Missing Woman Remained Submerged Inside Car For 43 Years Until Found

The human remains of a woman who went missing 43 years ago were found in a car at the bottom of a river.

New Hampshire State Police said they found a 1972 Pontiac LeMans submerged in the Connecticut River. Investigators believe the vehicle had been submerged for decades.

A license plate 'OB610' - found close by, matched to the one registered to Alberta Leeman.

Leeman was 63 when she mysteriously vanished on July 25, 1978.

Authorities have not yet given an official confirmation if the remains are in fact those of Leeman.

Her distraught family had spent nearly 43 years looking for answers and closure.

"You never give up," her daughter Nancy Mclain told the New Hampshire Union Leader.

She and her daughter, Roxanne McLain, lives in Vermont just a few miles from the site where Leeman's car was discovered on Friday, Aug.20.

Roxanne was just 16 when Leeman went missing.

"We never thought she was here," Roxanne said. "They had looked in Maine, they were getting sightings in New Hampshire."

"The sightings were terrible at the time They spotted her everywhere."

But nothing came back as her beloved grandmother.

Leeman's disappearance is not being treated suspiciously and there is no threat to the public, police said.

New Hampshire Fish and Game dive team assisted the operation and were searching the area surrounding the vehicle for any possible evidence, the Daily Mail reports.

Friday’s discovery comes around three years after Conservation Officer Joe Canfield took charge and dedicated all of his time to solve the case.

On Wednesday, the dive team was able to confirm the submerged vehicle and Leeman’s vehicle have the same number plate.

"He's taken time, along with other team members on the sonar team and they've taken their training days to come up here and search portions of the river," Lt. Robert Mancini, of the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department told reporters of Canfield's efforts.

"And last week they came with that sonar and underwater camera, and they were working on this, and they had a hit on the sonar."

If the results come out positive and the remains are positively identified as Leeman's, Nancy said, the family will receive some form of long-awaited closure, stating: "She's at peace."