BRUNSWICK, Ga. — A nonprofit search uncovered a possible break in a decades old cold case in Glynn County.
Glynn County Police are searching a car found at the bottom of a retention pond that matches the description of one a New York couple was last seen in before they disappeared in 1980.
Glynn County Police said they found a human bone, but they haven’t identified who it belongs to yet.
Investigators were able to climb down into the pond Monday to look for more clues in and around the car after a crew spent three days pumping most of the water out.
“I came into it like, ‘Wow. This kind of stuff can be seen from Google Earth,'" said Shelly McKinney with Sunshine State Sonar, the nonprofit search team who found the car. "What a way to solve cold cases.”
In two years with Sunshine State Sonar, a nonprofit that focuses on cold cases involving lost cars, McKinney says they’ve found a dozen cars with leads on 13 missing people cases.
That number may climb, after another nonprofit search group tipped them off that something may be at the bottom of a pond between the Royal Inn and I-95 in Brunswick.
“We always do the sonar first and once we find something, we drop a magnet on it, confirm it can stick to the vehicle, then we attach a buoy," said McKinney. "Then we send a diver down to do an assessment of the vehicle.”
McKinney says the sonar works like an ultrasound, creating an image of what the car could look like, so divers know what they’re looking for.
Sure enough, Sunshine State Sonar found a 1970s Lincoln Continental that matches the description of one Charles and Catherine Romer were last seen driving back in 1980.
“For me, personally, I know if it were my loved one, I’d want to know there are people out there trying to find my missing loved one," said McKinney. "That nobody had just stopped looking."
According to a missing persons report for Catherine Romer, the couple was driving from Miami back to their home in New York when they stopped at the Holiday Inn in Brunswick, now the Royal Inn.
They checked in, but never checked out. Three days later, a hotel employee told police their bags were still in the room, untouched.
While Glynn County Police have taken the investigation over to try to uncover more about the mystery car and the bone found inside, Sunshine State Sonar has already moved on to more ponds to uncover more lost cars.
“All we can do is spread the word about what we’re doing and hope to continue doing what we’re doing to bring more answers to more families," said McKinney.
McKinney says her team actually found a different car at the other end of the pond first, which is now visible with the water so low.
Glynn County Police have not released any information on that car, or how long it will take to process the bone found in the Lincoln.