Family May Finally Solve Decades-Old Mystery After Skeletal Remains Are Found In Their Basement
LAKE GROVE, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) - A family's discovery could solve a decades-old mystery. Skeletal remains were found in their basement, and some believe it might be a missing relative.
For decades, the family mystery went unsolved: A father went missing without a trace. Now, his grown children may have found the answer. When digging in their basement on Wednesday, they found human remains.
Michael Carroll believes the bones they found are those of his father, who disappeared 57 years ago.
"If it isn't him, I'd be surprised," Carroll told CBS2.
The discovery was made just before Halloween, of all days, when the family found human remains five feet under concrete in the basement.
Michael Carroll told Gusoff he was a baby when his father, George Carroll - a Korean war veteran - disappeared.
Since then, there have been hunches and what he calls "funky stuff" like seeing ghosts in the house. He recently hired a ground-penetrating radar expert to check for disturbances under the house.
Sure enough, family members began digging where the expert flagged, and found bones.
He is waiting for DNA confirmation but says he hopes for answers he has sought his entire life.
"In my mind, I always felt like I was gonna find that. I'm glad that this is over, and I'm glad that I don't have to break up my house anymore," Michael Carroll said. "I feel great that my dad is free from that crappy hole. He's, I said to everybody, this is a Korean War hero who deserves to be acknowledged for his great – for doing what he's done. He was the father of four children, OK? It's crazy. So if that's the case and that's what's going on here, I'm glad that we gave him his day."
If it is his father, then comes the other half of the mystery: Who killed him?
Michael told Gusoff he does not want to speculate, but hints at marital strife in his parents breakup.
His mother Dorothy died 20 years ago.
Michael Carroll's brother Steven told Gusoff for years the children felt their father had simply abandoned them, and now they know he was with them all along.
