After nine years of searching, investigators found Tony Luzio Jr.’s missing car in a mere seven feet of water.
Investigators spotted the vehicle around 4:00 p.m. Tuesday evening on East Orange Road and Summerfield Road in Delaware County. The car was badly silted over and had algae growing on it.
Investigators have searched hundreds of bodies of water, but this time, they moved the search away from where Luzio was last seen and closer to where he may have been heading. That included moving the search closer to the home of a friend he was last seen with on Bayhill Drive near Rutherford Road in Liberty Township.
Searchers used a remote-controlled, battery operated boat equipped with special sonar technology. It took less than two minutes to scan the pond.
The license plate confirmed.
The Delaware County Sheriff’s Office says a body was located in the vehicle, but it’s unclear whether it belongs to Luzio Jr. However, his driver’s license was located in the car, in addition to clothing he was wearing during the time of his disappearance.
The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office will conduct an autopsy to confirm in the identity of the body.
The discovery likely ends a nearly decade-long search for the man who vanished July 4th, 2005. Investigators say they've never ruled out the possibility of foul play, and the Luzio's admit that their hearts can't help but hold out for another possible explanation
WITNESSES DESCRIBE EERIE SCENE
"My first thought a child had fallen in," says Barb Jones, who lives across the street from the pond. But by the time she made it to the water just a few steps from her front door, she realized it wasn't a child but a car in the water. "When we first went out there, the dive team was down underneath confirming the license plate and they confirmed it was the license plate of the young man.”
“We actually lived here when it supposedly happened; never heard a thing never saw a thing,” recalls Jones.
She says his car - a 2004 silver Honda civic - was almost unrecognizable when it emerged from the pond. "When they pulled the car out, it was completely covered in muck. You couldn't see anything through the windows.”
Barb and her friend Dawn say the cars windows were up and there was no damage that they could see. "I would never believe there was a car in there," said Dawn Migliore
In part, because the women say the pond was partially drained years ago.
When the car appeared, Dawn says she had a sinking feeling. "My first indication was I wonder if they are looking for (Luzio Jr.).” She'd been following his case in the news. "I knew they had opened the case back up and they were looking at the ponds,” adds Migliore.
The women say children fish and walk around the pond all the time. They don't remember seeing any tire tracks in the grass to indicate a car had gone in. Migliore calls it “creepy”
To them, it's a mystery how the car found it's a way into the pond without anyone hearing or seeing a thing.
"There were no tire tracks it was supposed to happen at 4:00 a.m. we heard nothing," says Jones.
Neighbors tell 10TV they heard deputies say the car was in about 9 feet of water and was located about 15 feet from the shore. Search teams used a remote controlled boat with sonar to locate the car under water.
Tony Luzio's father tells 10TV the car was not found based on a tip. He says the search team expanded the area where they thought the car would be and eventually located it.