In a stunning turn of events, the decades-old disappearance of William Earl Moldt, a 40-year-old man from Lantana, Florida, has finally been resolved. Moldt went missing on November 7, 1997, after a night out at a nightclub, sparking a missing person investigation that eventually went cold.
The night of his disappearance, Moldt left the club around 11:00 PM local time, leaving alone in his vehicle. He did not appear intoxicated but had consumed several drinks at the bar. Moldt contacted his girlfriend around 9:30 PM, informing her he would be returning home shortly, but he was never heard from again.
However, on August 28, 2019, a previous resident who, after “doing a Google search,” stumbled upon a startling discovery—a car submerged in a retention pond in a housing development in Wellington, Florida. He alerted a current resident of Moon Bay Circle. Using a personal drone, the current resident confirmed the presence of the car in the pond and promptly contacted law enforcement. Astonishingly, the vehicle had been visible in a Google Earth satellite photo of the area since 2007, yet it went unnoticed until 2019.
Upon responding to the report, deputies from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Department found the heavily calcified vehicle not far from the pond’s shore. After extracting the car from the water, skeletal remains were discovered inside and later identified as belonging to William Earl Moldt.
The housing development where the pond is located was under construction at the time of Moldt’s disappearance.
Authorities from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office stated that Moldt is presumed to have lost control of his vehicle and driven into the pond. Despite the passage of over two decades, no evidence of this occurrence was found until the recent discovery, when a shift in the water made the car visible.
Therese Barbera, a spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office, emphasized the mystery surrounding Moldt’s disappearance, stating, “You can’t determine what happened that many years ago, what transpired. All we know is that he went missing off the face of the Earth, and now he’s been discovered.”
The discovery of Moldt’s remains brings closure to a long-standing mystery for his family. The remains were transported to the Medical Examiner’s Office for processing, and they were positively identified as Moldt, finally providing answers to a case that had puzzled authorities for over two decades.
The revelation of Moldt’s submerged car serves as a poignant reminder of the power of technology and the enduring hope for resolution in long-standing missing persons cases.