Adventures With Function have made it their mission to assist households discover lacking family members throughout the nation, and have helped remedy 19 chilly circumstances since 2019. (Adventures With Function/CNN)
When Margaret "Jan" Shupe Smith, 59, vanished close to Lakeland, Florida final yr, her household and police have been baffled.
She was supposed to select up her daughter, Marley Shupe, after work on April 2, 2021, and was final seen driving a moss green-coloured Kia Soul. It was not like her mother to not present up, Shupe mentioned. Smith was a feisty lady and liked spending time along with her grandchildren.
"She had a giant coronary heart, was very variety and caring and loving," Shupe mentioned. "She would provide you with her shirt off her again should you wanted it."
Michelle Sanders, considered one of Smith's kin, instructed CNN she had been a giant fan of a YouTube channel known as Adventures with Function (AWP), which documented the work of a scuba diving staff.
AWP have made it their mission to assist households discover lacking family members throughout the nation, and have helped remedy 19 chilly circumstances since 2019. Their YouTube channel has almost 1.8 million subscribers and 15 million views a month, in accordance with Jared Leisek, founding father of AWP.
After Smith went lacking, Sanders mentioned she submitted her case particulars over the summer time to AWP, realizing it is perhaps a protracted shot. AWP agreed to take the case, and CNN got here alongside.
SEARCHING FOR ANSWERS
The group, which features a diver, two cameramen and Leisek, packed up an RV and trailer final month. They headed out on a 45-day trek throughout the southeast beginning in Oklahoma, then into Texas and throughout to Florida, in accordance with Leisek.
"This journey is staying a bit additional south, "Leisek instructed CNN. "And we have by no means really been to Florida for every other circumstances. So, this will likely be our first time into Florida, and we hope to achieve success as properly."
The group did not begin off fixing chilly circumstances, Leisek began the channel three years in the past to doc his diving journey with the aim of choosing up 2,000 kilos of trash littering waterways in three months.
The mission advanced into discovering submerged autos.
"Effectively, it did not take lengthy, and solely took me two to 3 weeks to truly meet that aim," Leisek instructed CNN.
"And within the strategy of doing this, fast-forward about 9 months of discovering cellphones and sun shades and, , pop cans and simply rubbish usually. I by accident ran right into a automobile that was 40 toes underwater in Portland, Oregon."
The YouTube channel picked up recognition as viewers watched what he found within the murky waterways.
The group's diving abilities ultimately caught the eye of Nathan Ashby's household in Warren County, Missouri. Ashby, 22, went lacking July 31, 2019. He was final seen leaving for work within the early morning hours driving a pickup truck.
In August, authorities utilizing sonar found a pickup truck submerged within the Missouri River however on account of circumstances of the river it was deemed unsafe for a restoration staff to dive into the water, in accordance with a information launch from the Warren County Sheriff's Division.
On December 29, 2019, a day after Ashby's birthday, AWP was in a position to efficiently dive into the river and make sure the truck was his. Ashby's stays have been discovered within the automobile.
Since then, the group has helped remedy 19 lacking folks chilly circumstances. At the moment, they've a solvability price of about 20 %, in accordance with Leisek. Final fall, throughout the group's final tour, they got down to remedy 27 chilly circumstances in quest of 36 lacking folks, in accordance with information on their web site. They helped get better 11 folks.
"We're very lucky that these households have allowed us to share their tales with one thing as so intimate and private to them, with the understanding and the appreciation that they have been capable of finding us as a result of the households earlier than them shared their tales," mentioned Leisek.
The divers do not cost households or police for his or her companies and are absolutely funded by their social media channels and donations.
The group solely takes on circumstances the place foul play is just not suspected. Leisek provides the older the case is, the extra hypothesis and rumors swirl round what may need occurred. He provides many police departments won't have the sources available or the gear AWP has to look our bodies of water.
LAST-MINUTE TIP LEADS TO DISCOVERY
Final Tuesday, AWP began looking out our bodies of water across the space Smith was thought to have been final seen. After exploring a number of areas and coming throughout two unrelated submerged autos, the group obtained a tip from the Polk County Sheriff's Workplace. Smith was in a minor visitors accident the evening she went lacking, deputies mentioned, in a distinct space than they have been looking out.
Earlier than hitting pause on her case and shifting on, they determined to strive another time.
The following morning, they drove out to a retention pond in a newly-developed neighbourhood. When Smith went lacking, it was at evening, and she or he could not see properly at evening, in accordance with Sanders. The neighbourhood was additionally beneath development, which may have led to her being confused along with her environment, inflicting her to by accident drive into the water.
CNN was on the scene documenting the group's efforts, when in the midst of the pond, simply 18 inches beneath the water's floor, the staff's sonar gear picked up on a automobile which appeared like a Kia Soul, the kind of automotive Smith was final seen in.
One of many divers swam right down to verify the licence plate. It matched Smith's.
The Polk County Sheriff's Workplace was known as to the scene. They pulled the automotive out of the water, and a feminine's physique was recovered inside, in accordance with a information launch. The stays nonetheless need to be positively matched earlier than confirming it's Smith, in accordance with authorities.
"This was a tragic accident, and our prayers are with the household," Grady Judd, Polk County Sheriff, mentioned within the launch. "We're grateful for Adventures with Function working with us in finding the automobile."
Sanders added the household now has the closure they want, and may now begin the grieving course of.
"I obtained combined feelings. I am tremendous glad and excited," mentioned Sanders. "On the flip facet, my coronary heart breaks for Marley, at the least she is aware of now that it was an accident."
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
When the scene was cleared, AWP packed up their gear and headed out to discover a laundromat and place to bathe, as their life on the highway continues to their subsequent case.
"I hope to be doing this for the subsequent 5, 10, 15 years," mentioned Leisek. "You realize, I am going to do it so long as I can as a result of once more, it is in ... the human nature to assist out each other."
Leisek's aim for the group is to conduct two excursions a yr, every 45 days lengthy throughout the US.
"It is due to you, the viewers which can be watching, liking, subscribing and sharing our movies and getting the phrase out as to what we're able to and sharing it," mentioned Leisek. "In order that method, the subsequent household can even discover us in the identical method."
One merchandise they promote by way of their web site is an emergency window breaker and seat belt cutter, an merchandise Sanders believes would have helped Smith escape.
"If extra folks had one thing like that, we would not have circumstances like Jan's at the moment," she mentioned.
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