A car found submerged in a North Carolina creek last Friday may hold the answer to a 41-year-old mystery that has puzzled investigators for decades.
On December 10, 1982, William Clifton (age 30), David McMicken (age 24), and Michael Norman (age 32) disappeared after leaving a bar in Chocowinity. Police said they were last seen in a black and white 1975 Chevrolet Camaro.
The case remained unsolved for years. Now, this breakthrough brings new hope to the missing man’s family and the close-knit community gripped by his unexplained disappearance. This is all thanks to the efforts of strangers.
Myrtle Beach native Jason Sfurada played a pivotal role in reopening the case.
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The vehicle had been submerged in water for decades and had deteriorated significantly, and was salvaged from Jack’s Creek in Washington, North Carolina on February 9, 2024. (Sydney Dive Team)
His motivation came from watching YouTube videos of people repeatedly searching a city without success.
This led Suhrada to wonder why he hadn’t investigated Jack’s Creek, a body of water in the town of Washington, about six miles from Chocowinity.
“I was inspired by a YouTuber in that town that I searched for many times and couldn’t find,” Sufrada told Fox News. “We wondered why they didn’t explore this body of water, but then we realized it was inaccessible by regular boats.”
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This led him to construct an improvised remote-controlled sonar device for the task. He described it as a boogie board with sonar in a protective case attached to it.
“Since I don’t have a real boat and no place to store it, I decided to build a sonar boat,” he said. “A real boat would have been more expensive. Also, I just wanted to scan the reservoir and areas that are off-limits or inaccessible to real boats. A large number of missing people have been found in the reservoir. ”
Jason Sfurada built a remote-controlled sonar device to scan Jack’s Creek. (Jason Safrada)
Sufrada has traveled to North Carolina twice. The first was to scan Google Earth for what looked like a car in a large pond on a dirt road. After determining that was not the case, he shifted his focus to Jack’s Creek and began scanning there.
“I then looked at the video recorded on the scanner and noticed what looked like an upside-down car, but I wasn’t sure because it was the first time I’d seen something,” he said. “So after checking with four dive teams across the country, we went for another scan to get more images.”
He then handed over his findings to WA Police Chief Phil Rawlinson and Sydney diving team captain John Scott Rhodes Jr.
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Based on the coordinates provided by Sufrada, the group organized a dive team to explore the stream on the morning of February 9, 2024. Family members of the missing men were also in attendance.
“When I walked onto the scene, I felt the reality deeply,” said Kayla Melendrez, McMicken’s daughter.
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“We had high hopes that it was the vehicle he was looking for,” Rose told Fox News. “The dive went as usual, with the usual poor visibility and average depth in this area. Lots of mud, trees, fishing line. There were a lot of fishing lines out there, tree stumps, logs, things like that going in and out of the place.”
As a diver, Rose was able to locate the vehicle.
“We located the vehicle after about 45 minutes of searching,” he said. “The car was in such bad shape that when I picked it up I couldn’t even tell if it was a car or not. It was probably a lawn mower or something. It looked really small to me. But then I realized that the car was small because there was nothing left of it except the chassis, axles, and motor.”
To recover the vehicle, dive teams and law enforcement drained approximately 4 million gallons of water from Jack’s Creek. (Sydney Dive Team)
To recover the vehicle, dive teams and law enforcement drained approximately 4 million gallons of water from Jack’s Creek, Rose said.
Rawlinson said the car had been submerged in water for decades and had deteriorated significantly, and the VIN number matches the car Clifton, McMicken and Norman were last seen with, identifying it as the missing Camaro. It has been positively identified.
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Human remains were found inside the vehicle, and authorities will send the remains to the medical examiner’s office for identification. Police said they must wait until the identity of the body is confirmed before determining whether any foul play was involved.
The missing man’s family is currently awaiting the results of the identification process. In a joint statement, the families requested privacy to grieve, reflect and process these events in their own time.
“They were very grateful to us,” Rawlinson said. “They expressed how grateful they were that so many people were participating in the vehicle recovery effort and that we were able to salvage the wreckage that we were able to salvage. We wanted to give them a little closure. I am.”
Clifton’s daughter, Leah Rose, emphasized that the entire family is grateful.
“We would not have had this potential opportunity for closure without the sacrifice of Jason Sfurada, who took time from his family to help our family,” she said. “This has reopened the wound and started a new grieving process for the three families. Despite the pain, there is some relief in finally getting some answers.”
“I feel like I’m in some kind of dream,” Clifton’s other daughter, Leanne Mayo, told Fox News. “If I saw them, I never thought to prepare. I could have spent years watching sunsets by the stream with my dad and never noticed. I don’t know.”
