Three grieving families have thanked an amateur detective for discovering their loved ones' likely resting place after 41 years – armed with nothing more than makeshift sonar and his own common sense.
Police were baffled when William Clifton, 30, David McMicken, 24, and Michael Norman, 32, disappeared after driving away from a North Carolina bar just before Christmas 1982.
But dive team leader Jason Souhrada attached cheap sonar to a four-foot-tall boogie board after realizing that no one had ever checked Jack's Creek, a largely inaccessible pond on the way home.
“I was inspired by YouTubers who searched this city several times and couldn’t find it,” Souhrada told Fox News.
“I noticed something that looked like an upside down car, but I wasn't sure since it was my first time finding something.”
Bill Clifton, David McMicken and Michael Norman were last seen on December 10, 1982 at a bar in Chocowinity
Forty-one years later, the vehicle they were in was found in a stream just four miles away
There was little left of the 1975 Chevrolet Camaro, but the VIN was intact
Encouraged by other divers, he did more research before handing his findings over to local police.
Eventually they sent divers in and discovered a car with the same VIN as the missing car – along with human remains.
Formal identification has yet to be made, but the families of the three young friends have little doubt that the social media fanatic from nearby Myrtle Beach has finally solved the mystery that has baffled authorities for decades.
“Without Jason Souhrada’s sacrifice in taking time away from his family to help ours, we would not have this potential opportunity for closure,” Clifton’s daughter Lea Rose told Fox.
Amateur detective Jason Souhrada appears to have solved the mystery that baffled authorities for decades using cheap sonar strapped to a boogie board
“This has reopened the wounds and restarted the grieving process for three families.” “Despite the pain, it is a slight relief to finally have answers.”
The creek in Washington city is just four miles from the Chocowinity bar, which the three men left in a 1975 Chevrolet Camaro.
“I remember the night my dad went missing,” Rose said.
“My mom, dad, sister and I went to see Santa. Before we went home we looked at the Christmas lights and then of course he went out that night to spend time with his friends and never came home.'
Souhrada looked at maps of the area after coming across reports online.
“I wondered why they didn’t search this body of water and realized they couldn’t get there with normal boats,” he said.
“I decided to build my sonar boat because I don’t have a real boat or a place to store one,” he explained.
“A real boat would have been much more expensive.” Additionally, I only wanted to scan retention ponds and other areas that are not permitted or accessible to real boats.
“Tons of missing people are being found in retention ponds.”
Washington Police Chief Phil Rollinson was so impressed with his findings that he sent Sidney Dive Team captain John Scott Rose Jr. into the water.
“I found the vehicle after about 45 minutes of searching,” he said.
“The vehicle was in such poor condition that I could barely tell it was even a car when I picked it up.”
“Maybe it was a lawnmower or something.”
“It seemed very small to me, but then I realized that the main reason it was small was because there was nothing left of it except the chassis, axles and engine.”
Recovering the rusted remains was a priority, but first they had to drain four million gallons of water from the creek to allow access.
The car's VIN was discovered after the chassis was recovered, and human remains were found both in the car and in the drained creek.
“Based on what I saw and what we are looking at now, I am confident that these are the individuals from 1982,” Chief Rollinson said.
“DNA testing will take some time, but the forensic anthropologist who was here was pretty confident that we could get a DNA sample from the recovered remains.”
Developments in sonar and mapping technology have encouraged a developing cottage industry of amateur detectives to investigate missing person cases that have lain dormant for years.
More than four million gallons of water had to be drained from Jack's Creek before the fragile remains could be safely recovered
Mike Sullivan of Sunshine State Sonar has found the bodies of more than a dozen missing people in flooded cars in Florida's 85,000 waterways.
And it has given hope to grieving families who thought they would never know what became of their missing loved ones.
“I feel like I'm in some kind of dream,” said Clifton's other daughter, ReAnne Mayo.
“I never thought to prepare if we found her.
“Maybe I spent years watching the sunset by the creek with my dad nearby and never noticed.”