By Larry Eldridge
Staff Writer
A walk along the Red River turned into a walk on the wild side for Charles Palmer and
his son Thursday.
Palmer was walking down the banks of the river in West Point when he glanced in the
water and noticed that something wasn't right.
"Me and my son came down here," he said, "and I saw a tire sticking up,
and then I just got to looking closer."
The tire wasn't all there was in the river, however. It just happened to be the only
visible portion of a car.
Palmer contacted the White County Sheriff's Department, and the sheriff's dive team
shortly arrived on the scene. Philip Hydron and Jim Hale, both members of the dive team,
were sent into the river to view the car before it was brought to the surface with the use
of a towing vehicle. Hydron said at the time that he believed the car, which had Alaska
license plates, had been there for some time because it was "full of silt."
No bodies were discovered in the car.
The car, a black Dodge Stratus, was stolen out of Kensett in August, according to
Captain Kyle Stokes of the sheriff's department. The recovered car has been turned back
over to the Kensett Police Department, said Stokes.
Hydron, Hale and the other members of the dive team were going to make a trip to Heber
Springs for a class as part of their master diver certification when they got the call
that the car was found in the river, said Jim Busby, co-owner of the Searcy Dive Center.
"(The divers) were supposed to be in Heber Springs," said Busby, "but
they ended up coming here instead."
The car was back on dry land less than an hour after it was discovered.
Major Kyle Stokes
