SUNNY ISLES BEACH, Fla. – A major find tied to a decades-long cold case of a couple who vanished after spending the winter in South Florida.
There has been a group that was retracing their steps, and they may have found something.
The group located a small piece of a car, stuck in time, underwater.
“We were able to confirm at least it was a Lincoln Continental and we could confirm that it was indeed black, which was the color of the vehicle that we were looking for,” said John Martin with Sunshine State Sonar.
Martin and his brother located the vehicle, which also contained personal belongings and human remains.
They are a volunteer team known for cracking cold cases by scanning lakes, canals and ponds with sonar.
Their work led them to finding a car that matched the same one driven by Charles and Catherine Romer, who were last heard from on Easter 1980.
It was a big case at the time.
Charles, a former oil executive, and his wife were retired. The snowbirds left South Florida to go to New York for the spring but stopped in Georgia along the way.
New intel led Sunshine State Sonar up to Brunswick, retracing the couple’s steps and scanning a retention pond right near a hotel with no visibility underwater.
“I didn’t know which window I was at,” said Martin. “There was a window open and I reached in and just started feeling and I just felt something that was long and said what’s this?”
Once they realized there were remains, they stopped diving and called investigators, who had the retention pond drained.
They found many personal items – from high-dollar jewelry to belt buckles with initials inscribed – as authorities are trying to get everything out and understand exactly what happened and why.
Local 10 News has covered many stories with Sunshine State Sonar, finding cars in our backyard.
This is possibly the 13th cold case they’ve helped crack.
Authorities still have to positively ID the remains located in Georgia.