Posted on 09/13/2019 7:21:38 PM PDT by EdnaMode
Google Maps is a powerful tool if you need to know exactly how to get somewhere, but when a car was spotted in a residential pond using Google’s high-flying satellites in late August, it shed light on a mystery far more intense than finding the quickest route across town.
As the Sun Sentinel reports, a neighbor of a Florida resident named Barry Fay first alerted him to what appeared to be a vehicle sitting in a pond directly behind his home. When police investigated the sighting, they found the final resting place of a man who had been missing since 1997.
The unexpected discovery was made thanks to Google Maps, which still shows the 1994 Saturn SL sitting in a pond in an upscale community in Wellington, Florida.
When police dragged the car from below the surface they found the remains of 40-year-old William Earl Moldt who went missing one evening in 1997. It’s still unclear how Moldt’s vehicle ended up in the pond, but it’s worth noting that the area where it was found was still under development at the time he went missing, and it’s possible an off-road accident and drowning were to blame.
As the Sun Sentinel notes, finding vehicles in canals and other small bodies of water in Florida isn’t exactly a rare occurrence, and sometimes those vehicles have human remains still seated inside. Careening off the road and into a pond or canal can quickly turn deadly when the vehicle is swallowed up, but it’s unclear if that’s what happened in this particular case.
No wonder the Water tasted “funny”.
“We’ll make it all the way to the scene of the crash.”
At least the Family has closure.
I cannot imagine how anyone would deal with a Family Member simply disappearing without a trace. A Lifetime full of assumptions.
May the poor man finally RIP.
You have to upload them to a photo sharing site which will give it a web address and then post it here using html.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/nePz16No8XkuV4qW6
Thanks a million xp38. Let’s see if this works.
The left is Feb. ‘95 when it was still agricultural with intermittent canals. Right is Feb. ‘99. He went missing in between those dates. Doesn’t look like there is a canal at that spot in the pre picture, so maybe during construction he went in. Hard to believe how much the FL landscape changes.
I’m clearly new at this. This is what I’m trying to post:
https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipNRE1SobuDwyAVT0qoGJd3cZmkRABgJ5T0DhK9J
Prayers to his family... Florida has lots of lakes and canals near roads...
I get that part, it’s just odd there weren’t any periods of drought when water levels receded, swimmers, or maybe an oil slick, all kinds of stuff.
Yep. Happens all the time in Florida. A car slides off the road during a rainy night and lands in a retention pond or canal. Nobody saw it happen and the decedent spends years, even decades, on a missing persons database. Rarely is foul play involved.
The vehicle is approx. 5’ wide and almost completely on its side. Looks to me that there is about 15 ft. of water above it......
For some reason I’m fascinated by this story. South Florida has thousands of square miles of artificial canals and lakes criscossing both well and lightly traveled roads. Heavy rain could obliterate any tire tracks quickly. No one swims in these bodies of water...very dark, murky and mucky, alligator possibility, and the dark water absorbs heat, so 95° in the summer.
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-1997-03-02-9703010383-story.html
Story of 5 teens missing since 1979, found in submerged van in 1997.
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/fl-pompano-body-car-canal-20141119-story.html
Hmmm. Ted Kennedy was still alive in 1997. Just sayin’.
Guess I’m obsessed with these stories. Grew up on the Detroit River where you could scare yourself silly thinking about finding a body while boating or swimming. Many Detroit homicides ended up in the vicinity downriver.
When I lived in Gainesville, GA, everyone knew this story, “The Lady of the Lake (Lanier)”. By sheer coincidence, the footprint for the pillar of a new bridge encased the whole car, so was taken up whole, as I recall.
“In April 1958, Lake Lanier claimed its most famous victim, Susie Roberts, long since known as Lake Lanier’s Lady of the Lake. Roberts lost control of her car and crashed off the right abutment of Lanier Bridge on Dawsonville Highway. Her car came to rest in ninety feet of water, on a steep slope at the base of the bridge, caught in the deadfall of sheered-off tree trunks that comprise the Lake Lanier bottom.
A year after the accident in 1959, divers discovered the body of Delia Mae Parker Young, believed to be a passenger in Susie Roberts’ car, but could never locate the car or remains of Miss Roberts.
“With visibility being almost zero at that depth, Roberts remained undiscovered until November 1990 when construction on the new Lanier Bridge expansion was underway. Construction crews found Roberts car while dredging out the lake bottom to set the foundation pillars for the new bridge.”
In addition to bodies in sunk vehicles, some are found simply floating in ponds or canals. Investigation often finds such drownings accidental or even a suicide, with homelessness and drugs or alcohol involved. There are also cases of breath-taking stupidity in which a drunk or drugged person goes for a swim at night in a lake despite knowing that gators are present.
Thanks!
That guy had a great delivery; quite funny!
Here is how you post a photo on this website
<img src= your web address for the photo and then close with the opposite of the opening bracket.
I can’t add it here or the whole explanation will show a broken link.
Yes! And when you come to a fork in the road... TAKE IT!!!
LOL
Thanks for spoon feeding me that info...
It was entertaining listening to the GPS girls arguing with each other
Go left!
No, go right!
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