COUPLE FOUND IN RAVINE; HITCHHIKER SPOTTED CAR IN TENNESSEE

The search for a missing St. Louis couple ended Thursday after a hitchhiker spotted their wrecked car at the base of an embankment along a Tennessee highway.

The bodies of Oscar "Jay" Crites and Lora Jean Crites, were discovered in the car a short time later by police.

Police believe the accident occurred late on July 22 or in the early morning hours of July 23 on Jay Crites' birthday.

A spokesperson for the Tennessee Highway Patrol, Sue Allison, said the couple's car was spotted by a hitchhiker Thursday at about 1:30 p.m. It had come to rest after plunging down a 300-foot embankment and hitting a tree, Allison said. The Crites' bodies were found inside.

"There was a lot of damage to the car," she said. "Based on the severe damage, we believe they were killed instantly."

The car, a 1988 Chevrolet Beretta, had missed a nearby guard rail. The accident occurred along Interstate 65, about a mile and a half into Tennessee from the Alabama border.

The wreckage couldn't be seen from the roadway by motorists, Allison said. "It was only visible to someone walking along the road," she said.

Lora Crites was driving. Authorities speculate a medical emergency may have caused her to lose control of the car, but no definite cause for the accident has been established.

The discovery ends a week of speculation concerning the whereabouts of the couple.

Jay Crites, 69, and Lora Jean Crites, 70, were on their way to Cape Girardeau to attend the funeral of Jay Crites' sister-in-law, Gretchen Crites, who died July 22.

Credit card receipts show they bought gasoline in Clanton, Ala. about 11:40 night. Police believe the accident happened later that night or early the next morning.

Family members and local, state and federal authorities began searching for the couple Sunday. Planes and helicopters were being used Thursday to search for the couple's car.

The FBI had begun looking into the couples' disappearance on Wednesday, and were treating it as a possible abduction, said Detective John Volkerding of the Cape Girardeau Police Department.

The Crites reportedly left from Gulf Breeze, Fla. near Pensacola, where they had served as volunteer hosts at a park for recreational vehicles. In exchange for a free campground site, they had maintained two camp sites.

The couple had six children. Jay Crites was a retired truck driver, and Lora Crites was retired from Southwestern Bell.

Cape Girardeau police reported Thursday that they were following up on some phoned-in leads in the case. But Danny Niswonger, the couple's nephew and a Cape Girardeau patrolman, said leads were not promising.

The couple's children had posted flyers along the route the two had taken from Florida and had searched the route themselves.