was suicide. I can’t believe that they would have killed themselves and left their daughter behind, so I am sticking behind my report. I hope that meets with your approval.” I said.
“As long as there is no evidence of murder there is nothing to be gained by a verdict of suicide. I will let your findings stand.” He said.
Later that afternoon I was paged to report to the main desk at the police station so I walked on over. I reported to the receptionist and she told me that family of the couple that had been discovered in the car wanted to pick up any personal belongings that I had found. There wasn’t much, but there were wedding rings, and the woman’s old glasses along with a pocket watch that didn’t work. I turned to the waiting area and when I saw who was sitting there it was like I had just been hit over the head with a baseball bat. There she was, the girl that had been in my dreams ever since I saw her in the waiting room of the medical clinic. This was going to take everything I could muster to act like her being here was a normal everyday occurrence.
“Hi, I am Craig Sutton. I am the forensic technician who examined the remains of Jerry and Donna Carstairs. You must be their daughter Shannon?” I asked the older lady.
“Yes, but I am now Shannon Davis and this is my daughter Jennifer.” Shannon said.
“If you want to walk over to the morgue with me I can get you the wedding rings and a few other items that survived the 48 years of being underwater.” I told her.
“Mr. O Donnell tells me that you are the one who pieced together the evidence to indicate that my parents death was just a tragic accident. My Granny always figured that something bad happened to mom and dad, and I only wish she was still here to have her feelings vindicated.” Shannon said.
“I just interpreted the evidence I had to work with in the best way I could Mrs. Davis. I suspected that there was no way they would have committed suicide with a 2 year old baby left behind. And really, Vietnam was dangerous, but lots of soldiers came back. So with what I could see there was no way it could be suicide.” I replied.
I took them to the evidence room in the morgue and released the personal effects of her parents to Shannon. She asked if she could see the car, and I found that it hadn’t been moved yet, so I showed it to them. Shannon had tears in her eyes as she looked at it.
“I remember riding in that car, and I remember mom wearing these glasses.” Shannon told me.
“I take it that being very nearsighted runs in your family then.” I said.
“It seems to. Mom was very nearsighted, and so was Granny. I am also quite myopic and Jennifer has an even stronger prescription.” Shannon told me.
“I thought my prescription was pretty strong, but I couldn’t even see through your mom’s glasses.” I answered.
“Thank you so much for what you have done for us Craig. It is a miracle that I finally know what happened to mom and dad after all these years. Is there anything we can do for you?” Shannon asked.
“I can’t really ask you, but I would love to ask Jennifer to go to a movie with me either Friday or Saturday night. Would you consider that Jennifer?” I asked.
“Yes, I would like that.” Jennifer said with a smile.
“I have your address in the files. I will pick you up at 7 and we can grab a bite to eat before the 8:45 show.” I said.
“Great, I’ll see you then Craig.” Jennifer said.
A sunken Buick had led my dream girl to me.
Specs4ever Dec 2013