© RR
An American amateur detective has solved a 40-year-old disappearance case. He found three men who did not return home in 1982 after visiting a bar, and he did so with a boat he made himself.
Just before Christmas 1982, William C. (30), David M. (24) and Michael N. (32) disappeared together in a Chevrolet Camaro after visiting a bar in North Carolina. A major search was launched at the time, but the three men were not found. Until a certain Jason Souhrada, an amateur detective, threw himself into the case.
“I was inspired by YouTubers who searched the city several times and couldn’t find anything,” Souhrada told Fox News. He spent a lot of time on the case and came to the conclusion that a local reservoir, Jack’s Creek, had never been searched. The reason for this is that the searchers could not get to that lake with a normal boat. That’s why it was never investigated.
Improvised sonar boat
Souhrada decided to investigate the matter himself. He did this by putting together a sonar device himself. With a sonar you can find out whether something is there by sending sound signals underwater. He mounted a box with sonar on a small surfboard. Cost price? Several hundred dollars. But he could solve the case with it. He launched his makeshift sonar boat onto the water and soon saw what looked like “the roof of a car.” To be sure, he went over the place where the car was located several times with the sonar.
The wreckage of the car. — © Sidney Dive Team
Police Commissioner Phil Rolinson was impressed by Souhrada’s findings. That’s why he sent a diving team to the lake, and with success: after a 45-minute search, the wreckage of the car was found. Not much was left of that car other than the chassis. Yet the chassis number was still visible. Human remains were also found.
Family for sure
A DNA test will still have to show whether these are actually the three disappeared men, but according to their families there is no doubt about that. “Without the sacrifice of Jason Souhrada, who takes time away from his family to help ours, we would not have this potential chance for closure,” William C.’s daughter told Fox.
Souhrada plans to solve even more problems with his own “sonar boat”. On the American television station WMBF-TV he says that he wants to solve another case of a man who disappeared in South Carolina in 2017, but has still not been found.