YouTuber helps Missouri police find remains of man missing since 2013

Missouri police say they are “confident” they have found the remains of a man who’d been missing since 2013, thanks to a tip from a YouTuber. 

Investigators with the Camden County Sheriff’s Office believe the remains most likely belong to Donnie L. Erwin, who went missing in Camdenton, Missouri in December 2013. 

Sergeant Scott Hines said earlier this month that Erwin left his home to get cigarettes on the morning of December 29, 2013, and never came back. There was no evidence during the investigation that he planned to disappear. He was 59 years old. 

Authorities received a phone call earlier this month from a property owner in Southern Camden County who said they’d been contacted by freelance videographer and drone pilot, James Hinkle, the owner and operator of Sounds Like Videos. Police said Hinkle has been interested in the Erwin case for years and operates the YouTube channel, Echo Divers. 

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The property owner told police that Hinkle had been searching the area by drone and believed he had located a vehicle submerged in a small pond. Hinkle arranged with the property owner to search the area on foot and by kayak and found a light-colored submerged passenger car in the pond. 

Divers with the Mid-County Fire Protection District Dive Team responded to the area and verified that the license plate on the submerged vehicle matched the plate on Erwin’s missing Hyundai Elantra. 

Over the weekend, detectives from the Camden County Sheriff’s Office returned to the area with cadaver dogs and alerted investigators to the presence of human remains in the pond. 

Along with the human remains, investigators recovered an artificial hip consistent with the one Erwin had. A forensic pathologist was examining the remains to determine for certain if they belonged to Erwin. For now, investigators say they are confident the hip and remains belong to him.   

The case remains under investigation.