40-year-old William Moldt went missing in 1997, and his disappearance had remained a mystery for all of 22 years.

He was last seen out at a club in Lantana, Florida, on November 7, 1997, and failed to return home that night. He had called his girlfriend at about 9:30PM, telling her he would be home soon, but was never seen or heard from again.

The police launched a missing person investigation, but the case went cold, with no new evidence emerging to aid in locating Moldt.

Until now, reports the BBC:

On 28 August this year – 22 years on – police were called to reports of a car found in a pond in Moon Bay Circle, Wellington.

When the vehicle was pulled from the water, skeletal remains were found inside. One week later the remains were positively identified as belonging to Mr Moldt.

Mr Moldt’s sunken car was spotted by a previous resident of the area after “doing a Google search”, police said.

The man then contacted a current resident of Moon Bay Circle to tell them what he had seen. Using his personal drone, the current resident confirmed there was a car in the pond and contacted police.

A report by the Charley Project, an online database of cold cases in the US, said the “vehicle had plainly [been] visible on a Google Earth satellite photo of the area since 2007, but apparently no-one had noticed it until 2019”.

That’s the image up top, and if we get in a little closer, Moldt’s car is clearly visible:

According to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, it’s believed that he lost control of the vehicle. It was only after a shift in water levels, which occurred after the case went cold, that the car became visible.

“You can’t determine what happened that many years ago, what transpired,” police spokeswoman Therese Barbera said.

“All we know is that he went missing off the face of the Earth, and now he’s been discovered.”

At least that may lead to some form of closure for his family.

[source:bbc]