NEW YORK — The mystery behind the disappearance of a wealthy New York couple 44 years ago begins to unravel.
Charles and Catharine Romer disappeared in 1980 while driving home to Scarsdale from Florida, but a car recently found in a Georgia pond is the breakthrough that has eluded investigators for decades.
The water research team used sonar to solve the cold case
Shelly McKinley works with the Sunshine State Sonar Team, which tries to solve cold cases by using sonar to search the water for vehicles belonging to missing people.
“We make our maps and one by one we start from where they were last seen and work our way out,” McKinley said.
The team decided to investigate the disappearance of the Romers, who vanished after spending a night at a hotel in Brunswick, Georgia – more than 900 miles from their home on Popham Road in Scarsdale.
On Friday, the Sonar team located the missing couple’s Lincoln Continental in the pond directly behind the hotel. After the pond was drained, human remains were found inside.
“We all thought someone was following them and robbing them”
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Divers reportedly searched the pond in 1980. It’s possible they simply missed what modern sonar could detect.
“As dark and murky as that water is, and as muddy as they reported, it’s likely it was just missed,” McKinley said.
“We never knew what happened to any of them. We all thought someone, with all the money they had, followed them and robbed them,” said Andy Mavromat, a former hotel clerk.
Many people at a senior center near Scarsdale remember the case.
“They went missing and they investigated it as a criminal situation and not as an accidental situation,” Reva Carapella said.
The discovery now leads researchers to believe that Charles Romer accidentally drove into the pond. They will continue the investigation to give the Romer family the answers they have been seeking for decades.
