The Secrets of Crater Lake: A FOX 26 Special Report
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Texas - A little known lake in Conroe has a very dark history. Locals like Jamie know its name and its reputation.
"It's creepy, it's really creepy. You just wonder if someone fell in what would happen," she said.
She's lived just down the road from the lake for more than 30 years.
"They say that there's a lot of people out there that do witchcraft and stuff like that," she said.
The rumors pile up, including the most notorious one, "A lot of people say that lake is actually bottomless."
"We don't really know, they're rumors," said Jamie.
A fact we can confirm is that multiple bodies have been found dumped around - and even in the lake.
The first body on record found near the lake was in 1979. It belonged to 12-year-old Leisa Jackson, who was found raped and murdered.
Her case was cold until 2022 when DNA technology linked Gerald Casey to the killing. Casey was executed in 2002 for a different murder.
In 1986, a man was found in the lake. He had been shot multiple times and weighted down with cinder blocks.
He remained unidentified until December 2022 when DNA technology identified him as Clarence Wilson.
"I think the brutality of the whole thing. I think that was the hardest part," said his sister Gwen Tranum.
His case remains unsolved.
The next body was found in 2001 - when a fisherman hooked a blanket that was wrapped around the submerged body of Sandra Stotler.
She was one of three victims in a robbery turned murder. Her killer, Michael James Perry, was executed for the murder in 2010.
In February 2005, Darcus Pennrice was found stabbed to death near the lake. Her case is still unsolved.
In March 2005, Yvette King's body was found near the lake, decomposing and burned. Her daughter Brandi King and associate Rocco Masselle were charged in the case.
That was the last body found in the lake, but not the last crime story.
Since then, multiple stolen vehicles have been recovered from the lake.
"We had a suspect who had a firearm, and he told investigators he had thrown it into Crater Lake," said Jared Llewellyn, Dive Team Leader for Montgomery County Precinct 1 Dive Team.
This was in 2020. Llewellyn and his team went diving for the gun, but found multiple stolen vehicles instead.
"I was going along the bottom, I started feeling for something. I felt a set of handlebars - then I discovered I was sitting on a seat, so I radioed up to the top and told them I had found a motorcycle," he said.
Llewellyn says the unique and unsettling part of the lake - was the complete lack of visibility.
He says in any other body of water, even at night, there is ambient light that creeps in. But, not in Crater Lake.
"Once you descend below about seven feet, it is pitch black. There is no light. There is zero light," he said. "The rumors are it's 600 feet deep, it's bottomless, and that's all we knew about it before we dove it."
He did debunk that rumor, saying the lake is 35 feet deep - which according to Llewellyn is notably deep for a lake (more so point) that size.
One thing he, and so many others can agree on, "it's creepy. That's the word for it."