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Sarah Biren
Sarah Biren
January 2, 2024 ·  4 min read

YouTuber Goes For A Swim, Winds Up Cracking Open 21-Year-Old Cold Case

Jeremy Beau Sides runs a YouTube channel with over 346 thousand subscribers where he uses scuba gear and sonar technology to find evidence in missing-person cases that have gone cold. On November 24, 2021, he posted a video titled: Searching Lake For Two Teenagers That Vanished 20 Years Ago! In the video description, he wrote, “Jeremy Betchel and Erin Foster disappeared 20 years ago. I’m scuba diving the lake and using side-scan sonar to see if I can find the car they were in.” There, the YouTuber found solved a cold case from April 2000.

Erin Foster and Jeremy Bechtel. Image Credit: White County Sheriff's Office
Erin Foster and Jeremy Bechtel. Image Credit: White County Sheriff’s Office

Diver Solves 21-Year Old Cold Case

White County Sheriff Steve Page said on Facebook that a member of Erin Foster’s family contacted him and sent him a link to Sides’ video. After seeing it, the sheriff contacted Sides and advised him to search in an area closer to where the couple went missing. With this new information, Slides successfully found the vehicle and called Sheriff Page, who later confirmed the vehicle is a match. [1] In the follow-up video, which garnered over five million views, Jeremy Betchel and Erin Foster were finally found.

I’m lost for words,” Sides said in his video. “I‘m so glad I could find them, I’m so sad that that’s where they ended up. I can’t believe — it’s been over 20 years that they’ve been sitting there waiting for someone to find them.”

Rest in Peace, Jeremy Betchel and Erin Foster

Foster, 18, and Bechtel, 17, went missing on April 3, 2000, in a 1988 Pontiac Grand Am, and their families hadn’t seen them since. They had no resolution until now. “It was like losing him all over again,” Mr. Bechtel said in an interview. “We kind of had just had a thin bit of hope that he was still alive.”

The father described his son as a well-mannered young man who liked rap music and “had a kind soul and a big heart.” Unfortunately, his wife, Rhoda Ledbetter, had passed away from cancer three years before Sides’ discovery. 

Erin Foster and Jeremy Bechtel disappeared in April 2000. Their car was found in 2021.
Erin Foster and Jeremy Bechtel disappeared in April 2000. Their car was found in 2021. Image Credit: White County Sheriff’s Office

“It was a very small town, two teenagers go missing and no one knows where they went. Everybody knew these kids, they went to school with them, you know,” Sides said. “Half the police officers went to school with these guys, they were friends with them. It was a very great feeling to bring so much closure and answers to so many people at once. It meant a lot to me and I know it meant a lot to all of them too.” [2]

After this discovery, the Facebook page dedicated to the Foster and Bechtel cold case posted a picture of flowers and a sign at the lake where the car was found. “After several attempts we were finally able to visit the scene,” wrote a loved one of the missing teens. “It brings a peace that can’t be explained. Just quiet. Calm. Serenity. Rest easy my friends. Fly high. We love you.[3]

Read: DNA Evidence May Clear Executed Man Who Spent 22 Years Insisting He Was Innocent Of Murder

Read: This Man Kept Calling His Loved Ones… Even Though He’d Been Dead For Hours

The Rise of Armchair Detectives

Sides isn’t the only sleuth on YouTube. In fact, there is a sub-genre of amateur detectives looking into cold cases on social media. However, these videos aren’t always as helpful as Sides’ was in this situation. Sometimes they result in misfires and sensationalism of horrific crimes. Keep in mind that these cases are often recent, meaning the victim’s families and friends are still alive and grieving while people online speculate about their loved ones’ deaths.

However, Michelle Jeanis, an assistant professor of criminal justice at the University of Louisiana, explains that these kinds of efforts can play an “integral role” in resolving cold cases. Often, police officials lack the resources or the will to reopen old cases.

Generally, people are frustrated with the lack of progress police make, and so we get these organizations as a result of that,” Dr. Jeanis said.

However, she warns that “armchair detectives” could harm the investigation by overwhelming authorities with unhelpful tips until they start ignoring them. Plus, inexperienced sleuths can put themselves in danger through activities such as diving, and they could tamper with evidence. But with that in mind, outsiders can greatly assist old mysteries. 

Sometimes these agencies, especially the smaller agencies, they just don’t have the manpower, and maybe the cases have gone cold and they can’t continue the investigation,” said Michael Alcazar, a retired detective from the New York Police Department. “Especially something as old as this case, it’s probably just sitting in a file cabinet.”[4] Hopefully, Sides’ successful discovery will help the families and friends of Betchel and Foster find peace and resolution.

Keep Reading: This 85-Year-Old Woman In Canada Has Murdered Most Of Her Husbands

Sources

  1. “Press Release.” Facebook. Sheriff Steve Page. December 2, 2021
  2. “YouTubers help solve cold cases across the U.S. — and get billions of views.” CBS News. December 13, 2021
  3. “Scuba diver solves 21-year-old cold case of missing Tennessee teens.” Global News. Michelle Butterfield. December 8, 2021
  4. “Scuba-Diving YouTuber Finds Car Linked to Teens Missing Since 2000.” The New York Times. Amanda Holpuch. December 13, 2021