Police, Texas EquuSearch search for human remains in 1983 cold case

GALVESTON COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) -- Police and volunteers with Texas EquuSearch are conducting a search for possible human remains in connection to a 1983 cold case.

The search is happening at a home on Pine Street near Santa Fe in Galveston County.

Lt. Greg Boody with the Santa Fe Police Department said officers and volunteers have been at the home since 9 a.m. Thursday.

"Our detective is working a cold case from the early 80s and he was following up on leads and we're here looking for a missing person," Boody explained at the scene.

"And is it related to the Sondra Ramber case?" ABC13 reporter Jessica Willey said.

"I can't confirm that because we don't know. We hope. We hope, but it's not for sure," he replied.

Sondra Kay Ramber was 14 years old when she went missing on Oct. 26, 1983. She was last seen by a family member in her kitchen. When her father returned that afternoon, biscuits were still in the oven, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), but Sondra was not there. She was never found.

Last year, NCMEC released an age progression photo of Sondra showing what she might look like more than 40 years later.

The location of the search is on the same property where Sondra once lived, Eyewitness News has confirmed, though the house that is now there was built since her disappearance.

The current property owners are being cooperative and even helping, Boody said.

"We're cutting out the concrete and digging the slab out to see what's underneath. Tim Miller (Texas EquuSearch) brought in a person with ground-penetrating radar and picked up some anomalies, and so that's what we're looking at, to see what it is," he said.

Crime scene tape surrounded the property into Thursday night, and police said they were prepared to be there for many more hours, depending on what they found.

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