Lake Grove homeowner: Remains belong to his missing father

The owner of a Lake Grove home where human bones were discovered this week said he is convinced they are the remains of his father, who disappeared in 1961.

Michael Carroll, 57, said he began looking for his father’s remains in the home after a psychic and paranormal investigators told him they felt “energy” in the Olive Street home, which has been in his family since 1957. 

“I feel great that my dad is finally free from that crappy hole,” Carroll said Thursday, two days after his sons found the remains while digging in the basement.

Carroll was just a few months old when his dad disappeared in 1961. He said his mother, who died 20 years ago, told her children “he went out and just never came back.”

DNA tests will tell if the remains are those of George Carroll, whose children have been searching for him over the years, homicide Det. Lt. Kevin Beyrer said Wednesday night.

“We can’t say for sure that it is the father, but we suspect that it is,” Beyrer said.

The four Carroll children never got a straight answer from their mother, Dorothy Carroll, on what had happened to their father, police said.

“It was just always a family legend or lore that the father was buried in the basement since 1961,” Beyrer said. “The father was a Korean War veteran. One of the stories they had over time was that he had moved back to Korea. So the family just never really knew.”

George Carroll’s son Michael Carroll, 57, who owns the Olive Street house, had even hired a company with ground-penetrating radar to examine the basement of the house, which has been in the family since at least 1955, Beyrer said.

Based on those results, Michael Carroll’s two sons, both in their 20s, started digging a few months ago, working on and off in their spare time, police said.

Michael Carroll said they found the remains at 10 p.m. Tuesday and called family members to let them know. On Wednesday, they called police to the house about 2 p.m.