TERRE HAUTE — Police say there is too much silt and mud in the car that belonged to Scott Javins to determine yet whether any human remains are inside.
However, authorities say they are treating the discovery Friday afternoon of Javins’ car in the Wabash River as the start of a homicide investigation.
Javins went missing May 24, 2002, and has not been heard from or seen since. For the past five and a half years, Javins’ family members have sought local and national media attention to help find Scott, who was 20 years old and an Indiana State University college student when he and his car disappeared.
Police say it was a tip Friday morning to the Indiana State Police Special Investigations Group out of the Evansville Post that led them to search a section of the Wabash River near the eastern bank, just south of Fairbanks Park and the Terre Haute Family Y. There, Indiana State Police divers located a car matching the general description of Javins’ 2002 Honda Civic Si.
Shortly after pulling the submerged car from the river, police confirmed the vehicle identification number matched the VIN on Javins’ title.
While other sections of the river have been searched in the past, that particular area never had been explored, Chief of Police George Ralston said during a news conference Friday evening.
Police would not elaborate on the origin of the tip, or whether it was connected to a tip two weeks earlier that led them to two other vehicles removed Sunday from a nearby area in the river.
Local fisherman Don Kyle, 53, contacted police when he discovered a car and a van while he was fishing in that area. He was helping some people retrieve their boat when his foot hit what he thought was another boat, he said during an interview Friday evening.
After diving down to take a look, he discovered a compact car and a van not far away from it. He notified the police immediately, he said.
While waiting for police to arrive, Kyle said he swam out again as far as he could go and may have found a third car.
Though police said finding Javins’ car resulted from Friday’s tip, Kyle can’t help but feel that he, too, may have contributed.
Still, Kyle said he doesn’t think that the discovery of the third car almost two weeks after the first two vehicles, or the fact that Javins’ car may have been in that spot the whole time, reflects poorly on the police working the missing person’s case.
“I really think they did their job,” he said. “Actually, I think that they wouldn’t think to look that hard in a place this obvious.”
According to Vigo County Sheriff Jon Marvel, a forensic pathologist will begin processing the car todaySat. For now, the car is secure in a bay at the Vigo County Sheriff’s Department.
“We now have a crime scene,” Marvel said. “For five years, we didn’t have a crime scene, we didn’t have a car, we didn’t have a body — we do now.”
Marvel later stated he did not intend to indicate that police had a body, only that they have a car and a crime scene to begin the investigation.
Indiana State Police First Sgt. D.L. Jones said the extraction of the vehicle went more quickly than expected, after equipment was brought in to clear a section of trees on the bank so the crane could be positioned to bring up the car.
Jones added the “car could not have went in there” where it was found, because of the slope of the bank and the thick vegetation along the shore. He said it probably went in further upstream, and floated down to where it finally settled.
“A car can float for two or three minutes before it will sink,” he said, adding that Javins’ car had settled on the bottom of the river.
Police said the vehicle was about seven or eight feet below the surface of the water at the deepest point.
Authorities could not say whether or not the windows of the car had been rolled up or were down, or any other information about the state of the vehicle when it was recovered, because of the current investigation.
Marvel commended the efforts of the Indiana State Police divers.
“[They] have dove many, many times in lakes, and in the river, looking for this vehicle,” he said Friday. “Today, they were successful. I want to commend them and thank them very much.”
The Vigo County Sheriff’s Department will be the lead agency in the case.
County Prosecutor Terry Modesitt, who was on the scene at the river throughout the afternoon, said as the investigation continues, the evidence will be protected for the sake of a future trial.
“We feel good,” Modesitt said. “We want to bring closure for the family and this is a start.”
Crystal Garcia contributed to this story. She can be reached at (812) 231-4271 or crystal.garcia@tribstar.com.
Deb McKee Kelly can be reached at (812) 231-4254 or deb.mckee@tribstar.com.
The Scott Javins File
Name: Scott Michael Javins
Date of birth: Nov. 9, 1981 in Terre Haute
Education: 2000 Terre Haute North Vigo High school graduate; sophomore at Indiana State University majoring in safety risk management.
Work: Four years at Paitson Bros., now know as Paitson Bros/ACE Hardware.
Last seen: Around 2:30 a.m. May 24, leaving the corner of 22nd Street at First Avenue in a silver 2002 Honda Civic Si
Description: Javins weighs 150 pounds, has brown hair and brown eyes and was wearing a gray T-shirt, blue jeans, blue sandals and a rope bracelet at the time of his disappearance.
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