PHILIPSBURG:--- On Monday, January 23rd at approximately 0900 a.m. police was called to investigate a case involving a vehicle that was found submerged at approximately 200 meters from the shoreline in the vicinity of Walter Plantz Pier. The vehicle is a four-door BMW which showed signs of being submerged for some time. The owner of this vehicle is still unknown. How this vehicle ended up where it was found also unknown and is being investigated. Thanks to the very good working relation between the local Coast Guard and Bobby’s Marina the vehicle was removed by barge and taken to the pier at Bobby’s Marina. The vehicle was then transported by tow truck to the police headquarters for a thorough Forensic investigation.
KPSM Press Release
A press release from the Gendarmerie on February 8th 2010 called on the community of St. Martin to provide any information they may have on an American National who disappeared on January 21st 2010. The missing man was identified by the Gendarmes as Robert Brous, born on September 10th 1968 in New York, at the time the American national went missing he was last seen driving a blue BMW with license plate 751 ZBF 971. The gendarmes pleaded with the community of St. Martin to call their telephone number 00590 590 52 30 00 if they had seen the missing visitor.
On Tuesday, January 24th, 2017 SMN News contacted the Commandant of the Gendarmerie Sebastien Manzoni for further information on the missing man. Manzoni said Brous was never found. Asked by SMN News if the Dutch side investigators contacted the French since the discovery of the BMW they pulled out of Great Bay on Monday. Manzoni said so far no one from the Dutch side contacted the Gendarmerie and he also said that the Dutch authorities did not contact them for cooperation in the ongoing investigation.
SMN News contacted police spokesman Ricardo Henson requesting information on the number plate that was on the vehicle that was pulled out of the water and the color of the car. Henson said the detective department is not ready to release that information to the public as yet.
Further, SMN News learned that inside the vehicle police took out of Great Bay on Monday which was about 200 yards from the shoreline had what appeared to be human remains. However, when Henson was contacted with that information he said that it was way too early to say what was inside the vehicle was indeed remains of a human being. Henson said that the vehicle was in the water for a few years now and that even the color of the car could not be properly identified.
It should be noted that while the vehicle could not be spotted from the shoreline, a diver saw the vehicle and he notified police of his findings. However, police was not willing to divulge that information on Monday.
The press release from the gendarmerie in 2010 can be viewed below.
http://www.smn-news.com/st-maarten-st-martin-news/5126-american-man-missing-on-french-side.html
BMW found close to shore in Great bay harbor. (UPDATED)
