His whereabouts remained a mystery for more than 20 years. A search on the Internet ended up revealing its destiny

They reported it as disappeared on November 8, 1997. Ten years later, a photo emerged showing the car where he died, but It was 12 years before anyone noticed the existence of the vehicle.

This is the story of William Moldt, a man from Florida who left his home in Lantana one night but never returned.

The 40-year-old man had called his girlfriend at about 9:30 p.m. to let him know he would be home soon, but that was the last time she heard his voice.

Although the man did not consume alcohol frequently, that night he drank several drinks at the club he visited, the magazine reported Newsweek

According to the National System of Missing and Unidentified Persons, Moldt had gone to the Adult Night Club on the night of November 7, 1997, and left around 11 pm.

Those were the last details that were known to Moldt for more than 20 years.

His whereabouts remained a mystery until August 28, when a call changed the course of history.

That day, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office received a report from a car that had been spotted in a pond in Moon Bay Circle, Wellington

The person who reported on the vehicle said he had seen it in Google Earth images.

The car was first seen by a neighbor of Barry Fay, behind whose house was the 1994 white Saturn Moldt model, the newspaper reported The Palm Beach Post.

The ex-husband of Fay's neighbor was watching the neighborhood on Google Earth, that's how she saw the car. The man took screenshots and sent them to Fay's neighbor.

She, in turn, sent them to Fay while he was driving home in Wellington from Fort Lauderdale on August 28.

"She said:" Tell me if you think it looks like a car, "Fay said.

His answer was: "Yes, it seems so." Then he asked where the photos had been taken.

"Fool, that's behind your house," the neighbor replied.

Upon arriving home, Fay went to his backyard to verify what the photos showed, but the water was cloudy and could not be seen well.

The man did not give up. Fay called a neighbor who had a drone.

After using the device over the area, the images confirmed what Google Earth had revealed. Fay proceeded to call the Sheriff's Office to report the particular finding.

“Surprisingly, a vehicle had been clearly visible in a Google Earth satellite photo of the area since 2007but apparently nobody had noticed until 2019, when a property inspector saw the car while looking at Google Earth, ”said The Chairty Project, which contains a database of more than 13,000 cases of missing persons.

Agents who came to the scene noticed that the vehicle was heavily calcified and determined that it had been in the water for a significant amount of time, he added The Palm Beach Post.

When removing the car from the pond, the authorities found Bone remains inside, said the Sheriff's Office.

The vehicle and the remains were delivered to the Palm Beach County Forensic Office for proper analysis.

That was how forensics determined that The skeleton belonged to Moldt.

It can still be seen on a @googleearth satellite photo: A white 1994 Saturn sedan, the final resting place of a 40-year-old missing since Nov. 7, 1997. https://t.co/aF8QN2HVSV

— The Palm Beach Post (@pbpost) September 12, 2019

The Charity Project has added that Grand Isles, the residential complex where the vehicle was found, was under construction when Moldt disappeared.

The submerged car image is still available in Google Earth, he said Newsweek