In a creek in Eastern North Carolina, a Myrtle Beach man used his home made sonar device to locate a sunken car with human remains of three men. The car had been in the creek for over 40 years, police said.
Souhrada’s device isn’t much, it’s just a waterproof box attached to a boogie board. He said he only spent a few hundred dollars on it.
Home Made Sonar Device
Souhrada is an X-ray technician at Conway Medical Center, but in his free time he follows dive teams searching for missing people on YouTube and Facebook.
According to him, he was drawn to a cold case in Washington, North Carolina.
Souhrada said she wanted to get involved because of the sense of closure they provided families.
Bill Clifton, David McMicken, and Michael Norman were last seen at a bar on December 10, 1982. They were presumed dead, but their bodies were never found. Souhrada hoped his device would provide answers.
“It was because they couldn’t access it with boats that I decided to take my boat up there and scan it. Sure enough, that’s where they were,” Souhrada explained.
In just 24 hours after launching his device, Souhrada found the sunken car in Jack’s Creek, just about four hours from Myrtle Beach. His home made sonar device showed the car was submerged in 12 to 15 feet of water.
After the car was out, police confirmed the remains belonged to the three missing men.
What happened to Bill Clifton, David McMicken, and Michael Norman ?
According to the Charley Project, which maintains a database of over 15,000 missing persons in the United States, Clifton, McMicken, and Norman were last seen Dec. 10, 1982, at the VIP in Chocowinity, North Carolina.
Charley Project reports that the three men never returned to VIP after leaving before the last drink call.
According to the database, Clifton owned a black and white 1975 Chevrolet Camaro with a North Carolina license plate when they disappeared. Two months later, the vehicle was found in New York.
There is a possibility they drove to New York and then something happened on the way back, said Chaos Diver Lindsay Bussick.
According to the Charley Project, authorities believed the trio abandoned their families after disappearing.
The Charley Project spoke to Clifton’s daughter, who said that her parents’ marriage was “very happy” and her father would not have walked out on them.
Despite McMicken’s knowledge, McMicken’s wife was pregnant at the time of the trio’s disappearance, according to the Charley Project.
It’s unclear how the trio ended up in Jack’s Creek, other than the abandoned car found near one of the men’s homes, Bussick said.
“This is one of those cases where there are always rumors circulating,” she said. “But there were never any solid facts.“