24-05-2025
Tips on body in barrel prompt lake search in mom's 1978 vanishing
KEELER TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — Divers will return to a southwest Michigan lake to continue searching for the remains of a mom who vanished 47 years ago.
'It is our belief, and rumors throughout the years (indicate), that she was put into a barrel and dumped into this lake,' said Dave Walker, detective lieutenant with the Van Buren County Sheriff's Department.
It's been one week since deputies first dove Brown Lake — a private, 72-acre lake in Keeler Township that's thirty feet at its deepest.
Brown Lake is approximately five miles north of Sister Lakes, the town from which Joyce Fisher, 28, vanished in April 1978.
Detectives said she'd left her vehicle at a corner store to accompany her estranged husband, Jerry, to get a car title notarized.
But when he returned thirty to forty-five minutes later, he was alone.
The couple was in the midst of a contentious divorce, fighting over custody of their one-year-old daughter.
Joyce was never seen again.
47 years later, the cold case started to defrost after Jerry made headlines again, this time for shooting and killing his neighbor in Alabama in May 2024 over a property dispute.
'Your news piece actually generated tips that reignited this investigation,' explained Walker, referring to Target 8's report on the Alabama arrest. 'That's what's bringing us back out here today.'
'Never seen again': 46 years after his wife vanished, man arrested in Alabama killing
That, and advances in technology.
The sheriff's department worked with an assistant professor of geophysics at Western Michigan University.
'This lake has been searched at least twice before,' said Walker. 'But it's only been with divers. Now, Western Michigan University has equipment that can detect way down into the silt to help us find… a metal object.'
Mine Dogan, a geophysicist, sat lakeside under a portable canopy, peering at the laptop in front of her.
'I do this voluntarily,' Dogan told Target 8. 'And I'm going to do this as long as they ask me to do these kinds of things. It is very important to me.'
46 years after woman vanished, renewed hope for answers
Dogan positioned specialized probes on a boat to scour the lakebed for anomalies in the earth's magnetic field.
'Certain metals can become magnetized when you place them in a magnetic field,' explained Dogan.
The equipment identified several disruptions in the lake's bottom, though divers did not find a barrel.
'So far the magnetometer has hit on about four locations,' Walker said. 'We've located a cabinet, a fence post, and some unknown debris.'
Walker said divers plan to return to Brown Lake soon to check additional spots pinpointed by WMU's equipment.
'(Joyce's) family has been in touch with us over the last couple of years,' said Walker. 'Their only hope was to find closure for the family, to bring Joyce home and lay her to rest the proper way.'
Walker said most of Joyce Fisher's relatives have passed away, but not her daughter.
'She just wants some type of closure. She was just a little baby when this all happened,' noted Walker.
Neighbors on the private lake are hopeful.
'There's never been any closure,' said Paula Faultersack. 'The sheriff's department asked if they could use our property to search for Mrs. Fisher. We're like, 'of course.' Once in a while, my friend and neighbor, we will have a beer, and we'll toast to her. You know, 'if you're in here, we hope they find you. And if you're not, I hope they find where or who.' She deserves that.'
Jerry Fisher remains free on bond in Alabama, awaiting trial in August for the fatal shooting of his neighbor.
Fisher tried to claim self-defense, but a judge rejected that argument after a hearing.
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