Scuba Diver Helps Find Evidence That Left Families & Authorities Stumped For 2 Decades

Oct 02, 2023 by apost team

As much as everyone wants, not all questions can be answered right there and then. Sometimes, it takes days, months, years, and even decades just to find out the real answers to life’s problems and little mundane things that keep people perplexed.

In the small city of Sparta in Tennessee, scuba diver and YouTube explorer Jeremy Sides managed to answer one of the town’s biggest questions in the past two decades – what happened to the two teenagers who went missing in 2000?

Sides, the owner of the Exploring With Nug YouTube channel, is filled with curiosity as he stumbled upon the case of Erin Foster and Jeremy Bechtel. 

The two teenagers went missing in 2000, and it has since left authorities and their families stumped because of the lack of evidence pointing toward their deaths. 

The two were spotted leaving a party in Erin’s 1998 Pontiac Grand Am car. As they drove home, they were never found again until after 21 years. 

Sides has been known to dabble on cold cases and missing cases on his YouTube channel. In 2021, he uploaded a video where he used contemporary technology to search for the missing teenager. In his pursuit of the truth, he stumbled upon something on one of the rivers of Sparta – the Calfkiller River. 

Using his expert tools and skillful mastery of scuba diving, he swam deep into the depths of the river and found what he initially saw in his equipment – car wreckage. 

As he reached the pit, he saw a car, the same Pontiac Grand Am car the two teenagers rode 21 years ago. 

Sides then retrieved the plate number of the car and made the call to the town’s sheriff to get them to the riverbanks.

The sheriff asked Sides not to make any phone calls as he promised to go there immediately. In the sheriff's words, it was a “case of a lifetime,” he then had someone run the nameplate search and confirmed that it was indeed the missing car all along. 

The state’s towing cars and other authorities rushed to the area and fished the car out of the river – which is the answer to the 21-year-old mystery of the city. 

Fans of Sides and other people online were thrilled to hear of the exciting news. They praised Sides for never giving up on such cases and the newfound hope and answers he might have brought the families of the teenagers. 

“These recoveries put a totally new slant of so many cold cases. There sadly seems this style of incident is very common in the US. Remarkable double recovery,” a user posted. 

“Heartbreaking. I'm a 55year old man sitting here with tears rolling down my face. At least the families now know what happened. Tragic, but a great job by Jeremy,” another praised. 

“Good on you, sir! Heartbreaking that this was the outcome from all of this, but the kids can be laid to rest & there’s gotta be comfort in knowing that they’ve been found! My condolences to family/friends from Kentucky,” someone wrote. 

Almost $8,500 was raised for Erin's memorial through a GoFundMe page in 2021. 

apost.com

What can you say about Jeremy Sides’ discovery? Do you think he could be called a hero for what he has done? Let us know, and pass this on to your family and friends!