Identified! FL- Sawgrass Mills shopping center, human remains found in white ‘83 Oldsmobile, submerged in 24ft deep retention pond, 6 Jan. 2024 - Kareem D Tisdale

[MrsWatson]

Maureen Therese Sherman – The Charley Project

​

Sherman disappeared from Miami, Florida on May 1, 1985. That day she made threats to drive into a canal and end her life. In January 2024, volunteer divers from the Sunshine State Sonar dive team found her car in a canal with human remains inside.

 

[PayrollNerd]

Article updated to confirm 3 bodies.

Volunteer search group finds 3 bodies in car submerged in South Florida retention pond

Sunshine State Sonar was looking for a missing woman when they came across a car with three bodies in a pond at the Sawgrass Mills Mall.

news.yahoo.com

Sunshine State Sonar said there were three bodies found in the car, which was located in a 24-foot deep retention pond in front of the Sawgrass Mills Mall in the city of Sunshine.

 

[9glenn9]

Noting so as not to confuse with this case with the other submerged car located yesterday..
Jan 8 2023

Father’s family fears Broward divers recovered his body from SUV in canal

Divers recovered a person’s body inside a Toyota sports utility vehicle that was submerged in a canal on Monday in Broward County.

www.local10.com

''TAMARAC, Fla. – Divers recovered a person’s body inside a Toyota sports utility vehicle that was submerged in a canal on Monday in Broward County.
The relatives of Rondell C. Edwards, of Tamarac, rushed to the canal distraught. The 28-year-old father vanished on Saturday in a 2003 Toyota Highlander.''

Authorities confirmed the identity of the body found in the 2003 Toyota Highlander that was recovered on January 8th. RIP Rondell C. Edwards

Deputies confirm body found inside SUV in Tamarac canal was missing man

Authorities have confirmed that the body discovered inside of a car found submerged in a Tamarac canal on Monday was a man who was reported missing over the weekend.

www.google.com

 

[ChatteringBirds]

3 people at once -- so tragic. A family, or three young friends who were out for a drive?

 

[TwoDaysL8r]

These three come to mind. How odd that they were driving the exact same model of car (not the one recovered in FL - their Olds 98 was found and a different year) - but this is the case that immediately clicked with three people missing. ‘Missing Trio’ case remains unsolved 44 years after young girls vanish from Texas mall

 

[MagicCityMan]

The thing with this vehicle though is that despite it being a 1983 model it was last registered in 2005. So it would seem that 2004/2005 would be the timeframe for the disappearance.

 

[Mirabel091]

The thing with this vehicle though is that despite it being a 1983 model it was last registered in 2005. So it would seem that 2004/2005 would be the timeframe for the disappearance.

That's a really good point. If they know when it was last registered would they know who registered it?

 

[MagicCityMan]

That's a really good point. If they know when it was last registered would they know who registered it?

Oh yes, they should be able to figure out who legal owner was. I imagine that would be a quick solve. From there hopefully they can extrapolate out to who are the occupants of the vehicle.

 

[Interested_But_Confused]

At least theoretically this would be an easy one to solve. LE know when the car was last registered, where it was last registered, and presumably to whom.

The only thing that might complicate matters is if the car was stolen, and the three occupants had no connection to the registration details.

 

[JosieMae]

Seems like the entire community would know who the victims are. Even years later, a case of 3 missing people would be memorable.

 

[PayrollNerd]

Seems like the entire community would know who the victims are. Even years later, a case of 3 missing people would be memorable.

That’s what I was thinking. If they were from out of state, say a domestic violence situation, and nobody knew where they went? A parent & 2 kids maybe. It seems newspapers would have had something to publish about 3 missing people, if they were local? Definitely curious to hear the story.

 

[sasha17]

I'm just guessing here, but Yessenia Suarez and her two children went missing in 2013. Her husband was found guilty of murdering all three, but never said where he put their bodies. They were last seen about 3.5 hours north of where this car was found.

FL - FL - Yessenia Suarez, 28, & 2 children, Deltona, 22 Oct 2013 #2 *GUILTY*

Luis Toledo found guilty in murders of wife, her children A jury returned guilty verdicts on all counts on Friday evening, finding that Luis Toledo killed his wife and her two children, and tampered with evidence by disposing of their bodies. Toledo then said he wanted to waive his right...

www.websleuths.com

Family, friends gather to mark 10 years since murder of Deltona mother, children

Luis Toledo is serving three consecutive life sentences for the murders of his wife and her two children.

www.news-journalonline.com

 

[tatertot]

Trying to think of explanations for why there seemingly isn't the obvious, i.e. a missing person report for three people, at least of one of whom whose '83 Oldsmobile 88 is also missing.

It looks like currently in Florida, vehicles can be renewed for one to two years, and up to three months before the expiration, which is midnight of the first owner's birthdate. So assuming these policies were the same in 2005, hypothetically the car could have been registered anytime in 2005 and remained so until sometime in 2007. If the car still had valid registration at the time it went in the lake, that's a timespan of 2005-2007.

Other theories (in addition to everything suggested in the posts above):

1)The car was stolen, and nobody knew the three individuals were even riding in it together at the time, so none of them were reported "missing with a vehicle."

2) Or 1) and the trio's relatives were afraid to report them missing because they knew about the stolen car and hoped the trio would return in it, but feared this as the saddest ending.

3) The registration expired and to avoid being pulled over, the car was driven only at night, which sadly made the accident more likely.

4) Maybe the car changed hands, whether due to an inheritance (it does look like what my kids would affectionately call a "G'ma/G'pa car") or a sale where paperwork was never legally done. Or it sat for years before someone got it running again and they were out driving it before they had reregistered it. Thus it was never associated with the trio.

5) The car was registered to its driver, and he/she picked up the other two unexpectedly, maybe for a spur-of-the-moment shopping trip at the mall. They may have one or all been reported missing, but nobody knew they were together. Or the car was being used as an unregistered taxi service.

6) They were day labor workers, or in this case, night shift labor workers. Three people were sent to help clean at the mall overnight and never showed. This just snapped into my mind because as a former day labor worker, I often drove my coworkers to job sites and if we hadn't showed, it was literally one-day labor with no obigation to show up the next day. There were people who just stopped showing up, hopefully because they'd found a more permanent job, and neither the job site or the day labor office would have been too concerned.

The location alone, the biggest single-story outlet mall in the US, makes me think this would be a risky place to hide a car with victims. Even at night, you'd think a place that big would have cleaners, deliveries, etc. This makes me think it was more likely to be an accident. I hope their families get closure very soon.

 

[summergirl1]

This article refers to this case, in part..

'To have her home': Volunteers scour Florida waters providing hope for families of the missing

Sunshine State Sonar looks for missing cars in Florida waters to provide clues in missing persons cases. They found 250 cars in 2023 alone.

www.usatoday.com

 

[MagicCityMan]

Per the article only one set of remains has been confirmed so far.

 

[Richard]

A few possibly related missing person cases:

FL - FL - Libby Ann Dibenedetto, 35, Davie, 12 June 2000

Libby Ann Dibenedetto Dibenedetto, circa 2000 Missing Since 06/12/2000 Missing From Davie, Florida Classification Endangered Missing Sex Female Race White Date of Birth 11/23/1964 (57) Age 35 years old Height and Weight 5'6, 145 pounds Clothing/Jewelry Description A burgundy long-sleeved...

www.websleuths.com

Family of man found in Tamarac canal seeks public’s help in bringing body back to New Jersey - WSVN 7News | Miami News, Weather, Sports | Fort Lauderdale

TAMARAC, FLA. (WSVN) - Grieving family members are sharing their heartbreak and asking for the public’s help, days after their loved one was found dead<a class="excerpt-read-more"...

wsvn.com

Maureen Therese Sherman – The Charley Project

 

[Richard]

Photos of similar 1983 Oldsmobile Ninety Eights.

 

[Skylark6]

Seems some progress has been made, but not much made public yet. Per the Facebook page of the sonar team that discovered the car (Sunshine State Sonar) during the last several days:

"Police have been very quiet about this. We do have the identity of one victim and have spoken to the victims family already about it. They reported their son missing in 2005. Police have gone to his parents house to obtain a DNA sample. Still waiting for the confirmation."

"...we can’t release that information right now. But we know who is in the vehicle or at least one person. Police have taken a DNA sample from his parents. He was a young man."

"police know exactly who was in the vehicle. Waiting on them to make a statement still."

Link to thread

 

[MagicCityMan]

Seems some progress has been made, but not much made public yet. Per the Facebook page of the sonar team that discovered the car (Sunshine State Sonar) during the last several days:

"Police have been very quiet about this. We do have the identity of one victim and have spoken to the victims family already about it. They reported their son missing in 2005. Police have gone to his parents house to obtain a DNA sample. Still waiting for the confirmation."

"...we can’t release that information right now. But we know who is in the vehicle or at least one person. Police have taken a DNA sample from his parents. He was a young man."

"police know exactly who was in the vehicle. Waiting on them to make a statement still."

Link to thread

Interesting. I wonder if the victim that has tentatively been identified had any ties to that car. Also wondering about others in the car. Certainly plausible that this is a stolen car/ joyride that ends tragically scenario but we will just have to wait and see.

 

[dotr]

Any chance it is these missing men? speculation, fwiw..

FL - FL - Terrance Williams, 27, & Felipe Santos, 23, Collier Co, 2003 & 2004

Have the police presented any new information? Have they reopened the case with new eyes, starting from the beginning? They should track the officer's phone, along with Mr. Williams's phone, to see where they both ping. There have to be others out there that had run ins with this officer that...

www.websleuths.com