Family finds grandfather’s remains in basement decades after he vanished

Michael Carroll’s son stiffened on Halloween Eve 2018 when his shovel collided with what appeared to be rags and bones in the basement – a cold chill ran through him.

Chris Carroll and his brother Mike Carroll Jr. had been excavating at the family home in Lake Grove, Long Island, New York, for months. The patriarch who started the excavation had recently suffered a stroke and needed help getting down the stairs.

“Dad, I think I found something,” Chris said.

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He and his brother had no idea they had uncovered the skeletal remains of their grandfather, George Carroll, who disappeared half a century ago.

The months-long dig is the subject of a new true crime documentary on Investigation Discovery (ID) titled “The Secrets We Buried,” premiering December 16.

Michael Carroll dug through his basement for months, believing his father might be hiding down there. (With ID permission)

Patricia E. Gillespie, a director living in New York, came across the story of Carroll’s search in a local newspaper. Intrigued, he began his own investigation and quickly located her.

Filmmaker Patricia E. Gillespie first learned of Michael Carroll’s story in a local newspaper, then began meeting with him at Dunkin’ Donuts to discuss the disappearance of her father, George. (Leon Bennett/Getty Images)

“I met Mike a few days after he uncovered the mystery of his father,” Gillespie told Fox News Digital. “We actually got along so well that at the end of the meeting he took me down to the basement, where there was still a giant hole. I thought to myself, ‘I’m really lucky he’s a good person.'”

“For many years people thought Mike and his sister Jean Kennedy were crazy,” Gillespie said. “I asked them, ‘Your father is gone. Why can’t you accept that?’ It was said.

“Solving the mystery became a starting point for thousands of other little mysteries and mysteries,” Gillespie added.

People often dismissed Michael Carroll as a dreamer, but he continued his research. (With ID permission)

George, a U.S. Army Korean War veteran, disappeared in 1963. His son Carroll was about 8 months old at the time. Carroll’s late mother, Dorothy Carroll, always said she went out to buy cigarettes and “never came back.” Rumors claimed that he met a woman in Korea and started a new life with her. The documentary states that George was never reported missing.

George Carroll is seen here with his daughter Jean Kennedy in a still from a family Super 8 video from the 1960s. The father of four disappeared from his Long Island home in 1963. (With ID permission)

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“He came back from this war with a bunch of kids at home,” Gillespie said of George. “They didn’t talk about what was going on in the war. In those generations, you didn’t necessarily have to see a therapist. It was just a different time. It must have been hard going into your little house with a bunch of kids from the Korean War.” [But] his children loved him. The very young ones loved his idea.”

Jean Kennedy, who believed in supernatural events, consulted a medium to get clues about her father. (With ID permission)

For decades, the Carroll children wondered what happened to their father. Desperate for answers and a firm believer in the supernatural, Kennedy consulted a psychic in 2010. He convinced his brother to join him, although he was skeptical.

Baby photo of Jean Kennedy posing on her father’s motorcycle from the 1950s. (With ID permission)

The medium told them that George was murdered and buried in the basement. Carroll bought the property from his mother in 1993. Dorothy died of cancer in 1998.

“Jean says it’s a ‘long-distance call’ to her mother,” Gillespie said of Kennedy’s interest in psychics. “Like all of us, when you lose someone you care about, there are a lot of conversations you wish you had had or figured out. And for Jean, I think the medium was an opportunity to do that; to make that long-distance call to the elders beyond.”

The Carroll children are seen here with their mother, Dorothy Carroll. (With ID permission)

According to the documentary, George’s brother also told Carroll that his side of the family believed George was murdered.

Michael Carroll was only 8 months old when his father disappeared. (With ID permission)

Desperate for answers, Carroll began investigating. She never wanted to believe that George had abandoned her and her three older siblings. Even after uncovering a dark family secret, the mystery wasn’t over.

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Chris Carroll examines clothing fibers found in a hole he dug in the basement. (With ID permission)

“It opened the door to something much deeper,” Gillespie said. “You’re looking for a man and you find him in these dramatic circumstances — the end, right? I think a lot of stories end there. But for them, this was just the beginning of figuring out how to come to terms with this. And that answer wasn’t found in forensics, or a police report, or a court hearing.”

After Michael Carroll suffered a stroke, his sons took over digging in the basement. (With ID permission)

When police first received a call from Carroll, they laughed at it, believing it to be a joke. But Carroll was persistent and they eventually stopped by the house. They were horrified by the discovery of bones several meters below the basement. It was later confirmed that they belonged to George.

Police classified George’s death as a homicide. His skull was fractured due to blunt force trauma.

Michael Carroll’s family home in Lake Grove, Long Island. (Fox News)

Carroll believed that his stepfather, Richard Darress, was the person who may have been responsible for his father’s disappearance. He was a young handyman whom George hired to help with a construction project and who later lived in the house.

Dorothy Carroll and Richard Darress are seen here in the 1960s. (With ID permission)

Dorothy married Darress shortly after telling her children that their father had abandoned them. They had a son named “Richie” before divorcing in 1983. According to the documentary, the Carroll sisters claimed that their stepfather was physically abusive and sexually assaulted the girls.

“Richie [who appeared in the film] “He was put in a very difficult situation,” Gillespie said.

A 1960s family photograph of Dorothy Carroll and her second husband, Richard Darress. Darress was working as a live-in mechanic before George Carroll disappeared. (With ID permission)

“No matter who your father is, you love your father. You don’t want to believe anything that’s hard about your father. But some of the other kids started talking not about George Carroll, but about the negative experiences they had growing up with their stepfathers. I think a lot of guys in Richie’s position would turn a deaf ear and say, ‘No, not my father. Not part of me. Not my name.'”

Rich Darress had a hard time hearing the allegations and theories being made about his late father. (With ID permission)

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“Richie didn’t do that,” Gillespie continued. “Richie believed in his siblings. He told us: ‘My siblings are my real family. So of course I believe in them.’ I think he showed a lot of strength and care. … He truly put his siblings’ feelings first. At the same time, the brothers were also trying to protect him, because as they delved deeper into this mystery, they began to find scarier, scarier, more disturbing things. But they always thought: ‘What about Richie? How will he feel?”

Michael Carroll is seen here with his mother’s piano. (With ID permission)

Darress died in June 2018 at the age of 77 at a funeral home in Laredo, Texas, he previously told Fox News Digital. Before his death, he was living in Mexico, across the border from Laredo.

Richard Darress and his son Rich pose together on the beach in a photo from the 1970s. (With ID permission)

For years, the siblings tried to question their mother, hoping she would have clues that could lead to answers. But Dorothy would simply say that George was “not a good man.” Although there is speculation that she may have been involved in George’s disappearance following their tumultuous marriage, her children continue to defend her.

“When the first wave of press came out after Mike found his father, a lot of it was definitely pointing at him,” Gillespie said. “But what strikes me most about their relationship with their mother is how much they all love her. They all absolutely adore her.”

Michael Carroll will never truly know what happened to his father. (With ID permission)

“There were some really complicated things going on in the family,” he said. “Obviously there were some unanswered questions, and they will remain unanswered forever, because most of the people were dead when George was found. But what touched me most was their uncompromising defense of their mother. Even today they are united by their love for her.”

Patricia E. Gillespie told Fox News Digital that the Carroll children remain fiercely protective of their late mother, Dorothy Carroll. (With ID permission)

On October 25, 2019, George was buried with military honors at the national cemetery on Long Island. Police said they would never determine how he died.

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“About two weeks ago Mike’s son sent me a photo,” Gillespie said. “They finally filled the hole in the basement. There’s a feeling that you can finally grieve, that you’ve done what you had to do for your family, both for those here and for those who died. This story goes way beyond the mystery of how this man disappeared.”

“The Secrets We Bury” will premiere on ID on December 16 at 21:00 and can be watched on HBO Max. Fox News Digital’s Robert Gearty and the Associated Press contributed to this report.