Hunter: Nessie 'Probably Dead'

Two decades of silence from the depths of Loch Ness signal its most famous resident is likely dead, says the man who's searched for Nessie every summer since he says he first saw it in 1972. Ex-physicist, lawyer, and MIT professor Rob Rines, whose underwater photos are considered the best possible evidence for the creature’s existence, is hunting for the beast's skeleton, the Boston Globe reports.

Rines, 85, says he believes at least two Nessies once roamed the dark waters. But eyewitness accounts and sonar spottings that were once common have gone cold since the 1980s. Now Rines is checking out a list of possible locations for the creature’s remains, and after that, he’s out of ideas. And, he says, "running out of age, too." (More Loch Ness monster stories.)