YouTuber Discovers Van of Missing Teenagers in Tennessee

Amateur investigators continue to make breaks in cold cases from years past. YouTube, TikTok, and Twitter users are taking an interest to cold cases and true crime cases as they attempt to piece together what others couldn't.

One YouTuber did just that in Tennesse, when he discovered the van of two missing in a lake while filming a video for his scuba diving series.

Jeremy Sides, who has a YouTube channel called Exploring with Nug, is a scuba diver who explored rivers, lakes, and other bodies of water for anything notable. He posted a video last week of him discovering a car in Calfkiller River, Tennessee. Remarkably, this car had the license plate still in tact and it was a match for a van that belonged to two missing teenagers in the 2000's. Human remains were found inside of the vehicle, but have not been identified. The case has been officially reopened.

Here's the rundown of the case: Erin Foster and Jeremy Bechtel, two teenagers from Sparta, Tennessee, went missing after last being seen headed to a party around 10 p.m. on the night of April 3, 2000. The case went cold after no evidence, tips, or clues came in.

After the car was recovered from the lake and positively identified as Foster's, both parents of the missing teenagers were notified. Erins' father told this to Inside Edition 

"Me and my son have fished over it many times since she's been missing,” he said. “I mean right over the car. But the water's always real murky and stuff there and there's no way we could have saw the car, anyway. I don't think.”

Here is the full video of the car's discovery that was posted on the Exploring with Nug Youtube page. It's about 20 minutes long.

We will have to see if the remains are positively identified as Erin and Jeremy.

I am fascinated with these amateur detectives solving tons of cold cases just by deep diving into videos and using their own technology and resources. This is why these social media content developers are so important. If they don't solve a case, they will definitely point you in a new direction with a fresh set of eyes.