Bone found in SUV confirmed to belong to mother of two who left note in 2002 about driving into Ohio River

Authorities say they have positively identified human remains found inside an SUV as those of a mother of two who left a note in 2002 saying she was going to drive into the Ohio River. Testing confirmed that a bone recovered from the vehicle, which was pulled from the river in October, belongs to Stephanie Van Nguyen, Indiana State Police said in a news release Tuesday.

In April 2002, Nguyen, then 26, and her two children, Kristina, 4, and John, 3, went missing, police said. Nguyen, who was last known to be driving her 1997 Nissan Pathfinder, had left a note indicating she was going to drive into the Ohio River.

In October 2021, side sonar technology finally led divers to the SUV and search crews pulled the vehicle from the Ohio River near Aurora in southeastern Indiana.