By ERIN MATHEWS, Salina Journal

The rumor has always been that Indian Rock Park pond was bottomless, so perhaps that's why it seemed like a good place to dispose of criminal evidence.

Two complete firearms and parts of a third were retrieved from the pond during a search involving deputies from the Saline County Mounted Patrol and Rescue Squad and Salina police officers that concluded Monday, Salina Deputy Police Chief Carson Mansfield said Tuesday.

One of the weapons -- a stainless steel .22-caliber, 6-inch Ruger handgun that had been reported stolen -- is being processed in connection with a criminal investigation, Mansfield said. He declined to provide any more specific information.

Mansfield showed media representatives the two other weapons found. One was an illegal sawed-off 12-gauge shotgun. He said the shotgun probably had not been in the pond long, despite its corroded appearance, because the leather casing on the handle was still intact.

The second weapon found was the frame and cylinder from a revolver that had been taken apart before it was thrown into the pond, where it appears to have stayed for some years.

"We will have crime analysis go back through and see if we can tie them in to any cases," he said.

Mansfield said police approached the city engineering department about the possibility of pumping water from the pond after a previous search using rescue squad divers was thwarted by cattails and other growth in and around the pond.

"We kept getting reports of evidence thrown into that pond, so we got with engineering to see what it would take to pump it down," he said.

Submersible metal detector

Parks department officials, who were interested in cleaning up, improving access and restocking the pond, agreed to participate in the project.

City crews pumped down the water in the pond Wednesday and Thursday this past week but left enough water for the few fish that were living there.

"There weren't five catfish in the whole place," Mansfield said.

Law enforcement officers used a raft to methodically search the pond's bottom with a waterproof metal detector and retrieve the weapons, as well as a PDA, a cell phone and other items.

"The rescue squad just did a great job," Mansfield said. "They were out there in bad weather searching because we wanted to get this done."

The rescue squad search was so thorough that two pieces of a dismantled revolver were located, despite mud that was about 5 feet deep, icy cold and had a pretty bad stench, Mansfield said.

Only one bicycle was found, Mansfield said. And one shopping cart. And cans and bottle tops too numerous to count.

Brick factory bricks

Several bricks from an old brick factory that once stood nearby were found in the north end of the pond. The bricks contained enough iron to set off the metal detector.

Two pumps with the capacity to pump 3,000 gallons of water a minute were used to remove water and pump it into a city storm drain. Water was coming out at a rate of 100 gallons a second, Mansfield said.

Steve Snyder, director of Salina's parks and recreation department, said the water level in the pond fluctuates with groundwater levels and the pond is expected to refill without any additional water needing to be pumped back in.

The pond had been stocked with game fish in the past by the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks as part of the community fishing access program, but Snyder said it had not been stocked for some time because the overgrowth of cattails and other foliage made the boat ramp inaccessible.

Mansfield said pumping down the pond offered a good opportunity to debunk some myths about the pond familiar to people who grew up in Salina.

"Everybody's grown up with all these stories about it," Mansfield said. "For those of you who wondered, the pond is not bottomless; there's not a crane in the bottom of it; and there are not tunnels that go to the river."

n Reporter Erin Mathews can be reached at 822-1415 or by e-mail at emathews@salina.com.

Join the Discussion:

Salina.com doesn't necessarily condone the comments here. Read our full online terms of service policy.

says....
So much for my idea of getting rid of my old car... Good thing I didn't dump it last month after all... :-)
11/5/2009

---

says....
haha that is our family's bike!!!
11/4/2009

---

Post a comment
Your best chance of getting your comment posted:

• No profanity
• Be civil
• Everyone is innocent until proven guilty.

Comment:

Poster:

Enter text seen above:

Read our full use policy.