A CRACK team of scuba-diving sleuths has solved a staggering seven cold cases in just two months, bringing much-needed closure to heartbroken families who had been left without answers for years.
The group, known as Chaos Divers, operates out of Southern Illinois and is comprised of divers Jacob Grubbs and Eric Bussick, and head of logistics Lindsey Bussick.
Between October and December of last year, the trio managed to solve seven missing persons cases in a number of different states, including in Illinois, Oregon, Kentucky, and Texas.
Their most recent discovery came on December 5 when the group found the remains of Jeff Anthony Shepherd in a pickup truck submerged in Strunk, KY, pond.
Shepherd had been missing for more than three years, having last been seen leaving a bar in Winfield on March 18, 2018. He had called his mother letting her know he was on his way home but never made it back.
In an exclusive interview with The Sun, Jacob Grubbs, 33, revealed that he, Eric, and Lindsey never anticipated becoming independent cold case investigators but were inspired to do so following a chance discovery made by a friend in 2019.
Jacob, a keen fisherman, started scuba diving a few years ago so he could help to clean trash out of river systems, lakes, and local swimming holes.
While doing so, the former coal miner said he started finding all kinds of items – from discarded iPhones to lost wallets – and decided to set up a YouTube page to document his interesting discoveries.
“I used to watch a lot of videos about it on Youtube and I honestly thought they were fake until I started doing it, and then I was like, ‘wow!’,” Jacob told The Sun.
SCUBA SLUETHS
He quickly amassed a large social media following on YouTube and befriended a number of other divers uploading similar videos to him.
One of those divers was Jared Leisek, who runs the YouTube page Adventures with Purpose.
Leisek made headlines in December 2019 when he happened across a car with a body inside during a dive in Oregon and ended up accidentally solving a cold case single-handedly.
Jacob drove up to St. Louis to assist Leisek with the dive where they recovered the body of Nathan Ashby from the Missouri River.
The 22-year-old had been missing since July 31, 2019, when he vanished while driving his 1994 Chevy Silverado to work around 6.45am.
After the incredible discovery was made, Jacob said he felt “compelled” to continue investigating cold cases in the Southern Illinois area.
Families searching for missing loved ones then started reaching out to him directly, and he decided to take the venture up as his full-time job.
“In the last two months, we’ve brought seven people home by ourselves,” Jacob told The Sun in late December.
And during a road trip with Adventures With Purpose and other groups in the fall, Chaos Divers helped to solve a further 16 cases in 45 days.
“I’m still in awe of being able to help so many families in such a short time,” he said.
“It’s been an amazing feeling, particularly when we were able to solve a case after 23 years in October.”
SAMANTHA HOPPER & COURTNEY HOLT
During their road trip with Adventures With Purpose (AWP) back in October, Chaos Divers helped to solve the disappearance of 20-year-old Samantha Jean Hopper, who vanished with her one-year-old daughter Courtney Esther Danielle Holt on the night of September 11, 1998.
According to police, Hopper, who was eight months pregnant at the time, had plans to drop off her daughter with a family member before heading to a concert in Little Rock in her blue Ford Tempo.
However, she never made it to either location, and neither Hopper nor Courtney was seen ever alive again.
Hopper also left behind another daughter, Dezarea Carpenter, who is now an adult and lives in Florida.
Chaos Divers and AWP met with Dezarea, along with Hopper’s mother and best friend to learn more about her and her last known whereabouts.
