LYNN — Nearly a year of searching and wondering came to a sad end for a Peabody family yesterday when police divers found what they believe to be the remains of a grandmother who disappeared last December.
Alice Nunes, 58, was last heard from on the night of Dec. 15, 2008, when she called her family from a cell phone, telling them she was about to hit some water and asking for help.
Since that night, police have had little to go on but Nunes' description of being near water and a ping from that cell phone. The closest police could come to locating Nunes was a six-mile radius, in an area filled with rivers, ponds and the Atlantic Ocean.
"This has been a needle in a haystack search from day one," said Peabody Police Det. Robert Church.
With the help of a nationally known marine salvage expert from Florida and the Salem police dive team, Nunes' black 2007 Lexus was discovered in Lynn's Flax Pond, about 40 to 50 feet from the shore along Carter Road in about 16-foot-deep water.
The car, covered in muck, was pulled from the water at around 3:30 p.m. and was cut open with a hydraulic tool.
In the back seat police found what they believe to be the remains of Nunes.
District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett said investigators are working to confirm the identity of the remains through dental records, but did find Nunes' Analogic work identification in the car.
Blodgett said there was "absolutely no sign of foul play," and believes there was an accident when Nunes failed to negotiate a sharp left turn by the pond and went into the water where there is no guardrail.
Earlier searches had failed to turn up any sign of the missing woman, said Blodgett, who was joined in a press conference yesterday by Church, Peabody Police Chief Robert Champagne, Lynn Police Chief Kevin Coppinger and State Police Lt. Norman Zuk at Lynn Police headquarters.
Salem Police Lt. Conrad Prosniewski, who is the department spokesman and a member of the dive team, said Patrolman Gil Priddy discovered the Lexus.
It was the team's second trip down in the pond yesterday. The first dive, on the other side of the pond, turned up only an old stolen car.
"It was a huge disappointment," said Prosniewski.
Then Priddy and Patrolman Mike Lariviere went across the pond and tried the second location identified by sonar.
Priddy went down into the water and moments later, Lariviere gave a thumbs up.
"Mr. Nunes broke down and cried," said Prosniewski, who credited Lariviere for his efforts over the past year. He used the department's regular training dives to help in the search.
Another dive team member, Sgt. Matt Desmond, bored into the mud surrounding the car in order to attach hooks, in zero visibility.
The pond's shore is relatively shallow, Blodgett said, but there is a sharp drop-off. The Nunes car had gone more than 40 feet into the pond, and was 16 feet down.
Last June, Rick Horgan, who is a Lynn native, visited the area to conduct a search in the Saugus River. Police and family feared that Nunes, who had gone to the Four Winds Pub that evening, may have accidentally gone into the Stoneham Boat Center because of a bridge detour.
Horgan recently returned to the area at the request of the Nunes family to conduct a grid search of Sluice Pond and Flax Pond using side-scan sonar equipment.
Yesterday, during the search at Flax Pond, Horgan turned up two masses in the water. Salem Police dive team members confirmed that they were vehicles. The first was a car that had been reported stolen in Peabody about 10 years ago, said Blodgett.
The second was the black Lexus.
Police divers and Lynn firefighters in a red pontoon boat worked for several hours to get the car from the water. It apparently had settled in a deep area of the pond, trapped in mud and reeds.
At around 3:30 p.m., a tow truck raised the car from the water, its trunk wide open.
A crowd of more than 100 lined a sidewalk next to the pond, while others watched from parked cars.
The pond is less than half a mile from the pub where Nunes went that night. Family members had described her behavior in the hours before her disappearance, including going to a bar by herself, as out of character, describing her as "inseparable" from her husband of 40 years, John Nunes.
"It's just so sad it took a year to find her," said Sue Wood of Lynn, who watched the car being lifted from the water. "At least now, the family gets some kind of closure."
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