Mom had just got drivers license before disappearing into pond

A floating hubcap. Some trampled bushes.

Those were the signs that led to the discovery of Carline Brumaire Jean’s body, which had been trapped inside her red Toyota in a retention pond behind a Universal Orlando resort hotel where she worked.

Authorities are nowtrying to understand the circumstances that led to the 39-year-old mother driving into the pond.

Jean had moved to Central Florida from Haiti to be with her husband and young son in 2012, and had only recently gotten a drivers license.

Family attorney Jean Bernard Chery said the day Brumaire Jean disappeared a month ago was just the third time she had driven alone.

When her car was pulled from a retention pond behind the Loews Royal Pacific Resort on Monday afternoon, her family — still praying for a happy ending after an agonizing month of searching — was forced to come to terms with her death.

“It was devastating for the family and for everyone who was involved,” Chery said. “That’s not what anyone had expected. ... That’s not the news that we want to hear, but it is the reality, so wehave to deal with it.”

Deputies would not say if they previously searched that area or release other details about their investigation into her disappearance. The retention pond is adjacent to a parking lot behind the hotel.

Brumaire Jean’s family has requested privacy while coping with her death and planning the woman’s funeral.

“At least now we have some closure for the family,” Chery said.

Brumaire Jean was last seen leaving the hotel where she worked about 4:20 p.m. on Feb. 9 and was reported missing soon after.

A monthlong search

turned up nothing until a hotel security guard patrolling the area noticed the broken brush at the edge of a parking lot, and the hubcap on the water.

Brumaire Jean’s missingpersons case is a familiar story

Weeks, months and sometimes even years of searching can often end with investigators hauling longsubmerged vehicles from the bottom of retention ponds with the remains of missing people still inside.

Onesuch cases was closed in January 2013.

Nearly two decades after Frances Hendrickson, 64, went missing, her Buick station wagon was pulled from a canal in Punta Gorda, a city about 25 miles north of Fort Myers.

Newly available sonar technology helped local police find the vehicle near her home.

In another high-profile case from May 2000, the son of basketball legend Julius Erving was pulled from a retention pond about half a mile from his Seminole County home.

The 19-year- old man’s body was still trapped inside his still-new Volkswagen Passat when it was found about five weeks after he disappeared.

“It ’s amazing what’s under the water,” said Tim Miller with Texas Equusearch, the search and recovery company that tried to find Caylee Anthony in 2008.

“Many, many times when a person goes missing and a vehicle is not located, unfortunately, this is how they are found,” Miller said.

When Brumaire Jean never came home, her family knew she was in danger, their attorney said.

“I did not have in mymind that she ran away,” Chery said. “Especially when she has a 7-year-old child. We thought that somebody had her somewhere and would release her. Unfortunately, we were wrong.”

Despite the tragedy, Chery said the family is thankful that investigators were able bring Brumaire Jean home again.