A 44-year-old murder case has gained hope for closure after two skeletal remains were found last week in a car submerged in a murky pond in the United States. The car is believed to be owned by a Scarsdale couple who disappeared in 1980.
Charles Romer, a retired oil company executive from Scarsdale, and his wife Catherine drove from their home in Florida to the Westchester County suburb in the spring of 1980. They made a stop at a Holiday Inn, now called the Royal Inn, in Georgia. . However, they could not be found after that day, even though police found some of their unpacked belongings in the hotel, The New York Times reported.
The incident left their family searching for answers for decades, with police suspecting the couple may have died in a robbery because Mrs Romer had a large amount of jewelery on her person.
Now, almost 44 years later, the discovery of bones and a trove of jewelry, including a Rolex watch and a diamond ring, from the submerged car has given hope that the cold case may have been solved.
According to Georgia police spokesman Lawton Dodd, the human remains in the car “conclusively demonstrate that the bodies of two people were in the vehicle.”
Whether the remains belong to the Romers has yet to be determined.
Police also found a license plate with the couple's initials, Ms. Romer's granddaughter told The New York Times.
Investigators are also reportedly looking for a VIN number from the car to see if it matches the couple's 1979 Lincoln Continental they were traveling in the day they went missing.
Further investigation is underway to determine whether the remains belong to the Romers — who were in their second marriage, officials said.
“Although the investigation will take months to complete, this development offers a much better solution than the endless questions we have been faced with for so long,” another of Mrs. Romer's granddaughters told the New York Post.
Police also found another car in the same pond, but it is reportedly not related to the Romers' missing case.
