3 cars, 1 body in NJ river: Nonprofit group finds what police didn’t

🔴 3 cars were pulled from a river on Thursday

🔴 The body in one was a woman missing for 14 years, family says

🔴 The wreckage was found by a nonprofit dedicated to missing persons

PENNSAUKEN — The family of a woman who went missing in 2010 at the age of 52 can now find closure.

On Thursday, rescuers pulled three vehicles from the Cooper River, a tributary of the Delaware. In one of the vehicle, they found human remains.

This weekend, the long-suffering family of Bernadine Gunner said the body is hers, NJPenn reported.

Who knows how long Gunner would have remained in the deep were it not for the remarkable turn of events that led to the discovery by a nonprofit organization.

United Search Corps uses technology to search for underwater car wrecks, which the organization believes is the key to solving many missing persons case. They provide services to families as well as government agencies.

The nonprofit’s website said during one cold-case search in Salem, Oregon, the team helped find 13 vehicles.

This weekend, United Search Corps founder Doug Bishop told NJ.com that clues such as a vehicle identification number and personal belongings connects the find to Gunner even if DNA identification is pending.

“Thanks to Doug( United Search Corps) we have closure our family can now give my mom a proper burial,” Julia Young said on Facebook.

“As you already know Camden County Police didn’t do a great job with my mother’s case it took for a one band man to come here and dive into that water and discover my mom. We can’t thank him enough for what he has done. Almost 14 years with no answers and now we have them.”

Three vehicles were pulled from the Cooper along North Drive near Kaighn Avenue and Route 130. The Camden County Prosecutor’s Office has not provided further details.

Gunner was last seen on July 10 at Park Boulevard in Camden. She drove a 2006 Hyundai Elantra. Among the last things she told relatives was that she was going to take her own life because of her unemployment, according to a missing persons page on the Camden Police Department’s website.

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