Case closed.
A longstanding lacking individuals case on Lengthy Island has been solved, after stays discovered from a automobile pulled from Suffolk County waters have been positively recognized as a 62-year-old man who vanished in 2010.
Robert Lengthy, of Miller Place, was reported lacking on Dec. 22, 2010. His case had stalled till now.
On June 30, divers with two impartial underwater investigative organizations — Exploring with a Mission, and Adventures with Goal — went into the water in Mt. Sinai after sonar gadgets detected a automobile.
There, they discovered a PT Cruiser, submerged beneath about 17 toes of water close to a Cedar Seaside boat ramp.
One of many divers stated he made one other stunning discover.
“I reached in and grabbed a handful of bones, and brought one up to the surface,” stated the person often known as ‘Diver Dan.’
The crew he was with then known as 911, bringing county police divers to the scene. The trouble continued into the following day, when a crane pulled the automobile from the water.
“Diver Dan” and the remainder of the crew had come to Mt. Sinai on a hunch, hoping to resolve Lengthy’s case. He had final been seen in his automobile simply three miles from the boat ramp.
“He’s sitting right there. How could nobody find it? You’d think with people fishing there and everything, something would have, it’s amazing,” Gerard Matlock stated.
Matlock and his spouse, Christine, joined different onlookers in praising the crew who breathed life into the lacking individuals case. The aim of Exploring with a Mission is to resolve circumstances which have principally been forgotten, circumstances just like Lengthy’s.
“What we want to do is bring answers and give hope, to show that someone still cares,” stated Invoice McIntosh, who was working the sonar that first picked up the form of the submerged automobile.
The outline of the automobile matched police data, and there have been some objects discovered inside that have been additionally a match to Lengthy, in keeping with Suffolk County Det. Lt. Kevin Beyrer.
Whereas it wasn’t clear how precisely the automobile ended up within the water, police stated the case didn’t seem prison in nature. Lengthy’s household hasn’t commented publicly on the invention of the stays.