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A wealthy New York couple vanished without a trace in Georgia 44 years ago, but it appears it took a pair of volunteer divers just seven minutes to discover what are likely their car and remains submerged in a murky pond near a hotel they had been staying in.
Retired oil executive Charles Romer, 73, and his wife Catherine, 75, disappeared with their 1978 Lincoln in the spring of 1980. The Scarsdale, New York, couple were returning home from Miami Beach, Florida, and checked into a Holiday Inn in Brunswick.
Hotel employees were concerned that their bed had not been slept in and reported them missing. Fears were raised that the couple, known to carry expensive jewelry, had been victims of foul play and robbed.
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Charles and Catherine Romer are seen in the top right along with photos of their purported car and divers extracting pieces.
The hotel is situated next to a pond which, diver Mike Sullivan tells Fox News Digital, had been searched many times before, but terrible visibility had hitherto prevented searchers from making a breakthrough.
But the cold case suddenly heated up on Friday when Sullivan and his brother, John Martin, searched the pond in their tiny 6-foot-long boat and their specialized sonar equipment pinged a vehicle at the bottom of the pond.
Sullivan says he quickly dived to the bottom of the lake and pulled the nose from a 1978 Lincoln. He says human remains and a spate of jewelry were also found in the car.
“We got to the pond at about 10 a.m. in the morning and we found the car by 10:07 a.m., seven minutes later,” Sullivan says.
The pair, who operate Sunshine State Sonar, a Florida-based volunteer search and rescue organization, then called the police, who arrived on the scene.
The submerged Lincoln as the pond is drained. (Sunshine State Sonar)
The Glynn County Police Department and the Camden County Dive Team then tried to pull the Lincoln from the water and in doing so, spun the car around and ripped the axle off the car, video provided by Sullivan shows.
He says police then drained the pond to reveal the badly deteriorated car, which he says they eventually removed.
“The vehicle is similar to the description of a vehicle that Charles and Catherine Romer were believed to be driving when reported missing in April, 1980,” Glynn County Police Department said in a statement. “At this time there is no conclusion about the identity of the remains that were found.”
Police did not say what happened to the car or the people found inside.
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The back seat of the car they discovered had the initials “C.R.R” embroidered, left, and an axle with a wheel, right. (Sunshine State Sonar)
Sullivan is convinced the remains are those of the couple and believes that they may have inadvertently reversed into the pond while trying to park and drowned in a tragic accident.
Sullivan says that the couple’s Lincoln was custom-made and the back seat of the car they discovered had their initials “C.R.R” embroidered.
The Romer’s checked into the Holiday Inn along Interstate 95 and U.S. 341 just before 4 p.m. on April 8, 1980, and took their belongings to their room. At around 5 p.m., a Georgia Highway Patrol officer saw the couple’s car south of Brunswick near some restaurants and neither the Romer’s nor their car was seen again.
“It looks as if they were parking at the diner and he accidentally stepped on the gas pedal when he was parking and they backed into the lake,” Sullivan says. “He must have had the car in reverse, and he stepped on the gas because the headlights are facing the shore. He backed into the lake accidentally.”
Sullivan says police found diamonds worth tens of thousands of dollars wrapped in the carpet of the trunk.
“We also found a diamond ring, necklace, a gold purse, a gold diamond purse. We also found stuff with their initials on it and stuff,” he says.
The closeness of the pond to the hotel and the length of time it has taken to make a breakthrough in the case has raised questions as to why a discovery was not made earlier.
“The pond has been checked many, many times throughout the years because it was literally a hundred yards from their hotel room. The problem is the sonar technology was not available back in 1980,” Sullivan says.
“Divers would go in the pond and swim around and feel for the car but with zero visibility it is very difficult to find a car doing that. Sometimes you get lucky, it’s very difficult. But they tried, you know, they probably came within feet of the car but just didn’t find it.”
Sullivan says they were initially called to the scene about a tip about a Ford sedan which had reportedly gone into the water. He says no bodies were found near that vehicle.
He says that the work of Sunshine State Sonar is done for free.
“Nobody hires us. We work with law enforcement agencies on cold cases and we take these cases on for free, pro bono,” Sullivan says. “We specialize in underwater sonar and we are also a dive team.”
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Divers in the water at the scene. (Sunshine State Sonar)
“We have a database of all cases of people missing with their vehicles. These are specific types of missing persons cases where the victim’s vehicle has never been recovered. And so what we do is we go to the area of their last known whereabouts and we search all the water where these people were last known to be.”
“And the reason we were at that pond is because that is the pond in front of the hotel that they were staying at.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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A Harvard University dean has been removed after a student-run news outlet exposed social media posts slamming Whiteness, police and advocating for looting and rioting.
Gregory Davis, the former Dunster House Allston Burr resident dean, found himself in the hot seat after a Harvard student-run news outlet called Yard Report resurfaced the problematic posts. Davis was on leave last semester for reasons unrelated to the controversy.
While Harvard did not confirm that Davis was removed for the inflammatory posts, Fox News Digital obtained the text from an email sent by the faculty deans of Dunster House confirming Davis’ removal.
“We are writing to confirm that Gregory Davis is no longer serving as the Allston Burr Resident Dean of Dunster House, effective today,” the email said. “We thank Gregory for serving in this role and wish him and his family the best in their future endeavors.”
Dunster House along the Charles River on the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Tuesday, May 27, 2025. (Sophie Park/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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The email message also announced that Emilie Raymer, who served as interim dean during Davis’ absence, would take over the role full time.
“We look forward to seeing everyone again in the coming weeks,” the email said. “As always, we welcome hearing from you on any issues affecting the Dunster community.”
The posts in question were made between 2019 and 2024, mostly on X but also on Instagram. Davis became the dean of the dormitory in 2024.
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“It’s almost like Whiteness is a self-destructive ideology that annihilates everyone around it. By design,” he said on X in 2019.
During 2020, when tensions between police and left-wing rioters reached a fever pitch after George Floyd was killed, Davis slammed police.
An AutoZone store burns as protesters gather outside of the Third Precinct in Minneapolis on Thursday, May 28, 2020, in the days after George Floyd’s death. (Mark Vancleave/Star Tribune via AP)
“You should ask your cop friends to resign since they’re racist and evil,” he said on X at the time.
As rioters and looters wreaked havoc in major metropolitan areas nationwide, Davis defended the chaos.
“Something to keep in mind: rioting and looting are parts of democracy just like voting and marching,” he said on X. “The people WILL be heard.”
In the same year, around the time President Donald Trump tested positive for COVID-19, Davis said on X that he didn’t blame people who wished Trump ill. He followed that post with a second, captioned “But also, f— that guy,” attaching a meme that said “If he dies, he dies.”
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Just before Davis accepted his role as dean of the Dunster House in 2024, he made a post about Pride Month on Instagram.
“Wishing everyone a great Pride. Remember to love each other and hate the police,” the post said.
When confronted with the posts, Davis wrote to Dunster House residents in an email about the scandal, which was obtained by Fox News Digital.
Demonstrators gather on Cambridge Common to protest Harvard’s stance on the war in Gaza and show support for the Palestinian people, outside Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, April 25, 2025. (JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)
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“Recently, some media organizations have inquired regarding comments that I made on my personal social media accounts prior to my start in the Resident Dean role,” he wrote. “These posts do not reflect my current thinking or beliefs. I deeply appreciate the responsibility inherent in the Resident Dean role and I value the trust that individuals have placed in me. I regret if my statements have any negative impact on the Dunster community.”
“Since becoming the Allston Burr Resident Dean, I have worked hard to ensure that Dunster House is a welcoming, warm and supportive space for all of its members,” the message continued. “That continues to be the guiding force of my work today. As events outside of Harvard have affected our House and me personally, my commitment to each of you, our students, has not wavered. In my role, I have enjoyed the opportunity to work collaboratively with members of HUPD and other colleagues across campus. I respect the work they do to support our community.”
Davis did not return a request for comment.
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new video loaded: Hochul and Mamdani Announce Plan for Universal Child Care
transcript
transcript
“Today, we’re working together with the mayor at this incredible place to announce the first major steps to make child care universal — truly universal — here in New York City, transforming the lives of children and parents all across the state.” “We will build on the city’s existing three-K program, and say, no longer will a family in Flatbush be offered a seat, but have to find out that seat is in Astoria. We will add seats in the neighborhoods where demand has not been met. This will be felt by expanded subsidies for tens of thousands of additional families. It will be felt when parents look at their bank accounts at the end of the year, and see that they have saved more than $20,000 per child.” “And today, I’m proud to announce that New York State is paying the full cost to launch 2-care. For the first time — universal daycare for 2-year-olds, as proposed by Mayor Mamdani. We’re not just paying for one year of the program. We don’t usually go one year out in our budget, but just to let you know how serious we are, we’re taking the unprecedented step to not just commit for the 2027 budget, which I’m working on right now, but also the following year as well to show you we’re in this for the long haul.”
By Meg Felling
January 8, 2026
Local News
A Boston nightclub where a woman collapsed on the dance floor and died last month will have its entertainment license reinstated after the Boston Licensing Board found no violations Thursday.
Anastaiya Colon, 27, was at ICON, a nightclub in Boston’s Theater District, in the early hours of Dec. 21 when she suffered a fatal medical episode. Following the incident, her loved ones insisted that the club’s staff did not respond professionally and failed to control crowds.
City regulators suspended ICON’s entertainment license pending an assessment of any potential violations. During a hearing Tuesday, they heard from attorneys representing the club and people who were with Colon the night she died.
As EMTs attempted to respond, crowds inside the club failed to comply with demands to give them space, prompting police to shut down the club, according to a police report of the incident. However, the club and its representatives were adamant that staff handled their response and crowd control efforts properly.
Kevin Montgomery, the club’s head of security, testified that the crowd did not impede police or EMTs and that he waited to evacuate the club because doing so would have created a bottleneck at the entrance. Additionally, a bouncer and a bartender both testified that they interacted with Colon, who ordered one drink before collapsing, and did not see any signs of intoxication.
Angelica Morales, Colon’s sister, submitted a video taken on her phone to the board for them to review. Morales testified Tuesday that the video disproves some of the board’s claims and shows that ICON did not immediately respond to the emergency.
“I ran to the DJ booth, literally bombarded everybody that was in my way to get to the DJ booth, told them to cut the music off,” Morales said. “On my way back, the music was cut off for a minute or two, maybe less, and they cut the music back on.”
Shanice Monteiro, a friend who was with Colon and Morales, said she went outside to flag down police officers. She testified that their response, along with the crowd’s, was inadequate.
“I struggled to get outside,” Monteiro said. “Once I got outside, everybody was still partying, there was no type of urgency. Nobody stopped.”
These factors, along with video evidence provided by ICON, did not substantiate any violations on the club’s part, prompting the licensing board to reinstate their entertainment license at a subsequent hearing Thursday.
“Based on the evidence presented at the hearing from the licensed premise and the spoken testimony and video evidence shared with us from Ms. Colon’s family, I’m not able to find a violation in this case,” Kathleen Joyce, the board’s chairwoman, said at the hearing.
However, Joyce further stated that she “was not able to resolve certain questions” about exactly when or why the club turned off the music or turned on the lights. As a result, the board will require ICON to submit an emergency management plan to prevent future incidents and put organized safety measures in place.
“This plan should outline detailed operational procedures in the event of a medical or any other emergency, including protocols for police and ambulance notification, crowd control and dispersal, and procedures regarding lighting and music during an emergency response,” Joyce said.
Though the club will reopen without facing any violations, Joyce noted that there were “lessons left to be learned” from the incident.
“This tragedy has shaken the public confidence in nightlife in this area, and restoring that confidence is a shared obligation,” she said. “People should feel safe going out at night. They should feel safe going to a club in this area, and they should feel safe getting home.”
Keeana Saxon, one of three commissioners on the licensing board, further emphasized the distinction Joyce made between entertainment-related matters and those that pertained to licensing. Essentially, the deciding factor in the board’s decision was the separation of the club’s response from any accountability they may have had by serving Colon liquor.
“I hope that the family does understand that there are separate procedures for both the entertainment and the licensing, just to make sure that on the licensing side, that we understand that she was only served one drink and that it was absolutely unforeseeable for that one drink to then lead to some kind of emergency such as this one,” Saxon said.
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