Car found in river where two bodies turned up in vehicle Oct. 7

Divers and rescue workers pulled the second car in a month from the South Yadkin River on Tuesday afternoon.

The red, two-door, 1989 Nissan Pulsar was registered to Gregory Earl Collins of Charlotte, though the registration had expired in 1997.

“Evidently, it had been in there for a while,” said Lt. John Sifford with the Rowan County Sheriff’s Department.

The car, half filled with sand, was found at the bottom of the river near a pump station at the end of Hannah Ferry Road, a few miles northwest of Salisbury.

On Oct. 7, authorities found a 1989 Pontiac Grand Am with two bodies in it near the same location. Badly decomposed, the bodies were those of Jason Reid Whitley and Steven Allison Sheets, who were both last known to have lived at the Volonte Motel on U.S. 601.

No one has been arrested in that finding. The sheriff’s department is investigating

The Nissan contained no evidence of foul play, and investigators are now trying to locate Collins, Sifford said. The car was located because its antenna was sticking about 6 inches above the water. Divers hooked a chain to it, and a truck dragged it to the edge of a nearby boat ramp.

Water in the South Yadkin River is about 11 feet below normal now.