Harry Wade Atchison III, 19, his girlfriend, Dana Null, 15, & his 1969 Dodge Coronet disappeared in 1978 - 35 years later divers have found their car and human remains

Human remains discovered in Fla. canal where car linked to 1978 missing teens case found

Human bones were discovered inside of a Sunrise canal by divers Friday, one day after a 1969 Dodge Coronet was pulled from the murky water, authorities said. The car is believed to be the one Harry Wade Atchison III, 19, and his girlfriend, Dana Null, 15, were riding in when it vanished in 1978.

Human remains have been recovered from a murky south Florida canal where a car linked to a 1978 missing person’s case was discovered submerged Thursday, authorities said.

A search of the location by divers Friday discovered bones possibly from the lower half of a person’s body, a family member of one of the two teens linked to the vehicle told ABC News.

The astonishing break after more than three decades of silence follows the 1969 Dodge Coronet vanishing while driven by Harry Wade Atchison III, 19, with his girlfriend, Dana Null, 15, on the night of Oct. 7, 1978.

Atchison's sister, Donna Amaya, described one of the bones recovered as being "like a femur."

"When I first got the call, I was kind of stunned, I guess you could say," she told ABC of her reaction to hearing that her brother's car had been found. "Afterwards, in letting the extended family know about it, it finally sunk in."

On Thursday, South Florida Water Management workers doing routine maintenance on a canal in the town of Sunrise, just off State Road 84, when they discovered the long-lost Dodge, the Broward Sheriff's Office said.

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