MT. SINAI, N.Y. (1010 WINS) -- A dive team that travels the world looking for missing people believes they’ve found the submerged car and remains of a Long Island man who vanished nearly 15 years ago.
After removing the vehicle from the waters off a Suffolk County beach on Tuesday, police confirmed human remains were found inside and said they're working to identify them.
The volunteers—Dan “Diver Down Under” Pritchard, of Australia, and dive partner Bill McIntosh, of Rhode Island—came to the island in search of Robert Long, of Miller Place, who went missing in December 2010 at the age of 62 while on a run to a local liquor store.
The pair used kayaks equipped with special sonar to look underwater off Cedar Beach in Mt. Sinai.
They believe they found Long’s vehicle—a Chrysler PT Cruiser—as well as skeletal remains.
“It’s obviously a great relief when you identify the vehicle that you’re looking for,” Pritchard said. “It is satisfying to know that we can give—hard as the answers are—to the family.”
McIntosh said they had four locations to check and that Cedar Beach was the first on the list.
Suffolk County police Det. Lt. Kevin Beyer said the volunteer divers called 911 on Monday after finding a bone in the car and bring it to the surface. That prompted the police response at the beach late Monday and again Tuesday morning.
"We started this morning with the marine bureau divers going into the water at low tide," Beyer said. "They examined the interior of the vehicle and tried to recover whatever they could from within the vehicle. Items were recovered. Those items were taken to the medical examiner's office for further examination."
Beyer confirmed human remains were found in the vehicle, but he said no definitive positive identification has been made yet. The medical examiner will determine the cause of death.
On Tuesday morning, detectives notified Long's wife that his car may have been discovered. She was at the scene when police dive crews began removing items from the submerged vehicle.
The vehicle itself was removed Tuesday afternoon and appeared to be a muddy, light-colored PT Cruiser.
A resident said she remembered detectives searching the beach for Long 15 years ago, as well as his wife handing out missing flyers.
"Very weird," she said. "Especially since they did search here."