By EILEEN BENNETT Staff Writer, (856) 794-5110

BUENA VISTA TOWNSHIP - Authorities believe that two bodies found Thursday in a long-submerged car in an irrigation pond were those of Mexican migrant farm workers.

Trooper John McMahon, of the State Police Fatal Accident Unit, arrived at the scene shortly after the car was pulled from the water, and said the deaths are now believed to have been accidental.

"Our first thought was surmising if it was a homicide or an accident. We believe it was absolutely an accident," McMahon said.

"The occupants were removed and taken to the Atlantic County Medical Examiner's Office," McMahon said.

The car was impounded for further investigation. Identification of the bodies is pending.

"The (Atlantic County) medical examination said the bodies are in such an advanced state of decomposition that it will take some time to positively identify them," Sgt. Al Della Fave, spokesman for the State Police, said Friday.

"Our preliminary investigation is leaning us heavily toward two migrant farm workers from that area. Documentation within the vehicle and talking to people make us believe that," he added. "But by law, we can't ID them until the medical examiner gives us something concrete."

The bodies were found in a pond off Post Road near Sikkings' Farm, which grows gladiolas.

The vehicle - a 1989 maroon Oldsmobile - apparently had been in the water for some time, perhaps as long as two years.

A missing person report filed earlier this year by the brother of one of the victim helped in the investigation, Della Fave said.

There was some identification in the car, Della Fave said, and it appears one of the victims was from Mexico. He worked at one farm in the area and then transferred to another, Della Fave said.

When his brother came to visit him earlier this year, he couldn't find him and then filed the missing person report, Della Fave said.

"That's what sparked our looking into missing persons reports," Della Fave said. "If we didn't have that, we wouldn't have anything - two people from out of the country."

McMahon said the drought conditions of the past year had lowered the water level to about 8 feet, making the vehicle visible.

Farm owner Mike Sikking reported the vehicle in the water to police.

Sikking said someone told him there appeared to be a car in an irrigation ditch there.

"I went to see myself," Sikking said. "I could see the roof of the car. But you could really pick up what it was when the sun was shining on the chrome in the water. That's when I could make out the outline of a car."

Sikking described the area as very remote, "always shaded, and it always freezes up in winter."

Sikking said he had been to the site often, but never saw anything suspicious. The recent drought brought the water level down to where the car was visible.

McMahon said investigators were able to reconstruct the accident, even though it occurred so long ago.

"It's actually not that difficult. There was a break in the trees, an opening there, just wide enough for a car to fit through," he said. "You can see where a utility pole was struck. There was old damage on the utility pole, and it had pieces of maroon paint still stuck to it."

The car apparently was traveling east on Post Road when it crossed into the westbound lane, left the road and swiped the pole before slipping into the pond.

Once the vehicle was removed from the water, McMahon said, "you could see where the left front fender was crushed. The left front wheel had a flat spot, consistent with where the pole would have been.

"We believe the car left the road and continued 160 feet to the edge of the pond and then entered the pond. It floated about 30 feet and then sank," the trooper added.

The area is located in a very rural area.

"One would surmise that the accident happened in the later hours of evening, and with no houses nearby, no one would hear it," McMahon said.

If the car had struck the telephone pole head-on, the phone company probably would have arrived on the scene.

"There was no surge in power. If they had hit the pole, we would have found it right then," McMahon said.