An abandoned car and human remains at the bottom of a Georgia pond have been linked to the 44-year-old case of a missing oil executive and his wife.
Retired Sinclair Oil executive Charles Romer, 73, and his wife Catherine, 75, shockingly disappeared in 1980.
Charles and Catherine were longtime friends who married in 1974. They were heading home to Scarsdale, New York from Miami, Florida before they disappeared.
They stopped along the way at a Holiday Inn in Brunswick, Georgia – one of the last places the lavish couple was seen.
Hotel staff raised the alarm and reported that the Romers were missing when they noticed that their bed had not been slept in.
Employees found unpacked bags, tax returns and a bottle of whiskey in the vacant room New York Times reported.
Their black custom 1979 model Lincoln Continental was also nowhere to be seen.
According to the Associated Press, Catherine was wearing $81,000 worth of jewelry when she disappeared with her husband.
Catherine and Charles Romer went missing in 1980 while on their way home from Miami, Georgia
A car submerged in a Georgia pond with a human bone inside was linked to the Romer’s cold case
The couple drove a black, customized 1979 Lincoln Continental, which resembled the car unearthed on Friday
But on Friday, the decades-old dead end case resurfaced when a search team from Florida Sound Navigation and Ranging (Sonar) found a car believed to be theirs submerged in a pond on Interstate 95 in Brunswick.
A spokesperson for the Glynn County Police Department said CNN Tuesday: ‘Ultimately a match must be determined on the basis of the VIN number and it has not yet been possible to retrieve that from the vehicle found in the pond.’
According to Facebook, the team made the discovery around 10 a.m statement from the Sunshine State Sonar.
The statement reads: “We initially attended this location based on a tip about a submerged vehicle, which was subsequently identified as a 1970s Ford sedan.
“Further investigation led to the discovery of an additional vehicle, which was ultimately determined to be that of Charles and Catherine Romer.
“We immediately notified Glynn County Police detectives of the discovery, including the 1970s Ford sedan.”
Upon further investigation, one human bone was found in the car. But according to the Sunshine State Sonar team, DNA results are still pending.
In other words, it is unconfirmed whether they belong to Catherine or Charles.
The Glynn County Police Department also addressed the situation on Facebook editionshowing that more remains will be searched for.
The disappearances of Charles and Catherine have baffled family members and investigators for decades
Catherine was reportedly wearing $81,000 worth of jewelry when the couple disappeared
The couple married in 1974 – just six years before they were last seen – after being long-time friends
“At this time there is no conclusion regarding the identity of the remains found,” the department wrote.
“The pond is being drained and special equipment is being used to allow for a thorough investigation by the GCPD and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.”
While no solid conclusion has been reached about the circumstances surrounding the vanished wealthy couple, researchers, Brunswick locals and family members have speculated over the years.
“We all felt with our experience that these people had been kidnapped and murdered because of her jewelry, and that the vehicle and the bodies were hidden in the water,” rescue diver George Baker, who searched for the car for years, told the AP. 1998.
Former Holiday Inn employee Andy Mavromat told the story Action News Jax: ‘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 with all the money they had, someone followed them and robbed them.”
Given the recent discovery, Mavromat also said the couple may have lost control of their car and fell into the lake.
In 1985, Charles was officially declared dead, leaving his two sons a $1.2 million estate, the New York Times reported at the time.
Catherine’s nine grandchildren have taken the discovery to heart and reflected on their late grandmother.
People have been thinking about what might have happened for years. The discovery of the car has shed new light on the circumstances for family members
The Florida Sonar team was searching the pond for another car when they discovered the Lincoln
“All the research and psychics and stuff, the police, they’ve been working so hard, and Blackwater divers have been searching for years. And they thought it was foul play,” said Christine Seaman Heller, Catherine’s granddaughter ABC7.
Seaman Heller revealed that she found some comfort in the discovery and hopes to get some closure.
She told ABC 7: “I was talking to a friend of mine about it yesterday because it’s always been such a mystery. So it would be great to find out, just have some peace and quiet. You know, maybe it wasn’t a horrible ending, maybe it was just an accident.”