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Woman finds closure 43 years after the disappearance of her father
When a rusted green car was pulled out of a lake in North Carolina on July 21 little did investigators know they had found the answers to a 43-year-old mystery of a father’s disappearances.
Human remains were found inside the car, which had been submerged 10 metres below water. Crucially, there was a wallet, and that wallet belonged to Amos Shook who had been missing since 1972.
The retired Air Force member didn’t return home one night, leaving behind five children, including a 14-year-old daughter. The daughter, Pamela Shook Kolbe, had been told her father likely abandoned his family of his own will but it was a theory Kolbe never believed. Last month, she asked police to reopen the cold case. As part of the investigation, they searched the lake with solar technology.
A 57-year-old Kolbe, who now lives in Tennessee, was overcome with emotion when she received the call from the Sheriff's Office. “He said, 'Pam, we found your daddy's car.' It was like I lost all of my blood," Kolbe told Channel 9. “It was so overwhelming for me... I've waited and waited for this.”
Authorities still don’t know what happened that night. Kolbe still wonders how her father’s car ended up in a lake but is relieved by the closure, finally putting to rest the idea that he abandoned his family.
"If he had been alive, he would have been in touch with us," she said. "He was a good man, he was a good daddy."
The Shook family had declared Amos Shook dead nine years after his disappearance, and are thankful that his remains can finally rest at the site.
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