In the winter of 2013, a sense of quiet concern settled over the community of Centre, Alabama, following the disappearance of 72-year-old Oscar Lewis King. He was last seen on December 1st of that year. Known to his loved ones, Mr. King was living with dementia and required medication, which he did not have with him when he went missing. He was believed to be driving his blue 2001 Dodge Dakota pickup truck, a vehicle distinguished by an Alabama handicapped license plate and an eagle sticker on
the back windshield. Compounding the worries of his family and friends, he had left his eyeglasses behind. There was speculation that he might have been attempting to drive to Texas, where he had family and had been known to visit on occasion. This possible route would have likely taken him along Interstate 59 to Birmingham and then westward on Interstate 20.
For more than a decade, the whereabouts of Oscar King remained a painful mystery. The years that followed were filled with uncertainty for his family and the community. Law enforcement agencies followed up on available leads, and at one point, investigators even pulled four other vehicles from a lake in their search for him, but none belonged to Mr. King. The case grew cold, leaving those who cared for him without answers and with the heavy burden of not knowing what had become of him. The lack of any significant developments meant that his family could only wait and hope for some form of resolution, a common and difficult reality for the families of the missing.
A breakthrough in the case finally came in February 2024, over ten years after his disappearance. A fisherman on Weiss Lake, near the Chestnut Bay Resort in Leesburg, spotted what appeared to be a submerged vehicle and alerted the authorities. Law enforcement responded to the scene and recovered a truck from the water. The vehicle was registered to Oscar Lewis King, and tragically, human remains were discovered inside. The Cherokee County Coroner, in conjunction with the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences, later confirmed the remains to be those of Mr. King. Investigators believe that he likely drove his truck off a boat ramp and into the lake by accident. After years of searching and unanswered questions, the discovery, while heartbreaking, brought a long-awaited and somber closure to the case.Last Seen: Dec 1, 2013
