Remains found in car in Illinois river identified as 2 men who vanished in 1976, coroner says

ROCKFORD, Ill. (AP) — Authorities say DNA testing on skeletal remains found in a car pulled this year from an Illinois river confirmed they are those of two men who vanished in 1976. The Winnebago County Coroner’s Office said Tuesday the testing by the Illinois State Police Division of Forensic Services confirmed they are the remains of Clarence Owens and Everett Hawley. More than 100 bones were retrieved from a car found in March in the Pecatonica River about 100 miles west of Chicago. The Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office says Hawley, 72, of Stockton, Illinois, and Owens, 65, of Freeport, Illinois, vanished after leaving a farm auction in that car in February 1976, near the Winnebago-Ogle County line.