Solved Missing Persons Case... Bringing Closure for Nathan's Family

- The rear window is open. The body is still in the driver's seat. - Today is a bittersweet day. The truck behind us, as you can see, actually has Nathan Ashby's body and he is in the vehicle today. (soft, soulful music) We never want a day like this to happen. The good news is that we can really close the situation. (soft, soulful music) Just a warning, we are not going to show the body out of respect. (soft, soulful music) But let's show you what really happened today. This day started at nine in the morning. I think it's six, seven o'clock right now. - Six o'clock. (soft, soulful music) This day actually started two days earlier when we started driving 32 hours to get here. - We tell you all about that in the video right now, so stay tuned. (soft, soulful music) This is how I want to start this today.

It is truly thanks to you, the viewers, who have made this possible. As if we have been working on this YouTube channel, as well as on Facebook, for a year and a half. And it's because people saw what we were doing that they reached out to us and gave us the opportunity to help this

family

and, you know, see if we can really close them today. So because of your likes, your shares, your comments, the YouTube algorithm, the Facebook algorithm, the way this channel has grown, I want to thank each and every one of you for allowing us and putting us in a position to see to do this.

Because today we are here as volunteers. And the reason we can drive 32 hours is because yes, YouTube pays us money, Facebook pays us money for views and that's really what has given us this opportunity. Without you, none of this would have been possible. So thanks. Let me show you how it's going to play out today and today we're going to give

closure

to this

family

. So thanks to you, it means a lot to us. - A requirement. Everyone, I don't know any of you. But one requirement: if we have the truck, we will ask you to leave this area while he processes it in

case

he is there.

We will ask you to back up and leave so everyone knows. Because after so much time, this is not something you want to keep in your memory, you are seeing it. - What we will do today, if we recover and any remains we will send to the forensic doctor. - Good. - Well. - We will get it from today's confirmation. I mean it will be a little while. But that being said, if it's his truck and there's something in it, we'll know today. Makes sense? - Yes absolutely. - Well, we'll know if it's his truck or not before we leave here. - I'll know it's his truck because I'll see it.

I'm not leaving until I see your truck. - Thank you all for coming and allowing us to come into your county and help bring

closure

to the family here. I know it is a delicate time for the community and family, in addition to

bringing

outside people that you know. Sometimes you feel like you know they're stepping on our toes. And before that I want to make sure that you know what? We're all playing on the same page and, you know, we have a purpose here today and that's to make everyone look good, like you know, close the family.

I'm Jared. This is Sam, my diving buddy. We also have Jacob there on camera today. The way we really make a living from this is we know that we are storytellers and you know, we will work with the family on how to put this story together and tell an appropriate story that, you know, will honor the family. Honor Nathan and see if he can raise awareness, help other families and close out 2020 for them and move on too. With that, the way cameras will work today. You know, if you're not comfortable with him, he's usually six feet away from whatever's going on.

Talking to me. Any conversation we are going to have. I won't take it personally if you just feel like you know now is not the time for a camera to be a part of this scene. It's not a problem at all. With that, also the moment the vehicle shows up, you know, at no point will we know, we will search a body. At any time the sheriff doesn't want the family to see him. So you know, we want to respect that for everyone as well. We're not here, you know, to show off or anything like that.

At that point, we're cutting cameras for the day. What we'll do is let everyone sleep on this. You know, we'll move on and you know, we'll come back tomorrow. I'm meeting with Kevin tomorrow for, you know, rap interviews; talk to him about his work with us, about our arrival in the county. We'll know, we'll meet with you too and what kind of story we can, you know, summarize and tell to package this together, you know, for the world to see. So I just want everyone to feel very comfortable with the way the story is going. We are civil in this.

It gives us a lot of freedom of action so we don't have to eliminate the same bureaucracy that other agencies do. So we don't blame anyone for not being able to address this sooner and we just want to make sure we keep all of that in mind. Today we have one purpose and only one purpose and that is to close the life of the family. With that, you know, Dennis is amazing. In fact, he is here today on his account. We drove 32 hours on our own. You know, remember, we are all volunteers in this. And you know, it's for...

If this was my family, this is my son, if this is my daughter, you know, we want closure. We want to be able to help. Not just his family, but we want to be able to be in a position to help other families move forward, you know, in the years to come. You know, I personally still have a good 10 years left, so you know, how many families can I help between now and then too? If there's something I'm doing, feel free to approach me that you're not comfortable with. I respect everyone 100% and want to make sure everyone feels comfortable with everything that is happening today.

From what I understand, Dennis identified a dozen different vehicles in this area when he began scanning it and three of them are potential targets today. So with that, we'll continue. You know, we'll start taking them out one at a time until we identify that one of those three is it and if he got in here, we'll make sure we find him today. Any question for me? We have Kevin, let me turn it over to Kevin. -No, I think he has covered it. I mean our participation at the moment when he says that we have a white extended taxi, that we will take the Patriot to the scene ready to go.

Let's stage it here. If we remove the vehicle at that time, Jeff and the guys will cordon off an area. Again, I won't tell people they can't be here. We'll just cordon off a safe area so they can do whatever they need to do to clean it up and see what's inside. Other than that, we're ready to go. - Perfect. I will be in communication with the surface, so Jacob or Sam will be able to know, hear, since I am actually underwater. So whatever you say, they will have immediate knowledge of whatever is happening underwater. Other than that, we hope to bring you good news today. - Let's do it. - Yes.

Sam and I will end up getting dressed so Sam will be ready in

case

something happens for safety reasons. - Up to you. - Other than that, Sam. - Let's do it, man. - Thank you for coming and joining this little adventure with me today. - Yes man. It's great to help family in need. You know, be a part of it. Yes, it brings some closure and it brings some awareness. It's an honor, an honor to be here, man, so I appreciate you

bringing

me. - Yes absolutely. - This is definitely a service of love. You know, help these people find closure.

I know, you know, if we or, you know, one of my family members were in this situation or if, you know, I lost a loved one, you know, I would love, you know, for someone to come out and help me. ; So this definitely, you know, feels good. - I was talking about what we are doing now. - Yes. - We are identifying the vehicle. - Correct. Yes, yes, first step, we will go there and identify the vehicle. Make sure we have the right one. Then from there, you know, call the wrecker and then, you know, get her out. - Absolutely, this is what I do.

There is water and I have air. No problem. All I have to do is keep breathing. - I trust you. - Yes. - I trust you with all my heart. - We did it. - I know. - Alright. - Good luck. - See you in a while. - Yes. - I'll keep him safe. - Bye bye. Thank you so much. Thank you. - Yes. - What we're going through is Dennis is on the search boat right now with the Hummingbird and the side scan. He's marking it. He says this first location, the truck for some reason is, the first truck we identified as a target, is not there currently.

I do not know why. I mean, we really haven't had any major flooding since you guys last identified it. Anyway, let's address the first one that we thought was the main goal to begin with. We'll see if that's it. Are we just going to go ahead and put Jacob and Sam on this boat? - Yes, good. (boat engine revving) -Yes, he's hooked. He's hooked. - Do you have her hooked? Ready? - Take this anchor. Well, take it that way. I will yell at you. Just set it aside. We'll take it from there. - Here? - So what we have is that Dennis has actually connected to vehicle A at this point.

What we have to do is drop me in front of this boat with the anchor line and lower that anchor line. The moment I walk in, I want everyone in front of me to never go after me because if I need to let go and show up for whatever reason, I'll just go ahead and catch this whirlpool here and you can just put Me back in the bank. - Say it one more time. - We'll keep it a secret if we find anything. We don't want to give anyone false hope. - If you find the truck, don't shout it.

You have a signal to send to the sheriff. - Since the family is up there, we don't want additional anxiety. - I will be on a voice activator, so I will be talking the entire time. - Yes, you look good here. - Only if I need you, then I will give you space to say something. (water splash) - Today we have Jared wearing the OTS mask instead of a regular mask like the one I wear, which just has a strap that goes around the head. This one has multiple straps, which is perfect and ideal in these whitewater conditions. - Okay, radio control, control, control, control, control, control. (Jared breathes heavily) Okay, I've got comms.

I think communications are good there. (Jared breathes heavily) Alright, let's go down. We are attached to the truck with this line. Little by little we moved down and towards our safety line. (Jared breathes heavily) Alright, we just crossed a barrier. There is some current. There is still a very strong current here. Alright. It's turning completely black right now. I guess I'm about 10 or 15 feet down. What is he saying? - So you're 15 feet away right now and you say it's completely dark and the current is very strong. - I'm going to try to turn on the light.

There is the light. (Jared breathes heavily) - All I hear is breathing. - That's good. That's good. - That's a good sound, isn't it? - Yes, that's fine, as long as he's breathing, we're fine. Because at this point, you know, he has his headphones on. You know, in addition to the necessary communication with us, he is just talking to the audience; then he will go for long periods of time without saying anything. As long as you hear him breathe. - That's a positive thing. -(he laughs softly) Yes. (Jared breathes heavily)-Something's not right. I'm up.

Something's not right with this air. - Are you sure it's okay? - Alright. He goes to the shore. (boat engine accelerating) - My tank emptied, I don't know what happened. Take me to the shore. The reason I think my tank was depleted is that I think the force of the current pushed my backup regulator because that force ended up draining my tank within a few minutes of being underwater there. (water gushing) - I have no communications. - Communications? - No communications. - No communications. (Jared breathes heavily) Yeah, there's no communications. I can not hear anything. -Did you turn on his microphone?

Can you hear it still? - No, don't listen to anything. - Well, I'm going to take this off. There may be a miscommunication with the lens. - Do we have that knife? - And the transistor. (Becky murmurs) - Yeah, we're trying to adjust that right now. (Jared breathes heavily) -I don't think he turned on his microphone. - We continue, we continue. We did it. - Good. Good good good. I will hold it. - Hi Jared, I can hear you upstairs loud and clear. - Okay, check, check, check. I'm at the bottom. (Jared breathes heavily) I'm with the truck.

I'm next to the door, to the side. Visibility is almost nothing. I'm going to make my way to the back of the truck. - No visibility. Take three inches. Now he heads to the back of the truck. - I have broken through. (Jared breathes heavily) I'm actually in the whirlpool. At the moment they are not pressuring me. I'm standing next to the rear wheel identifying what type of spoke it is. - It's in a small whirlpool. They're not pushing it, so it's stable. It is next to the rear wheel. - Visibility is terrible down here. I can't even see what kind of tire it is.

Let's see if I can get to the back of the truck. Let's see if I can grab a plate. The truck appears to be white, but I can't quite make it out. There is aNow Sam is getting into the water. He will be the hero now. He will make the official hook when he comes out of the water. Sam is going to go around the bar with this. We'll get him back up, put two shackles on him, and then we can do our final official tow to get him out. What ended up happening, I think I already explained.

If I didn't, I'll tell you again. But anyway, as we dragged him upstream, he ended up hitting the river bank here. And as a result, he ended up breaking the carabiner that we didn't have rated correctly because we couldn't hook it properly underwater in that type of current. The good news is that we are much closer. Sam won't have to deal with the current we dealt with earlier. In a couple of minutes, he should go down and back in less than two minutes in this case. (water gurgling) Then I can feel it pulling on the line.

He is still pulling out the rope because it is now attached around the crash bar and he is coming back up. So he's throwing himself against the other line we have hooked here (he speaks weakly). He's almost back. Looks good. (water splash)-He doesn't know he's awake. - Hey, we're here. Hey, welcome back and you got it. - I got it. - So I want to make sure everyone is out of the death zone here. I'm going to go ahead and lower this bar. - Everyone safe and sound? - Sure, of course. Good to go? - Yes. - Okay, of course!

Yeah! Let's go over that other box over there. Did you hear what we're doing there? - Yes. - Move the car first. - No, let's join them. Pulling the frame and the truck at the same time. (people murmuring) Alright, there he is. They both leave now. Yeah, look at all the bubbles there. (crane whirring) That's the truck. There is. Oh, we're

missing

some windows. Oh no, the window is still open, it's okay. That's good. - What's happening? - Let me go over this now. The good news is that we have the truck here. Everything looks fine.

With that, we'll move on to some questions and answers and have a conversation with the sheriff, so hang in there and we'll fill you in on everything else. So now we go to the next morning, that's where we'll be with this. And you know, some things I want to go over today. One is, you know, the dangers of what we actually did yesterday. We had a two-week window for this to actually happen and yesterday was like the last deadline in the next few months, as I understand it. -Because of the weather we just went through, we knew from the river projections that we will have about six feet of elevation starting today.

While you guys were in the water yesterday, I'm monitoring you. I think we rose about two feet while you were in the water. I know we thought today was a backup day. But based on what was coming and the gust of wind today, I mean, I knew in my heart that if they didn't do it on Sunday, it would be over because today we're going to push 15, 16 feet with 30+ miles. one hour winds. But the real challenge is that you have the depth. But you know, for most divers, deep water is not the problem. It's the current.

And the strange thing about the Missouri River is that it's not just a constant force pushing it. If you just look at the river, it swirls, it bubbles, it's just moving water. And I'm not an authority, I don't know why. But we fish and hunt and are on the river recreationally. You feel it when you are browsing. You feel it when you are in the water. It swirls. - But there were waves there too. I could feel the water levels rising with the currents and coming down and hitting us. - And then the concern we have is that when the river rises, the debris, all of a sudden you'll start to have a debris flow.

So you know, that was my concern with you. Suddenly, if you know, trees and things start moving underwater, it could become dangerous quickly. - And I think the other thing I really want to point out as well is, you know, a couple of things. One is that you don't have your own diving equipment. You know, we have fire departments. And fire departments often have scuba diving teams. But above all they are firefighters. They go to training, while we are in the water doing this real life all the time giving us what they know, the experience and the knowledge of how to do it.

And with that you know, I want to make sure that we also point fingers and don't blame anyone. This is a diver in command, a pilot in command. You have to feel comfortable with what you are doing. And anyone who said, "I don't want to dive in that water." I don't blame them at all. In fact, I think that's the other thing I'd really love to point out: especially to a recreational diver, don't get in this river. Absolutely not. This is a risky situation that we got ourselves into yesterday. -And none of the fire districts in our county have dive teams, so our recourse is that there is a group outside of St.

Louis County that we would call and then the water patrol division of the State Highway Patrol of Missouri. Because we didn't even know if it was our truck. Honestly, it was a rescue. So their judgment of putting people in danger, they do in an instant in a rescue. In a recovery, the criteria will become stricter. In a rescue, everything will get very tight. They're just not going to risk people. Obviously, one can work within the guidelines, be more flexible and do what other groups, their protocols and risk assessments do not allow them to do. And that's what sometimes makes it difficult for me not to control the resources that depend on others.

I just don't have that flexibility to do that. They have highly regulated risk assessments and safety protocols. And you know, I think if the river had gotten to, you know, between 10 and 15, I know they would have done it at some point. You could just respond and the window opened and you came and did it. And man, I'm so grateful for that. - No, I really appreciate it. I guess you know, in closing, would you bring us back to your county if you have anything else? - If I had a delicate dive that I needed to do again and couldn't do it through my usual channels.

I'm impressed. Guys, I can't believe you drove halfway across the country. - And this is our passion, you know? We specialize in this and this is where we wanted to be and this is what we wanted to do, you know? This is what we do for fun, what we do for work and we are happy to be a part of it. - I guess at the end of this, would you mind telling the world, "Hey, if you ever need help?" - Did you know? I'm impressed. Jared came out. I never met him until yesterday, I spoke to him at the beginning of December.

Honestly, a little skeptical. You seem a little confident on the phone. I didn't know. I never met the man. He arrived, he fulfilled everything he promised. He took out our vehicle. Let's get closure for a family. So if there's anything in the water, right now, I'd say Jared is a good guy to call. (Jared murmurs) It's okay. - Sheriff. - Stay safe in what you are doing. - I really appreciate it. - They were out. - Thank you. You guys are a little crazy about what you're doing, but I guess that's necessary too. - Yes, just a little bit. - Take care and honestly, we appreciate it.

My presiding commissioner was on site all day yesterday and I told him we would not be receiving any bills. I didn't know if the family was. And he said, "Kevin, if we have to send them some money, they earned it yesterday." - There's no bill. - Well, I think you'll get some from the county, from the sheriff's department. My presiding commissioner agreed. Same thing with the crane. I appreciate people saying, "Hey, this is free." But at the same time, I need help because I could call you again. I could use that rig again. there and he wasn't planning on sending me a bill, so I have to take care of people like that who take care of us. - Hey, we really appreciate it. - Thank you. - Okay. - Thank you. we're headed to Becky's house we did this yesterday and not today.

The wind has really picked up. Let me give you a couple of good thanks. He's from Chaos Divers. Jacob is actually a good friend of mine. We've been friends for a couple of years. Go check out his YouTube channel at the link below. Also Sam Sam, the adventurer, who drove with me over 2000 miles one way. We still have to drive home another 2,000 miles so you know, Dennis is the side scan sonar guy on the you know, the rescue boat. You know, Dan, Danny and Travis, his family came out. Everyone who was involved. We had the hospitality of an anonymous donor who also took care of two nights' lodging for the three of us here in town. - Thank you. - Thank you. - Thanks to you too.

Anything else you guys want to say before we wrap this up and head to Becky's? - Yes. It has been an honor to be here and help serve the family. It's great to meet good people and something good here in the community and you know, it's amazing. - Actually, I am very happy to meet you, it is an honor to meet you. It's definitely been humbling to do this and I'm proud of you. You guys did an excellent job. - Yes, teamwork belongs to everyone. Anyone. We couldn't have done it without everyone. - As we wrap up and prepare to head home, you know, this has been an emotional time for everyone who's been involved.

You know, for Sam and I with the pressures and the dangers that you know, we had within you, a dive like this. You know, and just the gratitude of being able to be involved in something that you know, of this nature. You know, for your family, Becky. You know, Kelly. For Naomi and Tasha. Allowing us to come in and you know, help them close the situation. They are not the answers anyone wanted. But at the same time, they were the answers that everyone needed, you know, as we move into 2020 and allow the healing process to begin. - We appreciate you coming. - Yes, no, I really appreciate it. - You know, risking your lives for another life.

A life that we knew was already gone if he was there and now we can bring him home. We can bring him home thanks to you. - Yes, we can't thank you enough. - Yes no, thank you. Like I said, it's very humbling for us and the ability for us to have this opportunity not only with his family, but also, moving forward. How many more families can you meet, Sam and I and our team are out helping? - It is an honor, an absolute honor to serve you. - Thank you. - We thank you very much. - Thank you. (somber, soulful music) - I love this song. ♪ You know I like my chicken fried ♪ ♪ And cold beer on a Friday night ♪ ♪ A pair of jeans that fit me perfectly ♪ ♪ And the radio broke ♪ (somber, soulful music)