The discovery of a car and human remains in a Brunswick retention pond may have just ended a 44-year-old cold case.
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Sunshine State Sonar Team divers have found a Lincoln Continental the same car investigators believe Charles and Catherine Romer had been driving when they went missing in 1980.
Action News Jax Shanila Kabir spent the day at the scene where residents said the case had roiled the Brunswick community for years.
The retention pond is located along the New Jesup Highway, just outside the hotel where the Romers were last seen 44 years ago.
Brunswick resident Barry Fahs said he watched the construction equipment take out what was left in the pond.
“A back end of a car, the car tore apart. The police officer said there were two deceased bodies in the car,” Fahs said.
The couple are believed to be snowbirds who drove from Miami to New York and stopped in Brunswick, Georgia, where they disappeared.
‘The man was a hard-working man and he had a good life for himself. I hope the family can get closure,” Fahs said.
Andy Mavromat said he worked at the front desk at the hotel where the couple checked in and never left.
“He was in the oil industry; he was worth a lot of money. When I worked at Holiday Inn, this was the biggest thing, and we never knew this was happening to them. We thought that with all the money they had, someone followed them and robbed them,” Mavromat said.
He said locals believed for years that the wealthy couple had been robbed and murdered. But now, given Saturday’s discovery, he suspects the couple lost control of their car and drove into the pond.
“None of these fences were here and they could have walked into the pond. They could have done that. As you see now, it was very different 44 years ago,” says Mavromat.
Action News Jax contacted Glynn County Police for comment and they said the dive team received a tip about a possible car in the retention pond. We’ve reached out to the Sunshine State Sonar Team for more information on that tip, and we’re waiting to hear back.
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