WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) - The remains of a White Plains woman who vanished more than 30 years ago have been found in a car submerged in a reservoir, police said.
Brenda Kerber was 40 and a mother when she disappeared in 1989, The Journal News reported Thursday.
That changed on Jan. 19 during an environmental study of the Muscoot Reservoir, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of White Plains, when a station wagon was found on the reservoir bottom, the newspaper reported. The car was hauled out, and on Thursday, White Plains police said Kerber’s remains were identified inside.
Kerber died by suicide, police said after “a review of the evidence in the case and the recent findings from the vehicle,” and an examination by the medical examiner.
She was a follower of Frederick P. Lenz III, a man who recruited people to “American” Buddhism and who many considered a cult leader, the newspaper reported. Lenz died by suicide in 1998.
Kerber’s father, James Barratt Jr., told the newspaper after her disappearance that he thought she had been depressed after a second divorce and sought spiritual guidance.
Eventually, she moved to New York, where Lenz’s group was based. He charged adherents to attend his lectures on Buddhism and computer programming and is accused by former followers of being a con man who encouraged them to sever family ties and used them for sex and to enrich himself.
Kerber’s family had placed advertisements seeking information after her disappearance, the newspaper reported. Her parents have since died.
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