Police: 2 males whose bodies found at lake knew each other

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - Police on Wednesday identified the second of three bodies discovered around an Oklahoma City-area lake in less than two weeks and said the first two people whose bodies were recovered knew each other.

A body that was pulled from Lake Overholser on March 2 was that of 19-year-old Jordan Vladimir Chaj Gonzales, said Lt. Angelo Orefice of the Bethany Police Department. A body recovered from the lake on Feb. 23 was previously identified as Kelvin Perez-Lopez, 18, and Orefice said the two apparently were together when they disappeared.

“All we know is that they knew each other and they were reported missing at the same time,” Orefice said. The Office of the State Medical Examiner is performing autopsies on each of the bodies to determine the cause and manner of death.

The third body was discovered Tuesday in a wooded area near the lake, a 2.34-square-mile (6-square-kilometer) shallow body of water on the border with Bethany in far western Oklahoma City that has an average death of just 6 feet (1.8 meters). Bethany police said they are working to identify the man, who they say was clothed and appeared to be in his 50s or 60s.

“We have no visible signs of trauma that would lead us to any suspicious death,” Bethany Deputy Chief of Police John Reid said. Reid said there is no evidence that the man’s body is related to the other two bodies.

Reid said it is possible the man was a homeless transient. He said the area is occasionally occupied by homeless people although no one else was around when the man’s body was discovered.

Built in 1919 to provide municipal water, the lake is used for recreation including kayaking and is ringed with walking trails.

Some residents who live near the lake expressed alarm on social media that so many bodies were being discovered there in such a short time.

“I live too close to Lake Overholser for them to keep finding bodies,” Joanna Slingo Morris of Yukon, about 14 miles (22.5 kilometers) west of Oklahoma City, wrote on Facebook. “Three bodies in 10 days?? My true crime/writers brain is going wild with theories.”