Charles and Catherine Romer: 1980 cold case may get answers after car is found submerged in Georgia pond

CNN
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The discovery of human remains inside a vehicle found in a Georgia pond may be linked to a New York couple who disappeared in 1980, according to police.

A human bone was found inside a submerged Lincoln Continental on Friday, prompting authorities to drain the pond in Brunswick to search for further remains.

“The vehicle is similar to the description of a vehicle that Charles and Catherine Romer were believed to be driving when reported missing in April 1980,” the Glynn County Police Department announced on social media Saturday.

“Ultimately a match must be determined by the VIN number and it has not been possible yet to get that from the vehicle found in the pond,” a department spokesperson told CNN on Tuesday.

The Romers were on their way back to New York after a vacation in Miami when they disappeared near the Brunswick Holiday Inn, now known as the Royal Inn, CNN affiliate WABC reported. Housekeepers found their bags and personal items in their hotel room the day after they were last seen.

The car found was located in a pond along Interstate 95 and New Jesup Highway, near the hotel where the couple was last seen.

No official determination has been made about the identity of the remains, Glynn County police said.

The department is working with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which will have forensics experts examine the remains and try to determine an identity, the police spokesperson said. Investigators are also working to determine if the vehicle can be removed from the pond without causing further damage.

Authorities credited Sunshine State Sonar, a nonprofit focused on locating missing persons, and the Camden County Dive Team for their assistance in finding the vehicle.

In an update on social media, Sunshine State Sonar said they acted on a tip regarding a submerged vehicle and found a 1970s Ford sedan. A second vehicle was then discovered, they said, which matches the description of the Romers’ 1979 Lincoln Continental.

Barry Fahs, a resident of Brunswick, recounted seeing construction crews extracting remnants of a vehicle from the pond. “A rear end of a car, the car was tearing apart. The police officer said there were two deceased bodies in the car,” Fahs told CNN affiliate WFOX/WJAX.

The Romers’ disappearance has puzzled their families, investigators and the community of Scarsdale, New York, for more than 40 years. “All the investigations and psychics and everything, the police, they worked so hard. And they thought it was foul play,” Christine Seaman Heller, a granddaughter of the missing woman, told WABC of the years of searching.

The investigation led her late father, Catherine Romer’s son, to travel to Georgia for years seeking answers.

“That was all we were consumed about until today,” Seaman Heller told the news outlet, adding her family is eternally thankful for the commitment from everyone involved. “It’s always been such a mystery. It would be so wonderful to find out. Just have some peace. Maybe it wasn’t a horrible ending, maybe it was just an accident.”