How Google Earth contributed to solving US cold case

William Moldt went missing in 1997.
William Moldt went missing in 1997. Photo credit: Google and National Missing and Unidentified Persons System

Google Earth has helped authorities make a major breakthrough in the US - finding the remains of a man missing for 22 years.

William Moldt, a mortgage broker, went missing in Florida in November 1997, The Washington Post reports.

But when someone took a closer look at a Google Earth satellite photo late last month, it revealed a vehicle submerged in a pond in the Florida town of Wellington.

The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office said in a statement that inside the vehicle, were Moldt's remains, The Post reports.

A missing person's database Charley Project says on its website the vehicle was noticed by a property surveyor while looking at Google Earth.

It is still unclear how the vehicle came to be in the pond, The Post reports.

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