Closure is about the best neighbors of Bunnie Lee can hope for now that it appears his body has been found, 11 years after he disappeared.

“Now, we have closure, but it brings a lot of questions,” said longtime East Liberty neighbor Dorret Payton. “He was missed. He still is.”

Although the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office has not yet officially identified the remains found in a car pulled from the Allegheny River in Springdale on Sunday, authorities say evidence from the car points to it belonging to Lee, 78, of East Liberty, who disappeared in 2013.

Lee was affectionately known by some neighbors, including Sabrina Vennie, as “Mr. Back Up,” for his habit of reversing his car all the way down an offshoot of Enright Court.

“One day it was like, ‘Where is Mr. Back Up?’ ” Vennie said. “After 10, 11 years, to find out, it’s a shock.”

The make and model of the car — a Mazda 6 — match the description of Lee’s vehicle at the time of his disappearance, as does the license plate recovered from the car.

For those who knew Lee, the breakthrough was a bittersweet moment. It remains unclear how the vehicle made it from his Enright Court home to Springdale’s riverfront — a roughly 30-minute drive.

Police at the time said Lee suffered from dementia and could have been confused or disoriented.

County police said they’re withholding further comment until the Medical Examiner’s Office completes its work.

Several search teams have tried to track down Lee since his disappearance.

In 2022, divers from Adventures With Purpose and Chaos Divers went searching for Lee and Janet Walsh, a Shaler woman missing since 2020. Instead, they found the body of Tod DiMinno, a Harmony man who had gone missing about a week earlier, inside a vehicle.

The discovery of Lee’s car also was accidental and, if not for a lost fishing rod, might not have been discovered.

Divers from Murrysville Medic One were conducting training exercises near R.I. Lampus headquarters in Springdale when a boy asked them to retrieve his fishing pole, which had been mistakenly tossed into the river. The pole was recovered, but sonar operators detected a vehicle in the river and sent two divers to investigate.

Medic One, Springdale police and a local towing company brought the car to shore shortly after. Authorities were able to confirm the presence of human remains.

Anyone with information concerning the incident is asked to call Allegheny County police at 833-255-8477 (ALL-TIPS).

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