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Family of missing mom reacts after body is found
Chris Lewis is starting off the new year in a way he never expected. Search and rescue crews just found his mom’s body near Disney World almost 12 years after she went missing. Orlando Police say Sandra Lemire went on a date on May 8, 2012, but she never came home.
ORLANDO - Chris Lewis is starting off the new year in a way he never expected.
"There's just a tornado of emotions for me," said Lewis. "I was in shock for a minute. Then I started just crying."
Search and rescue crews just found his mom’s body near Disney World almost 12 years after she went missing.
Sandra Lemire found after nearly 12 years. (Source: Sunshine State Sonar)
Dive teams from the sheriff's offices in Orange and Osceola counties assisted in locating the human remains. (Photo via Stewart Sensor)
Orlando Police say Sandra Lemire went on a date on May 8, 2012, but she never came home. Her family has been left wondering what happened to her ever since.
Lewis says Lemire was a wonderful person who was always smiling. Sandra Lemire’s daughter-in-law, Michelle Kunze, says it was hard to be happy about the discovery.
"We hoped and prayed for her safe return. But there was always, always a sliver of hope," said Kunze. "This case is so much worse because he didn’t just lose his mother once. In my opinion, he lost her twice."
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A group called Sunshine State Sonar got involved in the search in 2022. The head of the group, Mike Sullivan, says that over the course of 17 months, volunteers searched 63 different bodies of water around Orlando, looking for Lemire.
Sandra Lemire (Photo via family handout)
"I think everybody on our team was emotional on this one," said Sullivan. "When you search that many bodies of water, this is such a significant amount of time and effort to finally see this come through."
They finally found her in this retention pond off State Road 417 at the World Drive exit. Sullivan says the day was emotionally draining.
"It’s just a weird feeling," he explained. "You're kind of in a funk, and you kind of think to yourself, ‘That really happened yesterday.’"
Investigators think Lemire may have had a diabetic seizure and crashed. Lewis says getting the call about what happened felt like losing his mom a second time. But he says in 2024, all he can do is move forward.
"That's one heck of a way to end a year and one heck of a way to begin a year, I tell you that," Chris Lewis said.