The Father in the Basement: What Happened to George Carroll?
A family saga shrouded in five decades of secrecy
On October 30th, 2018, one day before Halloween, Michael Carroll discovered a skeleton 8 feet under the basement of his Long Island home.
He felt relief.
His years-long search for his father, George, had finally come to an end.
Who was George Carroll?
George Carroll was an army corporal in the Korean War, born in the early 1930s.
He married a woman called Dorothy. In 1952, they had their first child — a girl they named Patricia. Two years later, came their second daughter: Jean.
In 1955, George bought a small cottage on an isolated wooded road called Olive Street, in Lake Grove, Long Island. He moved his family there.
In 1957, Steven was born, followed by Michael in 1961.
George’s children were 11, 9, 6, and 2 years old, when one day, in 1963, he vanished.
They were told he went out to “do something” and never came back.
The silent Lake Grove home
Growing up, George’s children naturally kept asking about him. But they never got any answers other than…
