An Inventory of Things Dredged From Northaven Pond
This morning, I stopped by the now-infamous pond where divers are still, after a full month, working to find evidence in the ’83 slaying of Lowell Clayton Tribble. It was the first time, out of the several occasions I’d dropped by, that I was there when the divers were actually diving. So instead of calling the Dallas Police public information officer and being told that investigators aren’t interested in talking about anything yet, I was able to be told by the investigators themselves. I spoke briefly with a captain (who introduced himself but whose name I don’t recall), who was sitting on a lawn chair in the driveway of a house on the west side of the pond. He said, politely, that no, they wouldn’t be discussing the investigation. Fine, I said, I was more curious about the stuff, which is (I’m assuming) totally unrelated to the investigation, that has been dragged out of the muck by divers. Is it some sort of stolen vehicle dumping ground? Where did all that stuff come from? But no, not that either. I’d have to wait until the investigation was over.
“I guess that would be whenever you find whatever it is in the pond you’re looking for?” I asked.
“You can guess all you want, but you’ll have to do it from a public street,” he said, pointing me to Northaven Road.
Ouch.
Anyhoo, in the absence of any background on how or why they got there, here’s a quick inventory, compiled from police reports, of things that have been pulled from the pond since June 16:
-eight motorcycle frames
-eight motorcycle engines
-one safe
-one metal lockbox
-several assault rifle components
-one handgun
And to illustrate the thankless job these divers are doing, a choice passage from one of the police reports:
WHILE SEARCHING THE BOTTOM OF THE POND WITH A METAL
DETECTOR R/O DETECTED A SIGNAL FROM THE METAL DETECTOR THAT INDICATED METAL
UNDER THE SURFACE OF THE MUD. R/O DUG DOWN TO ABOUT SHOULDER LENGTH AND
RECOVERED A METAL BOX ABOUT TWELVE INCHES BY 18 TO 15 INCHES IN DIMENSION.
Shoulder-length in the bottom of Northaven Pond. [Shudder]
