Exclusive: Divers Feeling For Clues In 1978 Missing Teens Case

SUNRISE (CBSMiami) -- For a fifth day, divers have been carefully searching the G-15 canal in Sunrise, looking for clues in the 36-year old disappearance of Harry "Wade" Atchison and his girlfriend Dana Null.

"I guess I've known all along this would be the outcome," said Atchison's sister Donna Amaya, "It still hurts a lot. It really does," she said.

Amaya suspected for decades, they would be found in the murky water of a canal.

"I've always had in the back of my head that they were in one of those canals, but now to confirm that they died a watery death, it's terrible, it's horrible," said Amaya.

Donna spoke to CBS4's Ted Scouten by phone.

Christmas of 1977 was the last time she saw Wade. Thirty-six years later, last week, his 1969 Dodge Coronet was found in the canal. Since then divers have pulled bones from the water too.

Click here to watch Ted Scouten's report.

"Some of the skeletal remains we found were both male and female origin," said lead detective Sgt. Scott Champagne. "So that would lead us to believe we are on the right track, that we do, in fact, have something with both Dana and Harry."

READ: Remains Found In Car Connected To 1978 Missing Teens Case

For more than three decades, the evidence has been underwater.

"We have zero visibility," one diver relayed by two way radio from under the water. "This is black water," he said.

The canal is a very dark, silt filled place, where divers have to feel their way around to find crucial clues after silt plumes blacken their view.

"Even sometimes, we bring things up to our masks to see if we can determine what it is and we still can't determine what it is so it all goes into the bucket," said BSO Diver Sgt. Joe Capua.

With the clues divers found, investigators will try to piece together what happened in 1978. Investigators know the two went to a concert, argued at home, then took off in the car, never to be seen again.

READ: BSO: Car Pulled From Canal Connected To 1978 Missing Person's Case

"The reality is we don't know what happened, there's only two people that know what happened and that was Dana and Harry," said Sgt. Champagne. "We want to get to the bottom of what happened, period."

For Dana and Wade's families, these latest developments bring some much needed answers, but stir up some very painful memories.

"Thirty six  years ago I mourned the loss of my brother. Now I have to mourn his death," said Amaya, "I don't know what's harder to be honest with you."

Within the next few weeks detectives hope to have the identity confirmed by using the bones. They're working with family members to get DNA samples.