Bodies in the Pond

Hi, I'm Holly and I'm Haley. Welcome to Mountain Mysteries Tales from Appalachia. All right, we are recording. Guess what y'all?

We're back. We're back. We're back. And we're on Zoom again.

Why this time? Not because of typhoid. Haley, no. The weather.

The weather. Yeah. You know, we wanted to make it happen for you this week. Yeah.

But the weather just was not cooperating with us. So you know what? We decided you probably can't hear Holly this week. But we're going to try.

We're going to try. Yes. I see road conditions are not good to drive on. No.

No. We want Haley to be safe. Yeah. Because it's a there's still and we're still dealing with like hurricane traffic.

Yes. Yes. We're wild because like a lot of our roads are still closed in this area, which like I know it's been several months. Yeah.

But don't forget about us. We're still still recovering. We're still in me. I was like somebody the other day was telling me one of the like emergency management people was saying that it will be probably I can't even say five or ten years before we're back to like what would be considered normal?

I've never been normal. So I mean, it could take decades. Yeah. Honestly, you know, I'm not surprised to hear that.

I mean, when you've got that much destruction and actually they just recently DHS just recently released the names of the 104 people who perished. They didn't release like ages or where they were or where they're from, but they just released the names of 104 people. Yeah. And that's not including, you know, while we identify people exactly.

So I mean, I just feel like some areas that they haven't cleared yet. Yeah. And there's so many missing. Yeah.

So it's wild. I mean, you're just like finding, you know, decomposed, you know, remains, which is sad. So sad, especially for these families. It's just devastating.

Yeah. Well, I want to give a quick shout out before we get started to Crystal. Hey, Crystal, what's up, girl? So I met Crystal in the parking lot of the Best Buy and bought a coach purse off of her.

I know her. I mean, I know her. She's not just a random stranger who's like, hey, lady over here. Like, did you have a white van that said coach versus for sale?

And you like, I think it's in her coach. She just opened up the code and like, there was also jewelry in there, lots of options. And I was like, you know what, that coach back, what's good. I actually know she was selling it on Facebook Marketplace.

And I was like, that's a good deal. Let's do that. So anyway, yeah. So, but I wanted to say that she's a big fan of the podcast and she was telling me that she listens, you know, what she's like to endishes and like cleaning and she said that sometimes she'll even listen when she's in the shower and her daughter, who's a teenager, will say, are you listening to that podcast again?

So yes, huge shout out, Crystal. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you continue listening. We appreciate you.

And I really love the purse. So thank you. Nice. All right.

Hey, are you ready to get into it? I'm very ready. All right. Let's do it.

Today, we're headed to Georgia. We are going to Brunswick, Georgia in late November, 2024. Oh, wow. Yes.

So yeah. So our story opens at a pond that sits directly across from an aging motel, formerly the Holiday Inn, now known as the Royal Inn. I mean, you can change the name, but it's still a holiday. Change the name.

But as long as you keep the continental breakfast. Like, there's nothing wrong with the Holiday Inn. No, I enjoy the holiday. Even express.

Yeah. Holiday Express is not bad either. You know, but I don't really know about a royal Inn. I mean, I feel like that loses some of its, you know, gravitas.

Yeah. I don't know. It sounds fancy, but it also sounds like maybe that's where crack addicts, we don't know. We don't know.

Okay. So it was at the hotel when it was a Holiday Inn, in April of 1980, that a wealthy retired oil executive and his wife checked in to room 149. Their names were Charles and Catherine Roemer and they hailed from Scarsdale, New York. They were, yeah, they were 73 and 74 years old respectively and were driving through Georgia on their way home to New York.

They had been staying in Miami at their winter home and were ready to go back up north as the temperatures began to warm up. They're one of those snowbirds. Snowbirds. Yeah.

I was like, I'm a favorite in Florida. Yeah. Ding ding ding ding ding. You are right.

Yep. So they were driving a black 1979 Lincoln Continental and I will say like that day these were some fancy cars. In fact, Charles and Catherine had their initials etched into the headrest on the driver and passenger seat. Okay.

Imagine. No, and I'm already suspicious. Oh, tell me why. You've got that much money and you're staying at the Holiday Inn.

Thank you. Okay. Thank you. That was the exact same thing I was thinking about because I like the place.

Well, okay. So I'm thinking like in the early 80s was like the Holiday Inn fancy. I mean like I only asked because like couldn't they get like classier digs. Like it seems like an executive would be like a Hilton, maybe Radison.

Like that's what I'm thinking. Like I can afford the Holiday Inn. No. Just because it doesn't mean they would let you in.

That's true. I'm more of a super eight gal. Well, I was going to say that I said, you know, we're kind of ones to talk because we could only gain access to a super eight on a Wednesday at four p.m. Yeah, or motel breaks.

Yes, or maybe the Royal Inn. Maybe a good roadside motel on there for it. I agree. I agree.

I agree. I have a story. Oh heck yeah. There's always some kind of random murder and a, you know, roadside motel.

And I mean think about the psycho. That was a road. That's where you know, that's where the craziness happens. Like that's where you got to be.

Absolutely. I would recommend if you never stayed in roadside motel, I recommend it. Do a 10 and 10 for sure. If you're looking to get murdered or bike rack, I mean, there you go.

That's one recently, not recently, many months ago. I thought it was the comfort and you were comforted. That one was fine. Then we stayed at some other random roadside motel I never heard of.

It was actually very nice. I would probably stay there again. But it was mostly fishermen that stayed there. So when we got up the next morning, there was nobody in the parking lot.

It's just our car. Because I got the gone fishing. Gone fishing. Well, we rolled in and it was like our car and then like 50 boats better.

I think then, you know, maybe like some trucks tractor trailers or things that could potentially be kind of, you know, scary. I don't know. I mean, they're still could have been doing drugs, but they had a boat. And that's really smart to do drugs and then go out on the water.

That's really smart. Might as well. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay. Anyway, okay. So I'm just getting here, but I was thinking probably the reason they were staying at the Holiday Inn is because they were just driving groups.

So they probably maybe, I don't know what time of day it was, but essentially like, they probably just wanted like, have a place to stay for that night and then drive home. You know, that makes sense. I'm just rationalizing, you know, or maybe we're just cheap. We was like, I'm spending all this money at a Hilton.

We can stay at the office then. I don't know. So I will say that Charles had been an executive for Sinclair Oil, a job which afforded him a very lack of lifestyle. His wife, Capron, was known to wear thousands of dollars in jewelry and they spared no expense enjoying their retirement.

Well, except for the Holiday Inn. That's where the draw line. Yeah, still where it's weird. It's still weird.

It's kind of strange. Yeah, that is off-od. That is on. Anyway, the couple checks in and goes to their room and unpacks half of their suitcase.

They turn the bed down, take out a bottle of scotch with two glasses and obviously with the intention of joining very quiet evening together. Yeah. Listen, even old people want to get their groove on. I don't judge.

I mean, STDs are rampant in nursing homes. That is true. That is true. I may figure by the time I'm in the nursing home, I'll probably just pass me around, whatever.

Might as well. Might as well. I'll probably have Alzheimer's. Oh, that feels borderline like non-consensual.

Oh, that's true. That's true. Okay. Maybe I have my mind and I'm just giving it to everybody because I just want a good time.

I mean, that's fair. That's essential and that's good. Yes. That's good.

Yes. I have all your faculties about you. So make that decision. And my loins of fire.

There you go. Probably more because of the SDDs, but you know, yeah, there's there's cream. First cream. Yeah.

Anyway, so the next day checkout time came and went without the rumors leaving the hotel. In fact, no one had seen them since they had checked in the day before. So hotel staff, which the room had knocked, but after getting no answer several times, they unlocked the door. The rumors were nowhere to be found that their suitcase, clothing, scotch, and glasses were also in the room untouched.

So they hadn't actually slept in the bed. Feeling very, yeah. So feeling very uneasy, a hotel clerk called the police. The police noticed that the rumors 1979 Lincoln was missing from the parking lot.

And what the things they were thinking was maybe the couple had been kidnapped. So back in this time period, chit-nav beans were not uncommon, particularly those for ransom of rich individuals. I mean, there was a whole patty first in 1974. This was the wealthy socialite who was kidnapped and held for ransom and her dad had some political ties.

So the folks who kidnapped her wanted like political influence, it's very, it kind of convoluted if you ever look into that case, but it was common back then, like these things happened. So she'd also be noted here that Mrs. Roemer, as I mentioned, was wearing a lot of jewelry. In fact, $81,000 worth of jewelry.

And she's at the holiday end. In a while, they have $81 of jewelry. Like what? At the holiday end, that's right.

Yeah. That's fishy. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, it is strange.

It is strange though that I would be at a Hilton with $81 worth of jewelry. Yeah. So, but I guess I have no worries about my Wednesday afternoon at the Super 8. If I've, no one will rob me.

No. No, I'm good. I'm good. You're among friends there.

Oh, it's so sweet. We can go to the Super 8 together. Okay. I mean, why not?

We can share a room, but we have our own separate beds because you're a thrasher. Yeah. Well, you know, why I think Super 8, I think like, are they hourly rates? That's super great.

That's what you were getting at. I would, you know, as much as I love you, I love you like a sister. So sorry about that. But, you know what, though, we can have, if we, let's say we were earnings and extra money or, you know what, you were earnings and extra money.

It would be fine. I would say, here's the Super 8, the key. I got the card, the room for you. You can go ahead and do your business and, you know, I have sex worker now.

Where am I setting up to like do their taxes? In taxes, but I like where your head's at. I bet he's, that's. He was rolling, he pays for his hourly rolls in.

I'm sitting there like business casual with my laptop and documents playing out like, okay. Did you bring your W2s? They're little glasses. Yeah.

This is really not really, this is not what I paid for. We like, that is not a deduction. And he was like, um, at the kiosk, I wrote missionary, not accountant. I was like, it's a missionary work.

We can no longer write that off as a tax exemption. Let's image in my head. And it's unpleasant. Don't take a black line in Super 8.

That's all I'm saying. Obviously any motel, I don't think I would take a black light. Even, even your Hilton, people still do nasty things in the Hill. Yeah, I don't.

No, no. Yeah. Maybe don't touch anything. Don't sit anywhere.

You know, okay. So, uh, the police were notified, the police notified the family of the missing couple and investigation ensued. So, there were never any clear giveaways on like, what happened? Who done it?

Where are they? You know, there were people who were of course calling in and making claims as people do, but nothing ever really panned out. Like they didn't really have any true leads. So that was 1980.

That brings us to November of 2024, when a local pan with sonar technology, I mean, who doesn't have that? My sonar is just sitting over there, you know, at the Super 8, waiting to be used. Yep. It's just waiting.

But he reads about this case on Facebook and he reads that they were last seen at this hotel, this holiday in. So he goes in search of like, where this hotel is, because you know, obviously in 1980, it was a holiday in, but it's not known for that anymore. So he actually called the city and was able to like determine where it was and to the Royal and so he went and he noticed that there was a pond near the hotel where they were last seen. And so he gets there and he realizes not only is there a pond in front of the hotel, but kind of on the side and back as well.

So there's essentially two ponds and something tells him and he doesn't know kind of where this comes from, but something tells him that he needs to use his sonar technology and search these ponds. So, um, he does and he thinks that he sees something, but he's not really so he calls in a friend who also has similar technology like he'd be like a, you know, a second person to come in and take a look. So the menus, their technology, they drop it down into the water and essentially it uses heat and cameras to identify like people items, trees that. So the sonar is essentially on this like small orange boat that moves atop the water.

And again, they see something they're not sure they're like, is that a tree that might be a tree? It's kind of large. So, they kind of surmised that it probably is a tree. They send like a drone underwater and they're like, yeah, we think of the trees.

So they decide, you know what, we're going to go to the other pond and just take a look just so we know like we're not crazy here. So they go to the other pond and they are like, wait a minute, they send it in and they're like, we think we see something. Like, it kind of looks metal like it could be a car. Oh my gosh, but this feels bigger than us, you know.

So, they reach out to this team called the Sunshine State Sonar Team. So this is essentially a law enforcement team that has worked many cases and has actually discovered cars and walk. They've like even answers to reading families who are like, what happened to my loved ones? Like, and really they started out is just like cleaning up ponds and, you know, water around areas.

Yeah, and it kind of turned into this. It is pretty cool. Yeah. So this team came out and they used their technology and they discovered a car.

This car was a white Ford later to be determined to be a 1970 Ford Torino. So not the car that they were looking for. Right. But nonetheless, that's random.

Okay. So the team continued, you know, they pulled that car and the team continued to sort of look around and search the rest of the pond while they were there and they found another car. Two cars? Yeah.

So they send in divers because the water on that end of the pond was so murky that like they could tell that it was metal that appeared to be a car but they weren't 100% so they send in divers. And again, like it was really hard to see, even the divers had a hard time seeing. So they kind of use their sense of touch to sort of lead them to this big metal object. Once they get there, they are able to see, yes, it is a car.

Okay. And they see that there's a window open on the car. So they see that there's these etched initials in the headrest from the window. The car.

So they feel in and they feel some hard objects. So one of the divers, he decided, okay, I'm going to just pull out the largest object, whatever it is. So he brings it above the water. It was a human femur bone.

Whoa. Yeah. Yeah. The object.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. So the car was essentially excavated from the pond and inside they found additional skeletal remains along with thousands of dollars worth of jewelry and a belt with Mr. Romer's initials.

Oh, wow. Yeah. So the coroner has identified the bodies in the Lincoln as Mr. And Mrs.

Romer. And the Romer's granddaughter, who was 15 years old at the time of her grandparents disappearance, like spoke to the media, she commented that, you know, they believe that it wasn't a robbery, but probably just an accident. You know, perhaps it was late. Maybe they couldn't seem really well.

You know, they weren't familiar with the area and maybe ended up getting into the water and weren't able to escape. Maybe the down windows like they tried to get out and just couldn't. So I mean, it seems plausible since the jewelry was found in the car, like nothing really was stolen from them. So like maybe they went out to have a nice dinner plan to come back and then this happened.

I mean, I can attest when you get older, your eyes just aren't as sharp as I have to make my screen really big to read. So, you know, we got to remember it was probably really dark and Mr. Romer was 73 years old. So, you know, kind of those things combined, maybe they'd had a drink like I don't know assume things, but you just never know.

So, their grandchildren who are now in their late 50s and early 60s are the only remaining family members. The Romer's own children have since passed away. So, their granddaughter recounted how her father, Charles Jr., would travel yearly to Georgia to talk with locals, check in with the police, find out if they're hidden any updates. She stated that he died, never knowing what happened to his parents.

So, hopefully now he can truly rest in peace. The Romer's granddaughter, like I said, she's 59 years old. She shared fond memories of her grandparents, including vacations to Florida and talked about how generous they were and how they loved to travel, how they loved to take their grandchildren with them on adventures. So, anyway, yeah, so that's kind of the sad ending.

We don't, again, exactly know cause of death. I don't know if that's going to be released, but it seems likely that it was just a horrible accident. So, like the Friday night they never searched the ponds. So, it seems like they sort of did a general search, but they didn't see anything.

And again, you know, technology in 1980 wasn't like it is now it's. So, it was like, we did sort of general search, and I will say that the car was found on the very light towards like the deep edge of the pond, and I don't know if it had flown over there or time or it just landed there and they just didn't see it. I don't know. So, this has to be like a deep pond.

Very deep, very deep pond. Yes, interesting. Yes. Yeah.

So, I do want to give a quick shout out to my friend, Bernat Meghan, who sent me this story. She was like, this would be really interesting. You should do this one. And so, thank you.

I really appreciate it. It's a good friend at Meghan. Yeah. So, that's all I got.

Well, that was a good one. Party at the Super 8 with the accountant for you W2s, and let's get it on. Yeah. Your tax on.

It is about time to do our taxes. Oh, God, don't remind me. Mine are actually pretty easy. Yeah.

I mean, not a relatively easy. Yeah. Are you scratching your head with a ruler? That's weird.

Okay. I just, I wish she's got a ruler. Maybe she's not going to be an accountant. She's going to be an naughty teacher.

Well, it's like work with too many teachers. No, I just can't even imagine that. No, no, that wasn't on the kiosk. I mean, I am dating a teacher.

Accurate. Yeah. So, that's what you picked on the kiosk. I guess so.

Well, we're modern day ladies. So, we're going to add some technology here. Yeah. Oh, you got sonar.

We got a kiosk for our Super 8 Avengers. We sure do. Well, can they get a hold of it? They can do that via email at mountain mysteries.applelatchin.gmail.com.

Find us on our Facebook. Mount Mysteries. Tales from Appalachia and by our Instagram, Mount Mysteries dot Appalachia. Check us out on Patreon.

Just patreon.com slash mountain mysteries. I can say just patreon.com. Yeah. So, you know what?

I'm going to take the cop out. I'm going to say runs with Georgia. Nice. Yeah.

Yeah. So, yeah. Thank you all so much. I hope that you were able to like hear me.

Okay. I know the sound is kind of weird when we do it this way, but we hopefully will be back in our regular podcasting space together soon. So, yeah. Stay warm, stay well, and we'll talk to you soon.

Bye. Bye.