Sandra Lemire went missing more than a decade ago. For 12 years, her family and friends desperately hoped they would find her. Sadly, Lemire's body and vehicle were reportedly found submerged in a pond on Interstate 4 in Kissimmee near Walt Disney World Resort on December 31.
According to her family, she went on a date with a man she met online in May 2012 but never came home. WKMG reported in 2012 that the man wasn't involved in her disappearance, but the question remains: What happened to Lemire?
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Lemire lived with her grandmother at the time of her disappearance.
According to a 2012 WKMG report, Lemire, who was 47 when she disappeared, lived with her grandmother, Pauline Varner, at the time. She reportedly went to meet a man she met online for coffee and drove off in her grandmother's 2004 Ford Freestyle van. No one ever saw her again.
The diabetic mother of three reportedly didn't have insulin with her the night she disappeared.
Varner told WKMG she was concerned about her granddaughter because it wasn't like her to take off and never contact anyone again. Varner told the new outlet that Lemire would let her know even if she would only be gone a short time.
"It's very difficult because you just don't know, and it's not a good thing. I just hope she's alright," Varner said, WKMG reported. "She told me she would call me when she got down there and she did, then she said she'd call me when she got ready to come back and I said 'OK fine,' but that never happened."
Her disappearance remained a mystery for years.
Kevin Sullivan told WESH that his team at Sunshine State Sonar has been trying to find the missing woman for a year and a half and finally received a tip in December 2023 that reportedly led them to Lemire.
"You know what cracked it?" Sullivan asked. "It was two weeks ago. The detectives from Orlando Police gave us some new information that we could use. And they gave us the location of her last cell phone tower."
Sullivan reported spotting the missing vehicle in the water.
He told WESH that when he saw the missing red fan in the water, his heart stopped.
"I was hyperventilating. I was stressed out. I put all my dive gear on, my wetsuit and I just dove in that water," Sullivan said, per WESH. "I had to get that confirmation for us. We had to know."
He told the news outlet that he went to the license plate for confirmation. "When the silt cleared, I can start seeing the numbers: 'J.' And as soon as I saw the 'J' and the 3' I'm like: 'We have her,'" he said.
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Sullivan called Lemire's son to deliver the somber news.
Although the discovery helped bring the family closure, it was ultimately not what anyone wanted.
"It's a lot of mixed emotions," Timothy Lemire Jr. told WESH. "I'm happy she wasn't murdered or kidnapped or anything like that because we've been thinking that for years."
Orlando police confirmed the discovery to the news station but have yet to positively identify the remains.
"We can confirm that the red vehicle located in the water on World Drive is tied to the missing person case of Sandra Lemire. We are waiting on positive identification of the human remains that were located in the vehicle. FDLE is working on that," police said in a statement, per WESH. "Detectives have been in contact with the family. Once we get new updates, we will provide that to you."
Her son said he is grappling with the discovery and all of the emotions.
"There's this one video where you can see the van on the tow truck and the truck pulling off. And he said, 'Timothy, we're finally bringing your mother home,'" Timothy Lemire Jr. told WESH. "And that destroyed me when he said that. After all these years."
Sullivan said he was happy to be able to close the case.
"Deep in my heart. I always thought this was a foul play case. And it turned out to be just a bad, terrible car accident," Sullivan said. "I'm just so proud of our team."
