Adventures with Purpose is a group of

scuba diver Scuba diving is a mode of underwater diving whereby divers use breathing equipment that is completely independent of a surface air supply. The name "scuba", an acronym for "Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus", was coined by Chris ...

s who use

sonar Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigation, navigate, measure distances (ranging), communicate with or detect o ...

to locate missing persons and their vehicles in

waterbodies A body of water or waterbody (often spelled water body) is any significant accumulation of water on the surface of Earth or another planet. The term most often refers to oceans, seas, and lakes, but it includes smaller pools of water such as p ...

. Originally focused on

clean-up Cleanup, clean up or clean-up may refer to: * Cleanup (animation), a stage of animation workflow * Clean-up (environment), environmental action to remove litter from a place * Cleanup hitter, a baseball position * Clean-up Records, a record label ...

, they turned their focus to missing persons

cold cases A cold case is a crime, or a suspected crime, that has not yet been fully resolved and is not the subject of a current criminal investigation, but for which new information could emerge from new witness testimony, re-examined archives, new or re ...

. The group documents their efforts on their

YouTube channel YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most v ...

Background

Adventures with Purpose (AWP) was founded by Oregon-based Sam Ginn and Jared Leisek in 2019. They began as an environmental cleanup agency, removing cars that were polluting waterways. Doug Bishop, a diver and manager of a towing company, also joined the group. After twice finding cars with missing people in them, they determined a need to look for people who have gone missing in or with their vehicles. The channel receives tip-offs and requests from the public through their social media accounts. They do not pursue rewards from family or charge the families or police involved, but will not reject rewards if given. Instead, AWP funds its searches through video views, subscribers, donations, and merchandise sales. In 2020, AWP threatened to sue for a $100,000 reward pledged by five anonymous donors for the discovery of Ethan Kazmerzak, who had disappeared in 2013. The Kazmerzak family donated an undisclosed amount. In October 2022, the team had six members. The following month, Leisek was accused of raping a 9-year-old child at age 16–17 in Utah in 1992. Several team members, including Bishop, diver Nick Rinn, and lead videographer Josh Cantu subsequently left the team. On January 5, 2023, Leisek was charged in

Sanpete County, Utah Sanpete County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Utah. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 27,822. Its county seat is Manti, and its largest city is Ephraim. The county was created in 1850. History The Sanpete Valley may ...

. On January 7, 2023, Adventures with Purpose announced they are on a 3-month tour with a new team of divers and filmmakers.

Search process

At the identified

waterbody A body of water or waterbody (often spelled water body) is any significant accumulation of water on the surface of Earth or another planet. The term most often refers to oceans, seas, and lakes, but it includes smaller pools of water such as p ...

, the team traverse the waters in small

inflatable boat An inflatable boat is a lightweight boat constructed with its sides and bow made of flexible tubes containing pressurised gas. For smaller boats, the floor and hull is often flexible, while for boats longer than , the floor typically consist ...

s, scanning the bottom of the waterbody using

. Upon identifying areas of interest, they circle the area for further identification on their sonar displays before using a heavy-duty magnet to attach their line to the sunken vehicle. They mark the location with a

buoy A buoy () is a floating device that can have many purposes. It can be anchored (stationary) or allowed to drift with ocean currents. Types Navigational buoys * Race course marker buoys are used for buoy racing, the most prevalent form of yac ...

and then use divers to make a visual identification of the vehicle, retrieve a

license plate A vehicle registration plate, also known as a number plate (British English), license plate (American English), or licence plate ( Canadian English), is a metal or plastic plate attached to a motor vehicle or trailer for official identificati ...

, search for bodies, and prepare the vehicle and its contents for retrieval by police.

Cases

The team usually deals with

cold case A cold case is a crime, or a suspected crime, that has not yet been fully resolved and is not the subject of a current criminal investigation, but for which new information could emerge from new witness testimony, re-examined archives, new or re ...

s, however they have also volunteered for searches in recent cases; an example would be searching on August 22, 2022, for Kiely Rodni, who went missing on August 6, 2022. Certain recent cases may be incidental while searching the waterbody for a cold case. As of June 2023, the group has solved 26 missing person cases. AWP also sometimes cooperates with other teams with the same purpose, such as

Exploring with Nug Jeremy Beau Sides, aka "Nug" from the YouTube channel Exploring with Nug, is an American scuba diver and civilian crime investigator who investigates missing person cases and missing items. In 2021, he found the bodies of Erin Foster and Jeremy ...

and Chaos Divers.

Footnotes

References

{{reflist YouTube channels launched in 2019 English-language YouTube channels Missing people organizations