Human remains in car submerged off Cedar Beach ID'd as missing man, Suffolk police say

Skeletal remains found in a PT Cruiser submerged in Mount Sinai Harbor have been identified as a Miller Place man missing for nearly 15 years, the Suffolk County Police Department said Tuesday.

Robert Long was 62, when he disappeared in December 2010, according his family, who told Newsday at the time that he loved venturing to Cedar Beach at the harbor to feed seagulls.

A volunteer, two-man search team focused on finding human remains submerged in vehicles had notified the Suffolk police department last month that remains they discovered on a dive in Mount Sinai Harbor near the Cedar Beach boat ramp were likely Long.

The searchers with the nonprofit, Exploring with a Mission, had found a bone in the submerged vehicle and called 911.

Suffolk County police removed the vehicle from the water with the skeletal remains inside. The county medical examiner positively identified the remains Tuesday as Long, the police said.

Police said they notified the family following the discovery, before the remains were identified, because the vehicle matched the description of Long’s PT Cruiser.

The search group, led by William McIntosh of West Kingston, Rhode Island, told Newsday in June that the vehicle was found where they believed it to be, using sonar and scuba gear. He said he consoled Long’s wife, Joanne Long, following the discovery.

Long’s wife said in 2010 that her husband had ventured to a local wine shop on Route 25A, and never returned home. Employees of the shop recalled Long making a purchase the day he went missing and "didn’t notice anything out of character," Newsday reported.

Long was diabetic and left his Miller Place home with his cellphone and enough money for a bottle of wine, his wife told Newsday. He had neither insulin nor a phone charger.

Although he never acted on it, Long’s wife said he talked about suicide.

"This is totally out of character for him," she told Newsday more than a decade ago. "When he did drink, he would get a bottle and come home ... He was wearing his house slippers and had no money, and only the clothes on his back."