ERIE, Pennsylvania (18 Sep 2005) -- A shoe containing a human foot is not from any of the occupants of a small plane that was presumed to have crashed over Lake Erie last month, according to a coroner. The foot, in a size 10 Nike shoe, was found earlier this month by divers searching for items near a 19th century shipwreck, not for the plane wreck. The Coast Guard said those aboard the plane that disappeared Aug. 26 were Kevin Jesteadt, 24; Lindsey Myers, 23; and the pilot, James Regal, 22, who planned to fly the couple over Niagara Falls so Jesteadt could propose to Myers. All three were from or had ties to Butler County. The Erie County Coroner's Office and a scientist at Mercyhurst College believe the foot, found about 50 feet below the lake surface, had been submerged at least five to 10 years. Investigators said the foot may have something to do with a plane crash in Cleveland on Nov. 19, 1995. | | Three of the five people aboard the Beech 58 airplane were killed when it crashed into Lake Erie shortly after takeoff from Burke Lakefront Airport. The body of the pilot, Milford Derrick, 45, of Pineville, N.C., was later found in the lake near Cleveland. The body of 12-year-old Remington Layne Stirman, of Raleigh, N.C., washed ashore along the Lake Erie shoreline in North East Township in April 1996. The body of his mother, Susan Stirman, was found on a beach in Willowick, Ohio, a month later. Dennis Dirkmaat, director of Mercyhurst College's Applied Forensic Sciences department, said he was trying to pinpoint the time when the foot came to rest at the bottom of the lake. SOURCE © PhillyBurbs |
