Family's long search for missing mother ends with recovery of car from Cooper River

PENNSAUKEN — A car pulled from the depths of the Cooper River held the remains of a woman missing since July 2010, a family member says.

"After 13 long years we have closure, my mom was found," Julia Young posted in a Facebook message after members of a nonprofit search group found the vehicle on Thursday.

Young tagged her post with the name of Bernadine Gunner, a 52-year-old Camden woman last seen on July 12, 2010.

Gunner is on a Missing Persons list maintained by New Jersey State Police.

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"SIP Mom, I don't even know how to feel right now," wrote Young, whose Facebook page identifies her as a Georgia resident.

In a later post, Young asserted the former Camden City police department "didn’t do a great job" with the initial search for her mother.

She credited Thursday's recovery to Doug Bishop, the leader of United Search Corps, an Oregon-based nonprofit that conducts dives as part of its efforts to find missing people.

"We can't thank him enough for what he has done," she said of Bishop. "Almost 14 years with no answers and now we have them."

Young said Bishop and his organization had provided closure and her family "can now give my mom a proper burial."

Bishop could not be reached for immediate comment Sunday night.

Three vehicles were pulled from the river on Thursday, and one held human remains, the Camden County Prosecutor's Office said in a statement.

The vehicles were underwater in the stream off North Park Drive and south of Kaighn Avenue in Pennsauken.

The statement said the cars were recovered by the prosecutor's office and Pennsauken police.

The human remains, found in the driver's side area of one vehicle, were to be identified through DNA testing, the statement said.

This story will be updated.

Jim Walsh is a senior reporter with the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal. Email: Jwalsh@cpsj.com.

This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Family: Woman in submerged car was Camden mother missing since 2010