Man used Google Earth to find his old neighbourhood and found missing dead body instead

From the moment Google Earth went live in 2005, pretty much every single person who has ever been on the internet has used it to search up their own home.

Bit of a strange species us humans, aren't we?

Most people get a glimpse at how the previous owners had their property, or what the new occupants have done with their old place - but one man got a lot more than he bargained for when browsing his former neighbourhood on Google Earth.

William Moldt had been reported missing from Lantana, Florida, in November 1997 after he never returned from a night of clubbing - leaving his family devastated.

The girlfriend of the 40-year-old, who 'did not appear intoxicated' when he left the venue, was expecting him home and he had last contacted her at around 9.30pm on that fateful evening to inform her that he would be arriving soon.

Little did she know, it was the last time she would ever speak to William.

An investigation into the US man's disappearance was launched, however, the trail soon went cold as detectives had little leads to work with.

More than two decades had gone by before the case was blown wide open by a bloke looking at his old neighbourhood.

William Moldt was missing for 22 years before the chilling discovery was made (National Missing and Unidentified Persons System)

The man had been taking a look on Google Earth when he noticed something seemed amiss with the satellite imagery he was peering at.

After zooming in on the lake situated close to his previous home, he noticed what looked like a car.

He then informed a resident in the area who then used a drone to confirm his suspicions.

All these years, a white car had been submerged in the water behind a row of houses in Moon Bay Circle, Wellington - which contained the body of William.

After alerting authorities, police arrived on 28 August, 2019, to investigate the strange discovery, before they hauled the 'heavily calcified' white sedan out of the lake and found the missing man's skeletal remains inside.

A week later, it was confirmed that the remains belonged to William.

The man who found the car told local media at the time: "Never did I believe there would be a 22-year-old dead body."

A man looking at his old home on Google Earth noticed the submerged car more than two decades later (Google Earth)

A report by the Charley Project, an online database of cold cases in the US, said 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’.

The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office shared their theories about what had happened to William in 2019 with the BBC, saying that the most likely explanation was that he had lost control of his car and driven into the lake.

Despite this, they said the investigation into his disappearance yielded 'no evidence of that occurring' until recently, when a 'shift in the water made the car visible'.

Police spokeswoman Therese Barbera said it was still difficult to determine exactly what had happened to William, even now.

"You can't determine what happened that many years ago, what transpired," she added.

"All we know is that he went missing off the face of the Earth, and now he's been discovered."

Topics: US News, News, Google Earth, Google, Technology, Cars

Olivia Burke

Olivia is a journalist at LADbible Group with more than five years of experience and has worked for a number of top publishers, including News UK. She also enjoys writing food reviews (as well as the eating part). She is a stereotypical reality TV addict, but still finds time for a serious documentary.

@livburke_