SCHENECTADY — A submerged car pulled out of the Mohawk River on Wednesday evening is not believed to be tied to the case of missing 14-year-old Schenectady girl Samantha Humphrey, according to city police.
The car was discovered by New York State Police dive teams near Riverside Park at approximately 8 p.m. on Jan. 11 as they scoured the river in search of the Schenectady teenager, who went missing in the area on Nov. 25.
Sgt. Patrick Irwin, spokesperson for the Schenectady Police Department, said the vehicle appears to be unrelated to Humphrey’s case.
“The vehicle has been there for years, if not decades,” Irwin said.
Irwin said the department is currently processing the vehicle.
“While it does not appear to be related to the Humphrey case, it is still being investigated,” he said.
Trooper Stephanie O’Neil said that since state police dive teams began assisting the Schenectady police with the search on Nov. 28, their squads have launched search missions on 16 days over the last seven weeks in the ongoing case.
“It’s based on the requests of Schenectady police, as they’re the lead agency in the investigation,” O’Neil said of the dive missions.
O’Neil said that the state police dive teams can still search the river during the winter months.
“There are some weather limitations, but our team is trained in cold weather,” she said. “So they’re prepared for a majority of that, but there are some circumstances like use of sonar that are determined by weather. If there are sediments in the river and there’s a high current, there are situations like that which would metaphorically and literally muddy the waters and there are certain technologies we wouldn’t be able to utilize because of those kinds of conditions.”
In the weeks since Humphrey’s disappearance, the search effort has utilized a state police helicopter and dive teams that scoured the river in a four-mile area from the Stockade neighborhood in Schenectady to the Rexford Bridge in Niskayuna.
Categories: News, Schenectady
