Current:Home > InvestAmateur Missouri investigator, YouTube creator helps break decade-old missing person cold case -FutureFinance
Amateur Missouri investigator, YouTube creator helps break decade-old missing person cold case
View
Date:2025-04-13 07:30:39
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A decade-old cold case centered on a Navy veteran who disappeared without a trace in rural Missouri is hot again after an amateur sleuth and YouTube creator’s help led police to unidentified human remains.
Donnie Erwin, a 59-year-old Camdenton resident, went missing on Dec. 29, 2013, after he went out for cigarettes and never returned. His disappearance piqued the interest of longtime true crime enthusiast and videographer James Hinkle last year, and the Youtuber spent a year tracing generations of Erwin’s relatives and spending his free time searching for him after work, documenting his efforts on his channel. He eventually discovered Erwin’s car hidden in a small pond.
Deputies and firefighters pulled Erwin’s algae-encrusted Hyundai Elantra and a titanium hip from a roadside drainage pond less than 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) from his home in December 2023, almost exactly a decade after he went missing.
“While a forensic pathologist will have to examine the remains to determine for certain if they are indeed those of Mr. Erwin, investigators are confident the hip and remains belong to him,” the Camden County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
The case had gone dormant for years after Erwin’s disappearance, frustrating investigators and his family. Yvonne Erwin-Bowen, Erwin’s sister, said she felt emotions beyond pain, frustration, aggravation and sorrow that she “can’t even label.”
“This is one of those cases that keeps you up,” sheriff’s office spokesperson Sgt. Scott Hines said. “Because the car just disappeared, and zero signs of him anywhere.”
Hinkle had skills that equipped him to take up the search.
“I just decided, well, I’m a scuba diver. I’m a drone pilot already,” Hinkle said. “I’m like, what the heck? I’ll just go look.”
“Just go look” turned into a year of Hinkle searching, and in his final hunt, he visited every nearby pond, including bodies of water that had already been searched and searched again. Hinkle, along with another true crime junkie acting as his partner, planned to wait until the winter so algae obscuring the water would be dead and nearby trees would have lost their leaves.
Hinkle finally found luck retracing possible routes from Erwin’s home to the convenience store where he bought cigarettes, then pinpointing roadside cliffs steep enough to hide an overturned car from passing drivers.
From there, Hinkle flew his drone by a pond so tiny he had previously written it off, where he found a tire.
When he returned a few days later with a sonar-equipped kayak and his camera to find a large car in the middle of the pond’s shallow waters, he called the sheriff.
Hines said the car’s discovery marked “the new beginning of the investigation.”
“Everything we’ve done up to the last 10 years has led us basically nowhere.” Hines said. “And then suddenly, here’s this vehicle.”
Cadaver dogs brought in by volunteers later alerted to the scent of possible human remains in the pond, which will be drained for any additional evidence, Hines said.
Erwin-Bowen said the strangers who for years helped her search the area and the support she received from a Facebook page she dedicated to finding her brother taught her “there is still good in people.”
“If it wasn’t for the public, I don’t think that we’d be where we’re at today,” Erwin-Bowen said. “Because they kept his face alive.”
___
Ahmed reported from Minneapolis and is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @TrishaAhmed15
veryGood! (1296)
Related
- Why members of two of EPA's influential science advisory committees were let go
- NYC could lose 10,000 Airbnb listings because of new short-term rental regulations
- The overlooked power of Latino consumers
- The Shiba Inu behind the famous 'doge' meme is sick with cancer, its owner says
- US appeals court rejects Nasdaq’s diversity rules for company boards
- From Twitter chaos to TikTok bans to the metaverse, social media had a rocky 2022
- Shannen Doherty Recalls “Overwhelming” Fear Before Surgery to Remove Tumor in Her Head
- Texas Justices Hand Exxon Setback in California Climate Cases
- McConnell absent from Senate on Thursday as he recovers from fall in Capitol
- NFL 'Sunday Ticket' is headed to YouTube beginning next season
Ranking
- A South Texas lawmaker’s 15
- China Just Entered a Major International Climate Agreement. Now Comes the Hard Part
- Which economic indicator defined 2022?
- Transcript: Utah Gov. Spencer Cox on Face the Nation, July 9, 2023
- Head of the Federal Aviation Administration to resign, allowing Trump to pick his successor
- How an 11-year-old Iowa superfan got to meet her pop idol, Michael McDonald
- NFL 'Sunday Ticket' is headed to YouTube beginning next season
- Q&A: An Environmental Justice Champion’s Journey From Rural Alabama to Biden’s Climate Task Force
Recommendation
Intel's stock did something it hasn't done since 2022
Chelsea Handler Trolls Horny Old Men Al Pacino, Robert De Niro and More Who Cannot Stop Procreating
6 killed in small plane crash in Southern California
Biden’s Climate Plan Embraces Green New Deal, Goes Beyond Obama-Era Ambition
Federal court filings allege official committed perjury in lawsuit tied to Louisiana grain terminal
Southern Charm Star Taylor Ann Green's Brother Worth Dead at 36
Video: Access to Nature and Outdoor Recreation are Critical, Underappreciated Environmental Justice Issues
If You Can't Stand Denim Shorts, These Alternative Options Will Save Your Summer