YouTuber’s find missing woman’s car, body in Florida pond

POLK COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) — Divers from a popular YouTube channel found out a car in a Florida retention pond Wednesday. The discovery led to an investigation into a demise involving a missing individual circumstance soon after deputies located a overall body within.

The group, Adventures With Reason, is a sonar lookup-and-restoration dive crew based out of Oregon. Its members vacation the region hoping to track down missing cars and, in turn, lacking persons. The team has 1.7 million subscribers on its YouTube channel, exactly where videos showcase their discoveries working with condition-of-the-artwork sonar equipment.

“We specialize in chilly conditions (where) people today are missing and missing with their auto. We have a quite special capability to obtain autos underwater the way organizations always do not,” stated head diver Doug Bishop.

The staff is currently on a 45-day “winter trip” by various Southern states.

Divers, generation crews and other group members used two days in Lakeland, about 35 miles east of Tampa, exploring for the Kia belonging to Margaret “Jan” Shupe Smith, who went missing past April.

They searched various bodies of h2o in Lakeland Tuesday. They identified two vehicles in Lake Christina but did not uncover Smith’s car.

“We have been browsing all above throughout Lakeland, and we couldn’t find something in those people bodies of h2o, and then we were tipped off by some legislation enforcement that she in fact acquired in a vehicle incident all over this area,” govt producer Carson McMaster explained.

Regulation enforcement responded to a auto crash in north Lakeland involving Smith on the exact working day she was reported lacking, even though the report experienced not been filed nevertheless, in accordance to the sheriff’s place of work.

When Adventures With Intent acquired of this new information, the team looked for bodies of water in the area, which led them to Victoria Highway and a new housing development identified as Hunter’s Crossing. The retention pond was there in April 2021, but there ended up no properties at the time.

“These homes ended up below construction. We moved right here in August, we settled. Most of these people today started out settling in July or August,” said Judy Heath, who life nearby.

The dive workforce found the Kia in 30 minutes of arriving on the scene Wednesday.

“The motor vehicle is basically just resting 18 inches down below the area degree. The water table never ever arrived at low more than enough that the motor vehicle could be discovered,” claimed McMaster.

Soon after discovering the car, the workforce known as the Polk County Sheriff’s Place of work.

“It’s not just about anything that (law enforcement companies) deficiency. It’s just — if they don’t have something to go off of, they have to justify their sources. We never have to justify anything,” spelled out Bishop.

Regulation enforcement pulled the auto out of the pond and uncovered the body inside. It has not however been recognized.

Additional data is predicted to be released on Thursday.

Smith’s spouse and children instructed NewsNation affiliate WFLA the discovery was shocking and upsetting, but they are happy they may well have some closure.

“You want to supply the household with solutions. We never say closure, but it’s the responses that they want so they can last but not least mourn and move on,” McMaster claimed.

“It’s an honor to deliver a loved ones with responses. Definitely it is an absolute honor that is the greatest word,” Bishop added.