Many of us have reminisced about childhood houses or former neighborhoods by visiting old haunts using Google Earth. However, a reminiscence trip took an unexpected turn for one man. William Moldt was sadly found thanks to a careful watch on Google Earth. He had been missing since 1997 during a night out in Florida.
William’s disappearance was investigated thoroughly at the time, but it was a cold case for more than 20 years. Then, in 2019, a man using Google Earth to explore his old neighborhood discovered something strange: a car that was partially submerged in a lake next to his previous house. The suspicions were verified with the aid of a local and a drone: a white automobile that had been hiding William’s bones for years was in plain sight.
The Charley Project, a database for missing persons, revealed that the car had been visible on satellite images since 2007 — yet the enigma surrounding its invisibility for so long persists. Local authorities suspect William may have lost control of his vehicle and it ended up in the lake; however, they admit there is no antecedent evidence to support this theory. While the discovery offers closure for William’s family, it does little to illuminate the circumstances of his disappearance other than affirming his status as a missing person after all these years. As police spokeswoman Therese Barbera aptly put it: “We can’t determine what happened that many years ago… All we know is that he went missing, and now he’s been discovered.”
This instance stands as a grim reminder of how technology can uncover secrets — even those concealed over ages. It is not without irony; while some enigmas evade unraveling, the vigilance of Google Earth presents us with answers from unanticipated quarters and in peculiar ways.