Forty-four years after their disappearance, the remains of a New York couple, Charles and Catherine Romer, have been found inside a submerged car in a pond in Georgia.
“We are deeply saddened and equally relieved that our grandparents Charles and Catherine Romer’s 44-year mystery disappearance has been solved. While this discovery brings closure, it still has been very emotional,” the family told CNN.
The search at the Brunswick City Pond had begun last week when a human bone was found inside an old Lincoln Continental submerged in water. Kim Romer, one of the family members, recounted receiving a phone call from a detective informing her of the find and the fact that one of the car’s headrests had her grandparents’ initials drawn on it.
“The vehicle is similar to the description of the car believed to have belonged to Charles and Catherine Romer when they were reported missing in April 1980,” the Glynn County Police Department later announced on social media.
During that spring 44 years ago, the couple was returning to New York after a vacation in Florida. They were last seen in public at Brunswick Holiday Inn, now known as the Royal Inn. The day after they disappeared, the hotel staff found their belongings in the room they had booked.
The car was found in a pond along Interstate 95 and New Jesup Highway, not too far from the hotel. It was tracked down with the help of the team from Sunshine State Sonar, a nonprofit organization that focuses on locating missing persons. “I dove into the vehicle and found an open window. I reached the window and started feeling the ground. I felt something hard and long, so I grabbed it, whatever it was. Of course, it was a bone,” said John Martin, co-founder of the group.
All these years, family members of the couple from Scarsdale, New York, had always thought their loved ones had been murdered. “Maybe theirs was not a horrible end. Maybe it was just an accident,” they said after the discovery.
