A deeply unsettling discovery was made on Google Earth, which had been visible for years without detection.
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It was the final resting place of William Moldt, who had mysteriously disappeared decades earlier.
Moldt was reported missing from Lantana, Florida, back in November 1997, and his case had remained an enigma, leaving police and loved ones baffled for years.
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At the time of his disappearance, Moldt was 40 years old. His girlfriend was waiting for him to return home on the night he vanished.
He had been out at a nightclub and was last seen when he made a call to his girlfriend around 9.30 pm.
During this call, he assured her that he would be home soon.
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Tragically, this would be the final time she would ever hear from her partner.
The mystery surrounding Moldt's disappearance continued for over two decades.
William Moldt was reporting missing from Lanta, Florida in November 1997.
Credit: National Missing and Unidentified Persons System
Then, in a turn of events in August 2019, his remains were finally discovered.
This grim finding brought some closure to the long-standing missing person case, filling in critical gaps in the story of his disappearance.
22 years after he went missing, a startling discovery was made.
Police received reports of a car found submerged in a pond in Moon Bay Circle, Wellington.
When they extracted the vehicle from the water, they found skeletal remains inside.
It took a week, but the remains were positively identified, confirming that they belonged to William Moldt.
The discovery of the vehicle was made in an unexpected way.
Moldt's remains were found in a submerged car, which was visible on Google Earth.
Credit: Google Earth
A person was using Google Earth to look back at their old neighborhood when they noticed something out of place.
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The unusual sighting was made by the manager of The Grand Isles housing development in Wellington, near Palm Beach.
They spotted what appeared to be a vehicle submerged in a pond on the property.
After notifying the police and upon investigation, it was deduced that the car had likely been in that location for a significant amount of time, given its condition.
The most haunting aspect of this entire incident is the fact that the submerged vehicle had been visible on Google Earth since 2007.
However, it had unfortunately gone unnoticed until 2019.
The Charley Project, an online database dedicated to cold cases in the U.S., reported that the 'vehicle had plainly [been] visible on a Google Earth satellite photo of the area since 2007, but apparently, no-one had noticed it until 2019'.
Moldt’s disappearance had baffled police for decades.
Credit: Getty Stock Image
In 2019, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office spoke with the BBC about the discovery of Moldt.
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They theorized that Moldt might have lost control of his vehicle, leading to it ending up in the pond.
They added that during the initial investigation into his disappearance, there had been 'no evidence of that occurring'.
Only recently, 'due to the shift of water, the car was not clearly visible'.
Police spokeswoman Therese Barbera expressed the challenges in unraveling the events after so many years. "You can't determine what happened that many years ago, what transpired," she said.
"All we know is that he went missing off the face of the Earth, and now he's been discovered."