SUNRISE, Fla. – Broward Sheriff's Office homicide detectives and dive team members found human remains Friday at the Sunrise canal where a car linked to a 1978 missing persons case was discovered.
Dana Null, 15, and her boyfriend, Harry Atchison, were last seen getting into a car and driving away from a home after getting into an argument after a Foreigner concert on Oct. 7, 1978.
The remains of Atchison's 1969 Dodge Coronet were pulled from the canal along State Road 84, between 136th Avenue and International Parkway, on Thursday.
A worker with the South Florida Water Management District discovered the car after it got caught on some equipment.
Divers searched the water again Friday, finding human bones and more parts of the car. BSO spokeswoman Veda Coleman-Wright said the bones were taken to the medical examiner's office.
Although both of the victims' parents are dead, other family members traveled from near and far looking for closure after 36 years of wondering what happened to their loved ones.
"We always had hope, obviously, but, you know, every clue was a dead end," Null's uncle, Paul Cacciatore, told Local 10 News.
That was until Thursday's discovery.
"Thirty-six years, you know, you kind of hope for the best," Cacciatore said. "You kind of hope that they ran off together and one day they'll show up with a family, and that just never happened. So emotions are high right now."
Local 10 News reporter Ben Kennedy asked if the discovery of the car brings some closure to the family.
"Yes it does, to a certain degree," Cacciatore said. "At least you know something happened that you can put your hands on."
Null's sister, who was at the canal Thursday, lives in Cooper City. Atchison's sister, Donna Amaya, was expected to travel from Daytona Beach later Friday.
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