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There may be a break in a more than half-century-old cold case after central Minnesota authorities discovered human remains in a car submerged in the Mississippi River on Wednesday.
The Stearns County sheriff says someone fishing Sunday on the Mississippi River near Sartell spotted what looked like a car on their sonar.
The Stearns-Benton County Sheriff’s Office Dive Team searched the area and located a car in the river bottom around 10 a.m. Wednesday.
The sheriff’s office says the car was a 1960s-era Buick.
The sheriff’s office contacted a tow company to help remove the car, which the Sartell Police Department said was “intact but severely deteriorated, had been underwater for decades and was filled with river sediment.”
Authorities say the car belonged to Roy Benn.
Benn lived in Sauk Rapids, but was last seen in Sartell on Sept. 24, 1967, driving a blue 1963 Buick Electra. He allegedly had been carrying a “large sum of money” when he was last seen, according to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
Benn, who was 59 when he went missing, was declared dead in 1975. However, the case remains unsolved.
The sheriff’s office says there were human remains in the car, which they believe to be Benn. The remains were taken to the Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office for further investigation.
The Sartell Police Department and sheriffs’ offices for Benton and Stearns counties will be investigating the matter further.
Riley Moser is a digital producer who covers breaking news and feature stories for CBS Minnesota. Riley started her career at CBS Minnesota in June 2022 and earned an honorable mention for sports writing from the Iowa College Media Association the same year.
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