Family: Remains of Carey Mae Parker located

Brad Kellar, The Herald Banner, Greenville, Texas
·2 min read

Oct. 16—A more than 30-year-old Hunt County mystery may have been solved.

Family members of Carey Mae Parker say divers who earlier this year recovered a portion of a vehicle submerged in the waters of Lake Tawakoni which belonged to Parker, who vanished in 1991, believe they may have found Parker's remains at the same location.

Adventures with Purpose returned to Lake Tawakoni Friday to grid search and recover the remainder of the vehicle and found human remains in addition to a pair of pants, shoe, and a boy's bicycle.

Patricia Gager, Parker's sister, posted on Facebook Friday evening, indicating the family believes the remains were Parker's, who on the day she disappeared was intending to purchase a bicycle for her son's 6th birthday.

"She will have to be identified through DNA, but I have no other reason to believe it is not her," Gager said.

Adventures with Purpose, a search and recovery team based out of Bend, Oregon, is expected to return to the location today to continue the search for remains.

In February Adventures with Purpose, at the request of Parker's family, volunteered to conduct the search and notified the Hunt County Sheriff's Office they had located a vehicle in Lake Tawakoni near the causeway on FM 751. The search and recovery team was using sonar equipment when they discovered a vehicle in the lake and advised investigators the vehicle was similar to one involved in Parker's missing person's case.

FM 751 was closed as the vehicle was recovered from the water and it was confirmed the vehicle matched the description of the one belonging to Parker.

Multiple searches have been conducted for Parker across southern Hunt County, including at least three in 2019.

Parker was last seen in March 1991, when she was 23. At the time, Parker was working night shifts at an air-conditioning company in Terrell.

According to Gager, their father said at the time that he'd contacted a friend in local law enforcement who was supposed to have filed a missing persons report.

But in 2010, after checking with the sheriff's office, Gager discovered the department had no missing persons record on file for Parker, so one was opened — 19 years after the date she was last seen.

According to the statement from the sheriff's office, Adventures with Purpose's specialty is underwater vehicle search and recovery, but at times, they find lost loved ones underwater and bring them home to their families.