Car Found in Lake May Belong to Missing Teen

Missouri – A car discovered at the bottom of an eastern Missouri lake matched the description of one belonging to a teenager missing for more than two weeks after a party near the lake, authorities said Monday.

The car is the same model and color as Wade Lurk's white 1990 Nissan Stanza, said Cpl. Al Nothum of the Missouri State Highway Patrol. The license plate numbers also appeared to match.

The car was being pulled from Goose Creek Lake near Ste. Genevieve Monday afternoon. Officials weren't immediately sure if any remains were inside. KTVI-TV reported the car was about 15 feet from a boat ramp descending into the lake.

The 17-year-old senior honor student and athlete at Ste. Genevieve Valle High School was last seen in the pre-dawn hours of April 1, asleep in his car, following a party at the lake. Authorities said some of the 40 or so teenagers at the party were drinking.

Lurk was reported missing when he failed to show up for lawn-cutting jobs later that day.

Hundreds of volunteers searched several square miles of woods and fields in the days after Lurk's disappearance. Ste. Genevieve County Sheriff Gary Stolzer estimated that more than 1,000 people joined in the search, including pilots and those on horseback and all-terrain vehicles. The FBI was also involved.

Stolzer did not return phone calls Monday.

Lurk's family had offered a $25,000 reward for information on his whereabouts. The case was the subject of a report Saturday on the FOX television show "America's Most Wanted."

Ste. Genevieve is about 50 miles south of St. Louis.