Authorities have reopened a cold case of two Tennessee teens who vanished more than two decades ago, thanks to a shocking discovery from a scuba-diving YouTuber.
Erin Foster, 18, and Jeremy Bechtel, 17, have been missing since they left a White County home together to go to a party around 10 p.m. April 3, 2000, in Foster’s black Pontiac Grand Am, authorities said.
But for years, no new evidence has emerged in the case.
That all changed in November when YouTuber Jeremy Beau Sides made a grim discovery, a 1998 Pontiac Pontiac Grand Am sitting at the bottom of Calfkiller River in Sparta, cops said.
The car was later positively IDed as Foster’s and human remains were found inside the vehicle, local NewsChannel5 reported. The families of both Foster and Bechtel have been notified.
Sides, who uses sonar technology to help crack cold cases, documented on his YouTube channel his discovery of the car, and it being pulled from the water.
“I’m lost for words,” Sides said. “I’m so glad I could find them. I’m so sad that that’s where they ended up. I can’t believe it’s been over 20 years that they’ve been sitting there waiting for someone to find them.”
Sheriff Steve Page confirmed the development and said in a statement that “further information will be released as soon as they become available.”
Bechtel’s father, Ronnie, said he was grateful for a “sense of closure.”
“I can bury my son,” he told the Washington Post. “I’ve prayed that if he’s not on this Earth, that he’s with Jesus and with mama, and there’s no doubt they’ve all seen him by now and know what’s happened.”
