He was told his father walked out in 1961. Then he started digging up the basement.

Fittingly, it was the day before Halloween 2018 when Michael made the chilling discovery he’d been chasing his whole life. He was excavating the basement of his very own home, thanks, in part, to advice he’d received from a psychic, when he finally found something: a skeleton.

Michael hadn’t seen his father since he was eight months old, way back in the early ’60s. George had disappeared from the family home on Long Island, and he had never been seen again. Michael and his older siblings were never given any information about what might have happened.

Whenever Dorothy did tell the kids anything, it usually seemed fishy. Her story seemed to change all the time, which meant Michael had never fully trusted anything she said in relation to his dad. During a chat on the As It Happens podcast, he ran through some of the stories his mom told him.

There was never a missing persons report filed about George, which in itself was strange. It just added a whole extra layer of shadiness, and the situation haunted Michael and his siblings throughout their lives: they could never shake off what had happened.

Living in that house must have been strange for Michael, who only had rumors to work with. He and other members of his family had naturally always speculated about what had happened to George, but their theories varied greatly. One particular theory, though, had been championed by his mother.

Not long after George had gone missing, Dorothy hooked up with a new partner. His name was Richard Darress, and he was living in the family home pretty soon after George had vanished from it. Richard and Dorothy married not too much longer after that, though the union didn’t last: they separated during the ’80s.

The most sinister of the Carroll family rumors about what had happened to George centered on the idea that he’d been murdered. Someone had killed him, the thinking went, and they’d hidden his remains in the basement of the family home.

Michael had long been aware of that theory, and it wasn’t something he could ever shake — especially now that he literally lived in the same house where the remains might lie. Eventually, it all became too much and he decided he needed to search.

With the rumors swirling around his head, Michael enlisted some help to aid his search of the basement. On the one hand, he took a scientific approach by getting his hands on radar equipment and other rational tools for investigation. But he also took another path.

Speaking of the psychic helpers who were present for the basement search, Michael told The New York Post how “there was a guy who came to my basement, and he went to the right spot and said, ‘The energy is here.’”

We can’t ignore the actual scientific instruments that were deployed for the search. Michael used radar which was capable of penetrating the floor of the basement to see what was beneath it. And sure enough, it came back with a reading to suggest something really was buried down there.

The dig was slow, prone to frequent stops and starts, and it fell into real jeopardy after Michael suffered a serious health scare. He had a stroke, which obviously meant his digging days were over. He couldn’t do it himself anymore, but luckily he had two adult sons to help him out.

It was on October 30, 2018, when the dig finally bore fruit. Michael was upstairs when one of his sons emerged from the basement with some news. He’d found something at last, and Michael needed to see it.

The hole Michael was referencing was about 3 or 4 feet deep, carved out of the basement floor. It was home to something, and, horrifying as the find was, the facts couldn’t be denied.

Michael knew right away that the skeleton belonged to a human, and, though it couldn’t be proven right away, he knew in his heart that he was looking at his dad’s remains. And while you might presume that was the most harrowing experience a person could likely face, Michael, in actual fact, felt fine about it.

Throughout the rest of that night following the discovery, Michael contacted his siblings to talk over what he’d found. The following day, on Halloween, he reached out to the authorities to let them know what he’d discovered hidden so deep beneath his home.

When that analysis had been undertaken, what it revealed was grim — albeit not terribly surprising. The skull that had been found had been subjected to “blunt force trauma.” Somebody had hit the individual over the head with extreme force, fracturing their skull.

As for figuring out who the skull had belonged to, the authorities warned Michael that answers might not be quite so easy to establish. Bones as old as the ones that were discovered aren’t necessarily the best for DNA testing. They dry out, meaning there might not be enough usable DNA to obtain a viable sample.

The authorities involved with this case admitted to the press that it wasn’t a run-of-the-mill sort of investigation like they might ordinarily face. As Detective Lieutenant Kevin Beyrer explained to Newsday, “This is an unusual case, no doubt about it.”

All the same, certain aspects of the investigation proceeded quite quickly. Not long after the bones were discovered, the DNA results were back. And, just as Michael had suspected all along, the bones had indeed belonged to George.

So that was that: literally decades later, George had been found. And he’d been right under the noses of his family the whole time, hidden away beneath their home. There had been every chance he may never have been found at all, had his son not followed his instincts.

Michael’s reaction to the discovery was surprisingly relaxed, given its horrifying nature. But to him, if anything, the discovery had come as a relief. He and his siblings had, after all, been living with this terrible mystery hanging over them since they were young children.

Michael does appear to credit the psychic with the discovery, at least to some extent. They did, after all, signal that the spot where his father was ultimately found was giving off “energy.” And that’s not the only thing they seemed to get right.

Michael thinks of himself as a scientifically minded sort of person, and he claims he was initially very skeptical about the psychic. But, having seen what played out and how accurate their predictions appeared to be, he has transformed into a “little more of a believer.”

In the comments section of a Fox article reporting on this story, the skeptics had their say. Users were quick to rubbish the claims of the psychic, who was surely aware of the rumors the Carroll family had long discussed about their dad being buried in the basement.

Referring to the speculation about George’s whereabouts under the basement floor, one commenter posted, “I’m sure the ‘ghost hunters’ and phony psychic were aware of this rumor. I can’t believe there are people who fall for this garbage.”

In any case, regardless of what everyone else thinks, the important people at the center of this story are George’s children. And they’re just glad their dad has been found. Now they can give him a proper send off, which was a privilege they had never previously been afforded. But as for finding the killer, Michael seemed to dismiss the possibility.

What was important, so far as Michael was concerned, was giving his dad a proper burial — one that reflected his status as a soldier. They hoped to arrange that for him.

In the end, Michael and his siblings were successful: their dad was laid to rest in a military cemetery. After so many decades, he could finally rest in peace. It was obviously a very emotional moment for the family, as Michael’s brother Steve told The New York Post. “It all came rushing back — all the things we missed out on and everything he missed.”

About 50 or so people were reportedly in attendance at the funeral, which saw bagpipers perform “Amazing Grace” as the family tried to come to terms with all that had happened.

Another of the Carroll siblings to speak to the press following their dad’s burial was Jean, who now goes by the surname of Kennedy. She spoke to The New York Post about the chances of ever finding out what really happened to her dad, claiming, “Nobody will ever know what really happened.”

While Jean spoke of the likelihood that nobody will ever know the truth, Michael does seem to think he has a strong inkling. Having said that, it’s not something he’s comfortable speaking about in public. But he seems confident.

Michael wasn’t willing to expand terribly much on his theory, but he hinted that some serious darkness lingers within his family. Bit by bit, he and his siblings have sought to get to the bottom of it all.

There are only four Carroll siblings, so Micheal was pushed to explain who “the five of us” were. He said, “There are four siblings and one other kid, but I’m not going to talk about him.” As ever with regard to the murder, he was keeping his cards close to his chest.

Steve, like Michael, wouldn’t be drawn into speculating over his father’s murder in public. When asked about his family’s dark past, he wouldn’t buckle and instead put his focus on the fact his dad had been found.

The authorities, of course, have looked into the case, but answers haven’t been easy to come by. Without so much as a missing person’s report having ever been filed about George, investigators have little to work with.

While Michael hasn’t elaborated much on his theories about who might have killed his father, he has said that he thinks those who might have done it are deceased. That could mean his mom and her lover, or it could mean other people we don’t know of. We’ll likely never get more information than that.

As for the rest of us, we can but speculate — and there has been plenty of that. As one Fox commenter put it, “Unfortunately no one will pay for this because the perpetrator died in 1998 (wife), as for the police, in 1961 if the crime wasn’t staring them right in the face it didn't get solved.”

Everyone is entitled to their opinion about what happened to George, and his kids certainly have their own ideas. But what they really care most about is that the mystery that once hung over their lives like a cloud is gone. They found their dad at last.