A man using sonar to fish in the Mississippi River found a submerged car that belonged to a Minnesota man missing since 1967, possibly closing the mystery of his disappearance.

Brody Loch was fishing near Sartell, Minnesota, last weekend when a friend with him caught a walleye.

“When he caught the fish, I turned the transducer around and boom, there it was just sitting on the bottom,” Mr. Loch told Minneapolis’ WCCO-TV, referring to the car.

The Stearns-Benton County Sheriff’s Office Dive Team responded Wednesday and fished out the car with the help of a local towing company. The car, a 1960s Buick, was still intact and had human remains inside, the Stearns County Sheriff’s Office said.

The recovered car’s vehicle identification number matched the auto of Roy Benn, who went missing from Sauk Rapids, Minnesota, decades ago, the Stearns County Sheriff’s Office said.

Benn, 59 at the time, was last seen alive on Sept. 25, 1967, driving his 1963 Buick Electra and carrying a “large sum of money,” per a missing person’s bulletin put online by the Minnesota Department of Public Safety. 

The multicounty Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office is looking at the remains to determine whether they are Benn. 

“We’re just grateful that we may likely have finally gotten the break that we needed to bring closure to this family,” Benton County Sheriff Troy Heck, whose office is leading the investigation, told CNN.

• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.