Missouri man’s car found in lake decade after he vanished on way to buy cigarettes
A vehicle belonging to a man who went missing a decade ago was pulled from a pond in Missouri over the weekend.
Army veteran Donald L Erwin, 59, vanished from Southern Camden County on 29 December 2013. He was last seen driving his 2002 Hyundai Elantra with license plate MK6-E3P after asking his wife for a $14 gift card to buy cigarettes, KY3 reports.
Erwin was missing his leg above the knee and had left his home without his wallet or wheelchair, said Camden County Sheriff’s Office Sergeant Scott Hines during a radio show earlier this year.
The breakthrough in the case comes after freelance photographer James Hinkle began independently investigating the case and located a vehicle submerged in a small pond on private property in Camdenton while flying his drone.
Mr Hinkle reportedly informed the property owner, who then alerted authorities of the developments. Investigators with the Camden County Sheriff’s Office and a fire protection district dive team successfully pulled the vehicle from the pond on Saturday.
According to the Camden County Sheriff’s Office, the vehicle has since been determined to be Mr Erwin’s Hyundai Elantra and his family has been notified of the major breal in the case.
In footage of the recovery posted by Mr Hinkle on his Youtube channel Echo Divers, a team is seen entering the pond before the vehicle is slowly removed from the water. Per to the channel’s description, Echo Divers is a Missouri-based scuba search and recovery team that works with law enforcement on missing persons cases.
Mr Erwin’s whereabouts and the circumstances surrounding his disappearance remain unknown. Authorities said that investigators are still at actively processing the scene at the pond for evidence and searching the surrounding area for remains.
Erwin’s family Yvonne Erwin-Bowen wrote on a Facebook page Find Donnie Erwin that the property owner has given permission to authorities to drain the pond next year. Ms Erwin-Bowen also said that the car’s driver window was down.
“I can’t lie, this was an extremely difficult day. Emotionally drained,” she wrote in a post on Monday. “They recovered something out of the car and they gave it to me. How it survived 10 years underwater is a blessing. It is the cross that was hanging from his rearview mirror.”
