For nearly 15 years, the disappearance of Robert Long remained an unanswered Long Island mystery.
The 62-year-old Miller Place man vanished in December 2010 along with his white Chrysler PT Cruiser. Years passed without Long or his vehicle being found.
Then volunteer searchers connected with Adventures With Purpose brought the case to an extraordinary conclusion beneath the waters off Cedar Beach in Mount Sinai.
Using sonar and specialized underwater search techniques, divers located Long’s PT Cruiser submerged near the Cedar Beach boat ramp in June 2025. Human remains found inside were later officially identified as Long.
The discovery finally provided an answer to a disappearance that had remained unresolved since 2010.
Long was last seen on Dec. 21, 2010, after leaving a local liquor store. He and his vehicle seemingly disappeared together.
Nearly 15 years later, volunteer divers Dan Pritchard and Bill McIntosh came to Long Island as part of an effort involving Exploring With A Mission and Adventures With Purpose to search for people who had been missing for years.
The team reviewed information about Long’s disappearance and focused on the Cedar Beach boat ramp, an area Long was known to frequent.
The searchers launched onto the water with sonar equipment and began scanning beneath the surface.
Their equipment soon detected a vehicle-shaped object approximately 19 feet underwater near one of the boat ramps.
A diver descended to investigate.
The target was a white Chrysler PT Cruiser.
According to Adventures With Purpose, the vehicle showed extensive marine growth after years underwater. During the underwater inspection, human remains were observed inside.
The discovery immediately shifted the volunteer search into a police investigation.
Suffolk County police were notified after the divers located what they believed to be human remains inside the vehicle.
Police Marine Bureau divers searched the submerged car before temporarily suspending operations because of water conditions. The search resumed the following day, when additional human remains were recovered.
Getting the PT Cruiser out of Mount Sinai Harbor required another complicated operation.
After approximately 15 years underwater, the vehicle was in fragile condition. Divers attached heavy-duty straps to the car before a crane was used to slowly raise it from the water.
The vehicle was then placed on a flatbed truck as Suffolk County investigators continued their work.
At first, police could not officially say that the remains were Long.
That confirmation came on July 15, 2025.
The Suffolk County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the remains recovered from the vehicle as Robert Long, officially ending the nearly 15-year search for the missing Miller Place man.
Adventures With Purpose later documented the search and recovery in a video titled “SOLVED: Missing 15 Years Underwater | The Case of Robert Long.” Watch below.
The video offered a detailed look at the sonar search, the dive that confirmed the submerged vehicle and the recovery operation that followed.
The case also demonstrated the role volunteer underwater search organizations can play in long-unsolved missing-person investigations. After nearly a decade and a half without an answer, sonar equipment and volunteer divers located Long’s vehicle beneath waters that had been only a short distance from shore.
Adventures With Purpose said Long’s wife had long believed he might be in the Cedar Beach area.
In the end, that was where the search finally led.
Long had disappeared with his car in 2010. Nearly 15 years later, volunteer divers found both beneath the waters off Cedar Beach, bringing one of Long Island’s lingering missing-person cases to a close.
Authorities did not publicly establish in the available follow-up reporting how Long died or how his vehicle entered the water.
Photo: Screen capture from video
