Officials have confirmed a duo missing since June 2018 has been found. The bodies of Brian Goff and Joni Davis were located inside the car they were last seen -- a light blue Oldsmobile 88 -- in the Ohio River by Southern Illinois diving group “ChaosDivers. "The dive team was in town looking for...
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DEVELOPING: Bodies of couple missing from the Ohio Valley since 2018 found
Officials have confirmed a duo
missing since June 2018 has been found.
The bodies of Brian Goff and Joni Davis were located inside the car they were last seen -- a light blue Oldsmobile 88 -- in the Ohio River by Southern Illinois diving group “ChaosDivers."
Seatbelts in the vehicle remained fastened when the divers were able to get a look inside the car on Thursday, officials said.
The couple was last seen leaving the St. Clairsville Pizza Hut in on June 10, 2018. Security cameras last showed their vehicle going north on Ohio 7 near the Hanover Fuel Stop in Martins Ferry toward the Little Rush Run area, which is where they were ultimately located.
A cell phone ping in 2018 actually put searchers within a mile of the eventual location of the car.
“They searched a lot of ground on foot in the area where the ping was coming at the time they became missing,” Jefferson County Sheriff Fred Abdalla said.
“It’s a relief for all of us, especially the family that now can put their family members actually to rest,” Belmont County Sheriff Dave Lucas said.
Officials say they won’t know the cause of death until autopsies are complete. And that cold take a while.
“The cause of death, we don’t know,” Abdalla said. “We may never know. It all depends on the conditions of the remains. Is there enough evidence there to tell us what caused the death? Is there a skull there that maybe has a bullet hole in it? We don’t know. We’ll know after the autopsy is complete. But a lot of times autopsies take forever.
"The main thing is it’ll come to a conclusion and peace of mind for the families.”
A team of experts from Ohio BCI will be combing the car Friday for clues of what might have happened. There is no obvious indication of foul play.