- Day two, looking for William Nolan Bass. Brings us back over to Waco,
Texas, where on the hunt, we accidentally found a vehicle that's associated with aggravated robbery. At this moment in time, we
don't know if anybody's inside. It's currently full of mud,
but this is one episode, we're gonna take you back to the beginning on where our day started right now. (poignant music) - William Nolan Bass. Bass was last seen driving
his 1977 tan and brown two door Chevrolet Caprice with
a Texas license plate number C82-MRB in Mount Bellamy,
Texas on October 21st, 2000. He was on Highway 84 near Loop 340 at the time of his disappearance. Bass left his residence at 9:00 a.m. He was headed to Waco, Texas
to have his vehicle inspected and purchased with new tags. He never arrived at his
destination and has not been heard or seen from again. His vehicle has never
been recovered either, but investigators believe
Bass could have had a stroke on the day of his
disappearance and may have developed amnesia or possibly, he could have even been carjacked. His case remains unsolved. - All right, so we're
rolling up to that pond that I was just talking
about, which is over at, just down the road, and this
is gonna be the closest one within a quarter mile of his house. The thing is, and it's not this one. It's down like another 300 yards, and that one's really shallow. The thing is, is until we put eyes on it, I don't know if he has a fence there. I don't know if there was
a fence there in 2000. Before we leave town, though,
I just wanna make sure that we cover every
possible pond and location, that we don't rule anything out. If this doesn't work out, then
we're gonna jump back over into Waco and start searching more on the Brazos River as well. So I've got the pond is
right here in question and his house was right down here. (ominous music) All right, so we have no
fence going up into it. What I don't like about it is it's, with Nolan driving slow
and catching an edge, he's not gonna make it
up there in my opinion. Here, go ahead and stop right here. So currently this guy's not home. Jerry's over getting, went
over to his shop to find out, but let's see if this
is, appears to be big and open and deep enough. Yeah, that can be deep enough. I'm just having a hard time. This is the closest one to his house, but I'm having a hard time accepting that he's gonna be coming up over this berm, but it is the closest one to his house. So we're waiting on, for
permission right now. Once we get that permission,
we'll go ahead and search it. - So to make it in here
and out there, I mean, you gotta be doing 60 plus. - [Jared] No, I get it. That's why I was telling
Carson I'm having a hard time with this one because of the berm, but it is closest to his house. - [Doug] Where does this go? - Just right here, just two ponds. Here's the thing too. I don't know who his buddies were. What if Eugene was his
buddy and he came over to say hi to him and he just, (Jared whistling) came up, had a stroke, ended
up and he ended up in here. We have that possibility as well. That would at least bring
him up the driveway. I mean, it's. - I would say it would be a possibility if the berm wasn't here,
and if, even if he came in the driveway, he just, you have to get out like 40 something feet. - I don't think a car'll float in there. - Ah, that it's too shallow. I guess maybe if it's deeper at the time. - Yeah. Remember, his property actually
connects to this property. So Nolan's property is right
on the back of this one. So he could be buddies
with him, needed something, needed a tool or whatever. - How steep that is back
there on that corner. I don't see it there. Here's definitely, if your foot stays on the accelerator here,
you can make it up here. The second a tire hits the edge
of this, it's gonna turn it. So you're gonna have to like
really hold the steering wheel and stay on the accelerator,
but if this is, if he does, for whatever reason make it
over and the water is higher, he, and the water's deep
out there, he could be. It's possible. - [Jared] So it comes
up, which you can see on Google as well, you see
how it comes up through there and then it gets deeper over here. - [Doug] Like it used to
be separated almost, right? - [Jared] Yep. - [Doug] Yeah. - And when you pull up Google Maps, you can see that as well when
it gets a little bit lower, but yet you have this
big hole that's here. Until we get on it, we
actually don't know how. - [Doug] I say we just put the boat in. - All right. See if we can get a permission. Hey, what's going on, Jerry? - [Jerry] Not much. I can't find him. There's nobody here at the
shop either so I don't know. He's been a good neighbor. I don't know him very well,
but he kinda stays to himself. He works most of the time
over at his bike shop. - All right. - [Jerry] So whatever you think. - Yeah, yeah. We're gonna go ahead and pop it. So, I mean, you knocked on
the door and nobody was here. I mean, there's two cars in the driveway. Is he married? - [Jerry] You know, somebody
told me the other day that job is his life basically,
but yeah, he's married and got, I think he's got kids. I hadn't seen him in a
good while 'cause he don't ever come by my house. He goes the other way to come to town. So I just don't ever see him. - All right, no worries. Yeah, I'll try knocking
on the door one more time and then we'll start getting the boat out. - [Jerry] Okay. I'll be back over in a few minutes. I'm leaving Mart right now. - All right. Sounds good. We'll see you. - [Jerry] All right. - All right, bye. - So is there any other ponds here? - This is the only, this is the last pond that we've got in the area. I was looking all over last night. Like, we covered all of
the other ones yesterday. What is your thought? - I mean, my thought
is, I mean, I do think going into Waco is absurd. I mean, it's just like a complete
fumble last ditch effort, and I do like in a sense
feel it's a waste of time. What about if he went that way? - That's what I'm saying. So I talked to the family about it. - Is there a spot that way or? - The only other place is
towards Mexia, MA-HEY-UH? - MA-HEY-UH. I mean, I just, I feel like, we'd be better off not going to Waco, but Waco would be like just a last ditch effort, but Jacob's there. So, I mean, if we can
search anything else, I think we'll be, I mean, we've done a lot and there's just really nothing
else logically to do, right, because it's like, you're
opening up the entire state. I don't know. Let me go knock on the door
and see if they're there. I think they're there. I think he probably just woke 'em up. - [Jared] All right, sounds good. - Looks like they let their dog out. I guess nobody's here. I'm gonna knock on this other door. There's, nobody's home. So I knocked on both houses that are there and no one's here. It's only gonna take us a
few minutes to search this, so let's get at it. Let's get in and out and
I mean, we are kind of working with the neighbor. So it's, he seems to think
that his neighbor's hospitable to a certain aspect, but
we'll keep an eye out, and if he rolls up, we'll
introduce ourselves very kindly and hopefully nothing will come of it. Our intentions are well, so it's fine. Even the doggy doesn't care. He's just laying there. - [Jared] So give us Nolan's car. (water bubbling) - I mean, it doesn't make
sense, but it would make sense, you know, kind of in a hindsight aspect, it would definitely make sense. Dropping down here and it's
coming back up real quick and it's gonna drop back down. - Not here either. Dang it. Everyone was searching. I wanted to be the one.
(water bubbling) I wanted to give Jerry the
answers he's been looking for. At 12 feet deep, but nothing. (Jared groaning) (tender music) Well, we're gonna keep it going
throughout the day, Jerry. I'll keep you updated. - Okay. - [Jared] Let me know if
you think of anything else. - Appreciate you all. - Hey, absolutely. (tender music) All right. Well, we'll chat later today regardless. I'll let you know what's been covered. - Yeah, appreciate y'all coming. - [Doug] Yes, sir. - Yep, you're welcome. Thanks Jerry. (soft music) This is right in the
triangle of everything that we were interested in. Drove on the side of
the road 'cause he used to be a mail carrier. We're just thinking he ended
up in a pond somewhere. (dog barking) So seeing if we can take
15 minutes and put a boat on your water and do some
sonar and see if by chance you have a car in your pond here. (sorrowful music) (latch creaking) (boat scraping) (sorrowful music) Another one cleared. (water gurgling)
(sorrowful music) (engine revving) - Jacob put in at East Brazos
Park where three days prior is that's where we found Stephanie Torres, and logically, you know, after
searching everything we have, you know, the Brazos River, we
just kept coming back to that as our only valid place to search if we're gonna continue to search. So that's where Jer, Jacob
started, excuse me, this morning, and that's what he's been doing while we've been searching that. So now we're heading over
to East Brazos to where the river is, where
Jacob has confirmed to me he already has two or three
more targets near a bridge. So we're gonna go over there. We're gonna end up putting our boats in. We're gonna continue
scanning the river with Jacob to see if we can't find anything. So we're definitely probably gonna end up getting in the water and
identifying multiple targets, which at this point, you
know, anything we can do to further search on this
case, it possibly is gonna bring us one step closer to solving it. - I feel like we've
cleared all of the country, you know, ponds, lakes,
little side canals. So the only only thing left to do is to go clear these bigger waterways. - What are your thoughts
on where this is at? Because it's pretty drawn out. We've gone over all of the
normal investigation tactics and routines that we normally
cover and we've come up with nothing, and you know
where we're going from here. What do you think about
where we're at right now? - I think there's only three explanations as to where he could be. One is that there's suicide. He wasn't suicidal. You know, he's going out just
on his day to get emission. So we have to roll out
all suicidal locations. All boat ramps don't make sense. Accidents, accidents
is the most plausible, makes the most sense. He has a stroke, he veers off and over. He drives like a snail, doesn't make sense for him to go over. The next thing that's in
my mind that I don't really wanna say would be that something bad happened to Nolan, you know? - [Doug] Yeah. - He got caught up in the wrong person, not the wrong crowd,
just at the wrong place, the wrong time, and then something could have happened to him. - That's a fair assessment. Anytime you're dealing with
somebody who is missing, there's always suspected foul play. I mean, people just don't
go missing for good reasons. Just like same way we don't find car, there's no car under
water for a good reason. I mean, it, no matter what,
it's criminal activity for a vehicle being underwater. (tense music) (water gurgling)
(tense music) So we are pretty much
downtown Waco right next to University Drive, whole
lot of access to the river right here where we're at. All right, and we're casting
75 feet in either direction. We did a lot yesterday on the first day, even though we had two days
scheduled for this search and I, you know, I just
didn't feel like, complete without coming back to the
Brazos River and at least trying to turn something up here. It's a little bit far
away from where Mr. Bass was last seen, but all we can do is try. You know, all we can do is try, Carson. Really clean bottom. So you guys can see right
here, like how clean it is. So anything is gonna pop right up. You're not gonna miss anything on this. Over here, look at the live scope. Beautiful. So it's, no matter what a tree, a boulder, it's gonna stick out like a
sore thumb versus a river bottom that has a lot of growth and
a lot of different objects. This is picture perfect
when it comes to us searching for especially
a vehicle underwater. Jacob is right next to this
other road on the other side where there's a parking lot and it's all a downslope into here, so this is all really good search area here. I'm coming underneath the bridge. I got a real good picture
of the bridge columns. You can see the bridge
columns really defined. Lots of trees. So when we come to a bridge, we can't just go keep
continuing down the shore like we have been coming down. We gotta check the entire bridge, 'cause now that's a road
that goes over the water. (boat motor rumbling) Can something come off that bridge? Absolutely. You can see where the
guardrail up there has been kind of damaged, the
railing, already, and Carson, let me ask you, what do
we know about railings and guardrails, like what
do, what have we found out in all these investigations? Do you know my, do you know
the answer I'm looking for? - Yeah, you know, sometimes
construction workers, they'll see a busted out guardrail. They won't think anything of it. You know, they're out there on call. Their boss sent them there,
they'll go fix this guardrail. They go out and fix it,
and then nothing gets said. - [Doug] Right, absolutely. Nothing is ever questioned. - Right. - You know, sometimes it is. I've heard of stories where
people have gone off of bridges and through railings and guardrails and they find a car, but
as we know firsthand, a lot of times that doesn't happen. A lot of times that doesn't
happen, and the workers, the supervisors are
putting in a work order or somebody's called in a
damaged piece of property and the workers are coming out. They're not questioning it. It's not necessarily their fault. It's just, they're basing
the fact that they got sent a work order that had
already been dealt with by either their supervisors
or their police, but I urge all public
workers that replace railings and guardrails to thoroughly check to see if it's been investigated because there, something damaged that guardrail. (boat motor rumbling)
(water gurgling) Whoa, that's definitely an old school car. Wow, hold on. So we found a car right
underneath this bridge and it really looks
like an old school car. Like this is, this really could
be what we're looking for. It looks like it's been down
here for, I can't quite tell, but it is kind of silted in really good. So, who knows? So we're gonna drop this here
and then we're gonna go get a good perspective of what we have. Did we just find Nolan? It looks good on side scan too. Looks really good on side scan. It looks really good on live. We're gonna have to bring
the dive trailer over here and we're gonna have
to get into the water. I'm gonna get into the water. - [Carson] He probably dipped over, floated down and then floated
to just underneath there. - It's possible that that railing has been damaged for 20 years. It's also possible, we
know as well, cars go over those railings without even touching them, because if it's just a weird
accident and a weird tumble. - [Jared] Did you find, William?
- I did. I have an very boxed old school car right down here under the bridge. - [Jared] All right. - So if you wanna bring
the camper and trailer back down towards the bridge, cross over, there's a little parking lot right here, like right in front of me. - [Jared] Okay. - You can pull right down
into, and this is definitely a very, very old school car. Like it's, it looks like a box Caprice. - [Jared] All right, sounds good. (tense music) - [Doug] It looks like a four
door, but this back window is smaller and you know, this much over is not actually window. - [Jared] Right. - And you'll see it for yourself. (tense music) - So that's what we're looking for. Got it. Let's go scan it and see. If not, we might solve a
different case today too. You never know. (intense music) Almost looks like a two door, doesn't it? Yeah, no. Beautiful images. I don't think it's a Capri. I don't think it's a Capri. I think it's a '90s model. So while I can say,
hmm, could be two door, I really think it is a four door, but also more of a,
like I said, '90s model. Yeah, it's a four door. See that? Four door, not two door in my opinion. (intense music) (scuba mask hissing) (water rippling) Zero vis. (scuba mask hissing)
(nervous music) (water bubbling)
(scuba mask hissing) (nervous music) (scuba mask hissing)
(water bubbling) Getting a lot of feedback,
like I'm not making out anything he's saying. (water bubbling)
(nervous music) - Mercury Grand Marquis, big body. We have both plates off the vehicle. All of the windows are up
on it, every single one. There's some rear end damage, minor trunk. Two passenger side windows
are down about two inches. The driver's side window
is completely snug up. - [Jared] Okay. - Obviously at that point, I'm not opening any of doors. No other damage. All four wheels. So we'll possibly, obviously
need to call that one in. Get an officer down here and
find out the story of this one. (telephone ringing) - [911 Dispatcher] Waco 911. What's the location of your emergency? - I actually have no idea where I'm at. Are you able to ping my cell phone? - [911 Dispatcher] Yeah,
give me one moment. It looks like you're on
Waco Drive, like by a river. - Oh, you're right, yeah. - [911 Dispatcher] Next to
a crossing over the water? Okay, what's going on? - Hey, so we're the divers
that found Stephanie Torres a couple days ago and we're.
- [911 Dispatcher] Okay. - We're continuing our
investigation in the area, looking for a miss,
another missing person. We have located.
- [911 Dispatcher] Okay. - We've located another vehicle
and all the windows are up. It is not the vehicle we're looking for, but I do have a plate,
and if you or an officer can run the plate number for us, make sure it's not connected to anything. - [911 Dispatcher] Okay,
I can run the plate, but I can't give you any
information in regard to it. I mean, other than, you know,
seeing if it's stolen or not. Okay, go ahead.
- [Jared] Charlie, X-ray, six. - [911 Dispatcher] Okay.
- [Jared] Tango, seven, zero, four. - [911 Dispatcher] Hold
on one moment, okay. - Yep. - [911 Dispatcher] Okay, what
I can do is I get this in so we can get officers to
verify this, but again, I can't give you any information regarding the vehicle itself. - Okay, sounds good. Yeah, if we can have somebody come down because we don't know
if anybody's inside, so. - [911 Dispatcher] Okay, all righty. Will do, thank you. - [Doug] How's it going, officer? - [Officer] You guys called, right? - [Doug] Yes, sir. - [Officer] How are y'all
gonna get it pulled out? - [Jared] Say again? - [Officer] You guys gonna pull 'em out? - [Jared] Do you want us to pull it out or do you want to take control of it? What would you like to do? - [Officer] Okay, so you
guys need a tow truck. Do y'all know, y'all have
the vehicle's pinpointed? - [Jared] Yeah, so right
where the buoy's at. - Right where the vehicle
is at, to get to the top of the vehicle, you're
looking at five feet down. It's really easy to pull out. - [Jared] Yeah, if you have tow truck, we'll hook it for you
and we'll have it out in 30 minutes once they're here. - Okay. All right, will do. Let me go, let make
some phone calls, okay? - Awesome, sounds good. Okay, we have quite a few missing
people with Grand Marquis. So far, the license plate doesn't match. I have one though with no license plate. Like, right now, they're just not saying. - [Crew Member] Like, no number? - Yeah, like they're not saying
it's stolen, missing person. - They're either not saying
because it's connected to something or they're
not saying just because they're just, they just want to help us 'cause they know exactly who we are and. - [Crew Member] Yeah. - [Jared] So far, I
found three Grand Marquis with missing people. None of them have license plate match up. - [Officer] Hey, that vehicle was taken in an aggravated robbery, (Jared whistling) in 2013. - [Doug] Oh wow. - Yeah. - [Jared] All right. - So we got a truck that's
coming out that's gonna tow it, okay, and our crime scene
tech is gonna come out to ensure nobody's inside the vehicle. - [Jared] Perfect, perfect. - And we'll get it to the impound. - I just wanna say thank you for like, you know, taking it serious.
- This is super. - [Officer] Oh yeah. - I mean there's,
sometimes we come into this and they're like, oh, we'll just leave it. (officers laughing) Like, you don't know if
somebody's in it or not, you know? - Nah, no, that's not our,
that's not this department. - So what I'm gonna do is
I'm gonna get suited back up. - [Officer] Okay. - I'll go back down, I'll rig it. - That way, when the tow truck gets here, they won't have to wait on anything. - [Officer] All we gotta do
is hook up the tow truck, haul it to the lot. (indistinct police radio chatter) (exciting music) (truck backup whining) (truck engine rumbling) - [Truck Operator] I'm gonna run it down. (exciting music) (shackles rattling) - To date, for everything
that we've ever pulled out of the water, we've only
ever had one accidental find. Now, based upon the
number of vehicles that we have pulled out, I think
there's just a numbers game and only a matter of
time before we do find and stumble upon an
accidental, hey we just solved another missing persons case
that we didn't even know about. We don't know if there's
gonna be somebody in this one or not, but that's why we do
it when the windows are up, make sure we handle it with care. We're gonna bring that
vehicle out right now. (water rippling) (water bubbling)
(scuba mask hissing) (tense music) (water bubbling)
(scuba mask hissing) (tense music) So when he comes back
over, we're gonna put this on the front of his boat. - [Truck Operator] Yeah. - [Jared] And then we're gonna coil it up, but we're gonna need another
30 feet is what we're gonna do for this game plan, and
we'll coil it up on the boat and then he'll just, as he
backs up, he'll lay the line, so that way he's not dragging it. He's just laying.
- [Truck Operator] You need 30 more feet? - [Jared] Yeah. - [Tow Driver] Well, we got 20 feet here. - [Truck Operator] I don't
know how much we got. - [Jared] Yep. All right, sounds good. - [Tow Driver] Thank you. (water bubbling) - I can't get that big
J hook through the holes and it's bottomed out. I have one wheel dug out. The other wouldn't make it
around to the other side. So we'll pull on the one
wheel and if we can free it up and it works, it works. If we can free it up and it
doesn't, I can then re-rig it. - [Crew Member] I wonder how
many comments I'm going to get saying I should floor it right now. (Jared chuckling) - At least seven. All right, so you got the
buoy coming outta the water. That's where the 20 foot line is at. We have a 20 foot blue line, and then from the 20 foot blue line, we
have two 10 foot J hooks that are attached to each of the wheels. (thrilling music) (engine rumbling) (thrilling music) (line snapping) (thrilling music) So this thing is completely
filled to the brim. You have to pop doors and
pull the water pump out. (tire popping) (thrilling music) - It's all downhill from here. It's gonna ride out on its front end. (thrilling music) You're good. It should come out. (hooks clanging) (bumper snapping) - [Truck Operator] Whoa! (thrilling music) - Think about, a bag of concrete
is 80, so like that tall, that wide, that long, an extra 80 pounds for every one of those. So if you put 100 of them in there, you got an extra 8,000 pounds. So right now they're probably lifting, (hook snapping)
whoa, good, 14,000 pounds. That's why they're really not, that's why they keep popping these chains. They can't get the good hook. Just to confirm what they're doing now, so they use that one to
lift it up so you can get some good J hook attachments,
and now you're gonna double line with the big
one or just single line. - Now we're gonna be single
line with the big one, which is more than enough. We just had a big boulder under there. - [Jared] Okay. - We could get nothing under there. Plus, it being rear
wheel, the front is like independent suspension, sort of, you know? - Well, and there's like six
to 8,000 pounds of mud inside. - Correct, so it's not
as easy as it looks. Like, this thing is very heavy. - Like, wonder what the
actual crime or charge is. I mean, we know what the charges
were, aggravated robbery. Does that mean that a knife was used? Does that mean a gun was used? Did they steal this car in it? Was it a car jacking or
did they use this vehicle in the crime of aggravated robbery? Like, did they go rob a
bank or a convenience store? I wish we could get more
information on that one. (tender music)
(tow backup whining) (tow line ratcheting) (tender music) (trunk lid creaking) (camera snapping) (tender music) - You're not suspecting anybody's in it? - Right, no, no. It was just a, it's a stolen car. That's all we got right now. - You just open the doors, blow all the mud out, and
see if any bones come out. - So even, yeah, and that's
kind of my fear if there is, I'm kind of worried about like,
so when I think fire hose, that's a strong spray. - They can control it,
they can control it. They can control it.
- Okay, yeah. That's a good start. - And also if they cut the doors off and we tilt the car from that side, it'll all just slide out. - Okay. - Which is probably what we'll do. Probably just do that. - I would recommend it. - Yeah, so we'll cut
the doors off and then we'll tilt the car up
and then it'll just slide what's in there out in a
controlled manner right there. - Perfect, perfect. That would be ideal. - [Doug] Doors, take the doors off. (fire truck idling) - We appreciate y'all. Y'all helped us close another one. - You know, you guys have
been great to work with. So hey, I have really good
news for you guys as well. We're actually leaving town
and the county tonight. So you don't have to worry about, (officers laughing) you don't have to worry about us calling you tomorrow, all right? (Jared laughing) - All right, and then
re-hooking it back up to. (machinery whirring) (triumphant music) - So right now we have Waco
Fire who is cutting off the doors, as well as the B pillars. Then the forensics is
gonna go through there and see if we have any
human remains inside. Right now, we don't
yet have those answers. (truck backup whining)
(machinery crunching) (cameras snapping) (hose whooshing) (pensive music) (machinery whirring)
(metal crunching) (pensive music) (machinery whirring)
(metal crunching) (hose whooshing) - [Marisa] I just wanna
spray it a little bit. Walmart, all right. (pensive music) (hoses whooshing) (pensive music) Hats. Hats. - Waco has been incredible. I am really impressed with them. You got Marisa down here
today with forensics, you got Waco Fire, you got PD. The moment that he came
down, like he didn't even ask who we are, you know,
or names or anything. It's just like, oh, let
me get you a tow truck. - Yeah. - Like, that was like the first thing. - [Doug] Yeah. - Well, other than a cell
phone, forensics did not find any other evidence in the car. There are no human remains,
and we have answers today as to where William Nolan
Bass is not for his family. We do wish that we
could solve all of them. Unfortunately we cannot,
but we do have another car out of the rivers and
out of the environment. If you're not done so
already, be sure to subscribe because it helps the
algorithm to spread awareness of what is that we're capable
of in helping other families for free in search of
their lost, loved ones. That's it for now. We'll see you on the next case. Thanks. Bye bye. (somber music)
