Four senior citizens from Buffalo, New York, were found dead near their vehicle in West Virginia, according to police reports released on Saturday. The deceased, identified as Dr. Kishore Divan, 89, Asha Divan, 85, Shailesh Divan, 86, and Gita Divan, 84, had embarked on a religious journey to the Palace of Gold, a prominent Hindu site in Marshall County, West Virginia. Their absence was reported on Tuesday.
The bodies were discovered next to their damaged Toyota Camry on Big Wheeling Creek Road on Saturday, according to a statement from the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff Mike Dougherty stated that the bodies were found on a steep embankment around 9:30 p.m. First responders were at the scene for over five hours, and Dougherty extended his condolences to the victims’ families.
The group was last seen around 2:45 p.m. on Tuesday when a Pennsylvania state trooper detected their license plate on I-79, as reported by WTOL-TV News. The exact familial relationship among the four, all of Indian descent, remains unclear.
The Hindustan Times reported that the family had reserved a room at the Palace of Gold retreat for Tuesday night but never arrived. Their last known stop was at a Burger King in Pennsylvania.
The Palace of Gold in Moundsville was built in the 1970s by followers of Srila Prabhupada, a spiritual leader from India who propagated the teachings of Hare Krishna before his death in 1977. The site continues to be a significant Hindu retreat.