(DailyDig.com) – On December 24, with the assistance of a committed YouTuber, the body of a missing Missouri Army veteran was finally located after a ten-year search.
The veteran Donnie Erwin disappeared while driving a Hyundai Elantra 2002 in the Ozarks community of Camdenton on December 29, 2013. YouTuber James Hinkle, who has over one million followers, discovered the car on December 14 while utilizing freshwater mapping equipment.
Hinkle, a drone pilot and YouTuber, discovered the vehicle during his own search for the missing veteran. Earlier this month, authorities retrieved it from a nearby lake. He documented the almost year-long adventure on his widely-watched “Echo Divers” YouTube channel.
Scuba divers from the video blogger’s crew further examined the vehicle covered in algae, confirming it as the same one that Erwin had last driven almost a decade ago. It took cadaver dogs an additional week to find human remains, but detectives from the Sheriff’s Office in Camden County verified that the license plate matched Erwin’s.
Investigators discovered that the prosthetic hip was identical to the one Erwin had. According to the sheriff’s office, detectives are certain that the hip and bones belong to Erwin, even though the forensic pathologist hasn’t yet confirmed that.
The fact that they know where Erwin is now allows them to celebrate, according to Yvonne Erwin-Bowen, his sister. This is true even if he is not physically present. She loves him and misses her brother very much.
How Erwin got into the lake when he was out for a smoke ten years ago is a mystery that detectives are still trying to solve. While the conventional wisdom was that Erwin took his own life, Hinkle entertained the possibility that it may have been an accidental one.
It would still have been dark when he left his residence, according to Hinkle. His vision was impaired because he forgot to bring his spectacles, so the incident could have been accidental.
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