William Moldt was a mortgage broker who travelled a lot with work. On the night of 7th November 1997, he went to a nightclub in Lantana in Florida. He messaged his girlfriend to say he was on his way home and then completely vanished. Witnesses stated that Moldt was a quiet man who kept himself to himself. They also remember that he was not intoxicated when he left the club. Instead, he left alone, driving his car away from the club the forty-year-old was never seen again.

The police launched a missing person investigation, which soon when cold. Finally, however, two decades later, he would be found on Google Maps.

Finding William Moldt

In August 2019, Mr Hayes was doing some research for his company. As a transport surveyor, he spent much of his time on Google Maps, looking at routes for buses. During one of his searches, he looked at the area that he used to live in, Moon Bay Circle, Wellington, Florida. There he spotted something strange in the water.

He phoned his ex-girlfriend to go to the bottom of the garden and look into the pond, she said she could see nothing so went to her neighbour. The neighbour sent his drone over the area and confirmed that there was indeed a car in the lake. The lake was built as an artificial retention pond to store run off waters from heavy rains.

They contacted the police, who pulled the vehicle from the water. As the car emerged, it became clear that there were skeletal remains in the driver’s seat. Thick calcium deposits coated the vehicle, which was a white 1994 Saturn saloon. Experts with the Medical Examiner’s Office examined the bones, and on 10th September, they identified the remains as William Moldt.

The vehicle had plainly [been] visible on a Google Earth satellite photo of the area since 2007, but apparently no-one had noticed it until 2019. — A report by the Charley Project

After investigation, authorities presumed that Moldt had lost control of his car and driven into the pond. However, the area being under massive development at the time, was more of a building site than a community, so his accident went unnoticed.

Never did I believe there would be a 22-year-old dead body — Barry Fay, resident

Many have questioned how a car remained submerged in a lake for twenty years without residents noticing. When you look at the lake, it is brown, green and even if you stand close, it is not clear enough to see through. The lake quite simply had hidden its secret for two decades. Although the family will never know what happened to Moldt, they now have the closure to bury him.

He remains one of many bodies that have been found on Google Maps.

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