WTOC, Savannah, Georgia, news, weather and sports | Body Found at DeSoto Hilton May Be That of Missing Soldier
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Did they find the body of a missing Third Infantry Division soldier in a Savannah hotel today? An employee discovered a body in an air conditioning exchange handler in the DeSoto Hilton on Liberty Street.
Around noon today, police swarmed the hotel after receiving a call about the body, discovered on the second floor of the hotel. There was no identification, but detectives did find some of Robert Hornbeck's personal belongings nearby.
Police are not saying whether this body is that of Robert Hornbeck at this time. They've taken it to the GBI crime lab for an autopsy.
You might remember Hornbeck vanished without a trace on Easter Sunday. He was last seen at the DeSoto Hilton. His family began searching across Savannah for him that day and never stopped.
On April 22, some of Hornbeck's fellow soldiers came in from Fort Benning, acting on their own to help search, but found no sign of their friend.
The next day, April 23, the family hired a private investigator to help find their loved one.
On April 25, dozens of people answered the family's call for help. They showed up at the Savannah Civic Center to help the search effort.
That same day, three people said they saw someone matching Hornbeck's description walking along Interstate 16 toward Statesboro. It was never confirmed it was in fact Robert Hornbeck.
Why did it take 12 days to discover the body in the DeSoto Hilton? Employees tell us police searched the building at least three times over the last week and a half, but didn't find anything. Over the last couple of days, there's been a foul smell in the hotel. They sent a maintenance worker in to check it out, and he found the body inside the air conditioning system.
It's unclear how the body ended up inside the system, but police are not saying it looks suspicious of foul play at this time.
WTOC has been talking with Hornbeck's family throughout this whole ordeal. We spoke with them just moments after the news of the discovery. At that time, they did not know anything about it. A few minutes later, detectives showed up and brought them the news that it could possibly be Robert.
After a 12-day emotional roller coaster ride, it appears the search ended right were it started. Eric Hornbeck, Robert's father, told us he is in shock and is still trying to absorb the news.
Over the course of the past 12 days, he has spoken with us several times, including a first interview just a day and half after Robert disappeared. We asked whether he thought his son was still alive. "No," he said. "I think time's against us now."
As the days passed, Hornbeck's thoughts turned to speculation about what could have happened. "I think he was so intoxicated, he laid down and passed out somewhere."
That somewhere, the family believed, was the DeSoto Hilton, the last place anyone saw Robert. "I think he's within a half a mile from here," said Beth Hornbeck, Robert's stepmother. "If he's not holed up in the Hilton somewhere, he's probably some place he's wandered into."
And from that point, the family focused their attention on the Hilton. "We asked the Hilton to search every closet and I hope they have," said Eric at the time. "The kid could have crawled in somewhere and conked out."
Eric says the DeSoto Hilton told him workers searched the hotel. When there was no sign of Robert there, the family started to think he might be alive. They posted flyers, walked the streets and asked the community for help.
"Any folks that want to help us look, please come out," Eric asked.
And then people started calling authorities, saying they had seen Robert, convincing the family even more he might still be alive. "Someone out there knows something," said Eric. "I don't know who that individual may be, but Robert didn't just disappear."
And after learning of today's discovery, the family, expecting the worst, is now heartbroken and just trying to make the necessary phone calls.
The family is from Michigan, and had been planning to leave Savannah a few days ago. Then they thought they were making progress with the search and didn't want to leave.
WTOC is continuing to follow this story and will have the latest tonight on THE News at 11.
Reported by: Christy Hutchings, chutchings@wtoc.com, Don Logana, dlogana@wtoc.com, WTOC staff
