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FLORIDA 1997 Cold Case Solved After 22 Years — Google Earth Found Him

Cold Case Redemption

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On November 7th, 1997, William Moldt called his girlfriend from a nightclub in Lantana, Florida. He said he'd be home soon. Then he got in his white Saturn sedan and drove into the night.

He never arrived. For 22 years, there were no leads, no evidence, and no answers.

Then in August 2019, a former resident browsing his old neighborhood on Google Earth noticed a pale shape in a retention pond behind a row of houses in Wellington, Florida. A drone confirmed it. Deputies pulled a white 1994 Saturn SL from the water with skeletal remains inside. It was William Moldt. He had been there the entire time, twenty feet from someone's backyard, visible from satellite imagery for over a decade.

This documentary traces the full story of William Moldt's disappearance, from the phone call that was the last time anyone heard his voice, through the cold investigation that went nowhere for two decades, to the stranger whose idle curiosity on a weekday afternoon did what 22 years of silence couldn't. We examine Florida's epidemic of vehicles hidden in retention ponds, the volunteer sonar teams now pulling cars from waterways across the country, and the uncomfortable question at the center of it all: how many missing people are hiding in plain overhead sight right now?

No crime. No villain. Just a quiet accident on a dark night, a body of water with no barriers, and a man who waited 22 years to be found.

This is Cold Case Redemption. We tell the stories of the forgotten victims who finally received the answers they deserved.

📌 KEY FACTS
William Earl Moldt disappeared November 7, 1997, age 40
Last seen leaving a nightclub in Lantana, Florida around 11 PM
His white 1994 Saturn SL was found in a retention pond in Wellington, FL
A former resident spotted the car on Google Earth in August 2019
The car had been visible on satellite imagery since at least 2007
Remains identified as Moldt on September 10, 2019
Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office found no evidence of foul play
Florida leads the US in vehicle-submersion deaths

🔎 IF YOU OR SOMEONE YOU KNOW HAS INFORMATION ABOUT A MISSING PERSON
National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs): https://namus.nij.ojp.gov
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children: https://www.missingkids.org
FBI Missing Persons: https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/kidnap

📖 REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING
CNN - "The remains of a man missing for 22 years have been found, thanks to Google Earth":
https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/12/us/mis...

CBS News - "Google Earth leads to remains of William Moldt, missing since 1997":
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/google-e...

Fox News - "Florida man's skeletal remains discovered after underwater car spotted on Google Earth":
https://www.foxnews.com/us/florida-sk...

The Charley Project - William Earl Moldt case file:
https://charleyproject.org/case/willi...

Newsweek - "Skeletal Remains of Florida Man Missing for 22 Years Found":
https://www.newsweek.com/florida-man-...

NamUs - National Missing and Unidentified Persons System:
https://namus.nij.ojp.gov

#ColdCase #TrueCrime #WilliamMoldt #GoogleEarth #MissingPersons #ColdCaseSolved #Florida #Documentary #ColdCaseRedemption #UnsoldMysteries #TrueCrimeDocumentary #PalmBeachCounty #Justice #MissingPersonCase

13 Comments

@amym.694 7 days ago

There should be periodic checks on these bodies of water.

@momcorn50 7 days ago

There are people out doing searches in water for missing persons

@momcorn50 7 days ago

There are several groups of people searching waterways for missing persons

@vanessakelly6022 7 days ago

Can you cut down the repetition

@1manforequality 3 days ago

A van with five teenagers went missing in 1979, it was nowhere to be found. There's a deep canal which runs parallel to the Florida Turnpike, not far from Miami. The canal was deep and great for fishing. Friends and I fished there regularly, as it was nearby our home. One day in 1996, a fellow fishing there, thought his hook got caught on a branch, he managed to reel it to shore. It was a piece of bone. Authorities were called and it was later identified as human. Divers located a van upside down at the canal bottom, it had been missing for 17 years. The speed limit there was 40 mph with no guardrail aside Obiously the van entered the canal,
flipped and sunk all five missing young adults drowned. As I began watching this particular story, it reminded me of the
similar incident which occurred so close to my home. Its now 2026, and my vivid memories still exist.

@tomasescott 7 days ago

You should rename “Cold Case Redemption” to “Cold Case Repetition”.

@lindan2836 6 days ago

How on earth people did'nt see that car from their homes or gardens???

@shackedahall9163 5 days ago

Watching from Jamaica 7:13am

@runnerbean5858 5 days ago

It is great that there are civic groups out there doing the work of finding people in water many years later. My question is why if they and their car vanished at the same time did LE not check the bodies of water which would lie between where they were coming from and their destination. Not all bodies of water would be deep enough to conceal a vehicle and others would possibly have been too deep for divers to explore.

@violagentsch 4 days ago (edited)

Put wooden or metal fence posts with reflectors every, say 50 feet around the edges of ponds.
Wondering how many children died in these ponds. 🤔

@danpatterson8009 7 days ago

I would have asked what gear the car was in, was the airbag deployed, and was the driver's seatbelt buckled? Most likely drunk, fell asleep at the wheel, car plunged into the pond, and if the driver regained consciousness he could not get out of the car before drowning.

@ErnestRobinson-v1f 6 days ago

Sad but way too long, too much repetition of geographic details that only needed one description and illustration. Please make the episodes less boring.