SUNRISE, Fla. — A decades-long search for a missing person in South Florida came to an end this week.
Divers with Sunshine State Sonar said they were battling low visibility while going 42 feet deep in a pond off Shotgun Road in Sunrise, but all the work was worth it when they found the truck and remains that cracked a cold case wide open after nearly 40 years.
They found a truck with a B&H Air Conditioning logo on it.
The “B” is for Bob, Cassidy Bacon’s grandfather.
“My grandpa did the stuff out in the field,” she said.
The “H” was Bob’s business partner, 39-year-old Howard Gratteau.
He was last seen on Sept. 1, 1986, believed to have been going on a service call that he never showed up for.
His many siblings were concerned, as Gratteau had Type 1 diabetes, and had previous issues with it.
As the months went on, they started to believe the worst.
“People were starting to get a little panicked,” said Beverly Douglas, Gratteau’s sister. “He would always call our mom on Christmas Day and when that didn’t happen, we all thought, ‘OK, he’s not in this world.’”
Douglas admitted she thought she would never find out what happened to her brother.
“This was a phone call that by now, I had decided I was never going to get,” she said.
It wasn’t until last week that they received a call that the truck had been found, bringing a sense of relief, despite the DNA results still pending.
“Initially, it was the certainty that he was truly gone and the grief that comes with that, but at the same time, feeling happy that we now know (what happened to him),” Douglas said.
Sunshine State Sonar was receiving help from Bacon, who said she was happy to finally tell her grandfather that his old friend had been found.
“We were giving him tips on where the office was and other places where he may have been,” she said. “He gets to know now, before he passes away, that he was found and that’s what makes it worth it too.”
The family was told it’ll be between two and three months until they get the DNA results back.
The last time they had a memorial for Gratteau was in 2001, so they said they might do something now to honor his memory and final resting place in Sunrise.
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