The remains of a man who went missing 22 years ago in Lantana, Florida have finally been found thanks to satellite images on Google Earth, the BBC reports.
The late William Moldt was found in a car submerged in a pond in Moon Bay Circle, Wellington after an individual was able to make out the car when they zoomed in on the location on Google Earth, the sheriff’s office spokeswoman, Therese Barbera, said on Thursday.
The then-40-year-0ld had been missing since 7 November 1997 after failing to return home from a night out at a club. A missing person investigation was launched by police at the time, to no avail.
According to The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, Moldt did not appear intoxicated when he left the venue alone before midnight. He had called his girlfriend from the club to let her know that he would soon head back to the home they shared.
After the police were alerted to the discovery last month, on August 28, the car was pulled from the water. It was then that skeletal remains were found in a white vehicle - the exterior of which was said to be "heavily calcified".
Days later, the remains tested positively as having belonged to Moldt.
Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office told the BBC that it is believed Moldt lost control of his car before driving it into the pond. During the initial investigation into his disappearance, police said there was "no evidence of that occurring" until recently when a shift in the water made the car visible.
"You can't determine what happened that many years ago, what transpired," police spokeswoman Barbera said. "All we know is that he went missing off the face of the Earth, and now he's been discovered."