GADSDEN, Ala. — With the help of FBI dive teams, police in Alabama believe a 39-year-old missing persons case has been resolved.
Gadsden Police Chief Lamar Jaggears said authorities hope to get DNA from the sibling of a man reported missing in Rainbow City, Alabama on April 16, 1983 – to confirm the identity of human remains found in an SUV submerged in the Coosa River behind an apartment complex.
Even without the DNA identification, they have a lot to prove the identify: the brown 1983 Ford Bronco matches the description of Alan D. Livingston’s vehicle, and a driver’s license, Goodyear ID and Social Security card found in the vehicle bear his name.
In January, Chris Overstreet, a scuba diver and EMT from Virginia, who travels around looking into missing persons cases, was conducting a water search on the Coosa River using sonar when he discovered a vehicle in about 18 feet of water, 30 feet from the shoreline behind the apartment complex.
Overstreet dove and found the vehicle, a 1980s model, resting to the hood in silt. He called Gadsden police.
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The Gadsden Police Department and the Etowah County Dive Team launched an investigation. Capt. Bobby Jackson said they determined they had no means to raise the vehicle, filled with silt up the windshield, from the water. “It would have come apart in their hands,” he said, after decades underwater.
After research, it was discovered that Livingston, 25 at the time, went missing in April 1983. He was last seen at what used to be Forest River Apartments (now Summer Waters).
He owned a 1980 brown Ford Bronco at that time. Livingston was reported missing by a co-worker who had not seen him for several days.
About two months after Livingston was reported missing, William Roth Jr. was arrested in Arkansas for a murder that occurred in Clarksville, Texas. During an interview with Texas/Arkansas authorities, Roth admitted to hitting Livingston in the head with a board after an argument. He said the crime occurred in Gadsden, Alabama, where he was staying at the time.
Livingston lived in Rainbow City at the time and was reported missing to their jurisdiction. After Roth’s statement to authorities, the Alabama Bureau of Investigation Gadsden, Rainbow City investigators went to Texas to interview Roth.
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Roth consistently told investigators that he hit Livingston with a board in Gadsden. He was inconsistent, however, about what he did with the body and Livingston’s Bronco afterward. Authorities searched in several different locations, but came up short.
Because of the condition of the vehicle, which had disintegrated to the point it might fall apart, and the fact it was encased in mud and silt up to the windshield, Gadsden detectives and Gadsden Police Certified Public Safety Diver Lieutenant Jon Alred consulted with Police Chief Lamar Jaggears, who asked for the FBI’s assistance.
FBI Supervisory Senior Resident Agent Will Strunk coordinated with FBI Headquarters in Virginia, who sent divers from Virginia, Los Angeles and Miami to conduct the search.
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The FBI Dive Team on Tuesday and Wednesday used a dredge to remove silt and other objects from inside the Bronco that was still submerged in the Coosa River. The silt was sifted and what was left was analyzed by the FBI Evidence Response Team.
At the conclusion of the search, skeletal remains and the identification belonging to Livingston were located. The remains are being sent off to forensics for further analysis.
Roth, 61, is serving a life sentence in Texas, and is currently in the care of a nursing facility because of deteriorating health.
