Human remains recovered from car in North Carolina creek linked to 1982 cold case: Reports

The disappearance of three men who left a North Carolina bar just before last call in December 1982 has stumped investigators for more than 40 years but the recent discovery of human remains in a car at the bottom of a creek is providing some hope the case can be solved.

Search crews successfully pulled the car out of Jack's Creek in Washington, North Carolina on Feb. 10. Jonathan Russell, Washington's City Manager told WITN that a YouTuber had recently discovered that a car might be in the water using a boogie board with sonar attached.

The car extracted from the water was a 1975 Chevrolet Camaro, the same make and model as the car William Clifton, 30, David McMicken, 24, and Michael Norman, 32, were in when they disappeared after leaving a bar in Chocowinity, North Carolina, in 1982, WNCT reported.

“Emergency Services is aware of claims posted on social media recently regarding efforts to locate and identify an underwater vehicle in Washington. Local law enforcement is actively reviewing and investigating the information presented in those posts. More information will be released as it becomes available," Beaufort County Communications Director Brandon Tester told WNCT.

WITN reported that Jason Souhrada, the Youtuber who first detected the card had been in touch with family members of the three missing men, which is what led him to design a sonar device he could use in areas that boats can't access.

Souhrada told the outlet that his images showed the car upside down in about 11 feet of water. The footage appeared to show the car damaged and as if it had been there for a while.

The Chaos Divers, a YouTube channel that investigates cold cases, posted on Facebook Feb. 9 about the discovery.

"We had made contact with the family on our first trip down and spoke with them again today," the YouTubers said. "They conveyed that the part of the car that had been removed shows a high probability of it belonging to the trio."

Police spent several days pumping water out of the search area after a car axle was found on Feb. 9, WNCT reported.

Washington Police Chief Phil Rollinson confirmed to WNCT that the VIN on the car matched the car the three men were driving.

“It was possible that they were going home from where they were coming from,” Rollinson told the outlet.

As of right now, officials are not sure how many bodies were recovered from the car, but the remains have been sent to a medical examiner for DNA testing.

“I am confident that the human remains are probably gonna be the individuals,” Rollinson told WNCT. “I can’t say anything for sure until the DNA testing is complete."

Washington Police & Fire Services did not immediately respond to USA TODAY's request for comment.

Chevrolet Camaro spotted in NY before being found in NC

Clifton, McMicken and Norman were all last seen Dec. 10, 1982, at the VIP, a now-defunct tavern in Chocowinity, North Carolina, according to the Charley Project, which maintains a database of cold cases involving over 15,000 missing persons in the U.S.

The three men were never heard from again after leaving VIP before the last call for drinks, the Charley Project said.

At the time of the trio's disappearance, Clifton owned a black and white 1975 Chevrolet Camaro with a North Carolina license plate, according to the database. Two months later, the vehicle was found in New York.

"There's potential that they drove up to New York and then on the way back something happened," Lindsay Bussick, a member of the Chaos Divers, told USA TODAY.

After the trio disappeared, authorities thought they had abandoned their families, the Charley Project said.

Clifton's daughter told the Charley Project that her parents' marriage was "very happy" and she doesn't think her father would have walked out of his life.

Unbeknownst to McMicken, his wife was pregnant at the time of the trio's disappearance, according to the Charley Project. McMicken's wife later gave birth to his daughter.

Aside from the abandoned car that happened to be found near one of the men's homes, there's been nothing that points to how the trio ended up in Jack's Creek, Bussick said.

"This is one of those cases where there's always a lot of rumors circulating (like) foul play and that kind of thing," she said. "But never at any point was there any kind of solid information to go on."