- [Reporter 1] Since October 4th, 2006, it was the day 26 year old Dedrick Bernard Smith disappeared. - [Doug] He's been missing since 2006. - He had been missing
for more than 15 years. A business known as
Adventures With Purpose, found his car submerged in Winston Lake. - Less than a mile away from
his last known location. - [Reporter 2] So how did
his team crack this case? (Adventures With Purpose theme music) - Dedrick Smith
disappeared from this block 16 years ago from his girlfriend's house. What happened? His girlfriend went to the store. She came home and he was not there. And he has disappeared along
with his 1993 Pontiac Grand Am. Now we know Dedrick's
1993 Pontiac Grand Am held a North Carolina license plate, registration number of NYB 3645. He's been missing since October 3rd, 2006 from right here in
Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He's classified as missing and endangered. Date of birth is 8/8/1980, and he was 26 years old at
the time of his disappearance. Today, he would be 41 years old. His height is six one, 178 pounds. He was wearing a shirt, jeans, purple, yellow, red and
white Air Jordan sneakers, and a gold chain necklace
with a medallion. Smith suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and is in need of medication. He may also suffer from amnesia and not remember who he
is or how to get home. What we're gonna do right now
is hop right into the map. We're gonna go into the lab, pop that up for you guys on the screen and bring you into exactly how it is we've dissected this search. With points of interest,
including right here where we're at, the girlfriend's house. As well as his home, where he resided and that in reference to
the different waterways, we have highlighted that we're
gonna be searching today. Let's get right into it. So we're back in the lab. We're gonna throw up right now, the new search software that we're using. So what you guys are
seeing is our search map and the points of interest
here in Winston-Salem for the Dedrick Smith case. Now you're gonna see two
circles around this search area. One represents his house in
a five mile search radius, and the other is going
to reference a five mile search radius based on
his girlfriend's house, where his last known whereabouts were. Now, we're gonna highlight his
girlfriend's house right now. And it gives you an idea
of the five mile radius specific from her house. Now, if we go over to
his house where he lived, and it'll give you an option
to see the five mile radius from that address as well,
which they're not too far off. Now, five mile search
radius has pretty much worked for us in the past. And that's a tactic that
we've developed here at Adventures With Purpose,
so we're sticking to it. And depending on the
geographical locations in the area we're at,
we can't go off of that. A lot of times when we're
in very rural areas, we might have to go 15, 20 miles to get to the nearest waterway. But what we have here
on this map right now is we have the two major
points of interest, which are his house and
the girlfriend's house. Now, outside of that, we have
these locations right here, marked as points of interest to search, which they're waterways
within our search radius. First one being the most significant, in my opinion is Salem Lake. This location has a boat ramp. A boat ramp we detect that is probably about seven feet deep,
right off the shore. And also we verify that
this lake gets up to, I would say, 30 feet or so in this lake. So we know that this
body of water definitely gets deep enough to conceal a vehicle. Our second point of
interest today is going to be Winston Lake, which
is not too far away, right over here, Winston Lake. Is it gonna be a great
location that we deem viable for a vehicle to make it in? It does have a boat ramp. There is a chained lock to this boat ramp, but was that chain and
lock there 16 years ago? We don't know and we're
not ruling that out. And from our second point of interest right here at Winston Lake, we are then gonna proceed over in a Southwest direction to Quarry Park. Now we know this body of water is here and possibly could be deep
enough to conceal a vehicle. So as we move forward right now, these are going to be
our three main points of interest in this search. Once we rule these three locations out, if we do not find Dedrick, we will then come back to this software and start identifying the next waterways that we need to search. Right now I can tell
you they're very limited and there really aren't anymore within this scope of this search area. So we're really gonna have to
go back to the drawing board to see if it's viable for
us to expand the search area based on the information that we have. Let's get right to it. Let's get out there, boots on the ground. Let's start searching. (melancholy music) We're gonna go to this
other location to put in. There's too much construction right here. And it's shut down here at this location, it says no water access. Rather than fight with the people here, we're just gonna go around
to the other side and put in. We'll just have to boat it
up on this side and scan. (melancholy music continues) Yeah. Alright, so what we're gonna have to do from this location right here is hike the boat down through the woods, which this is why we
use these little boats. That way we can get 'em in
and outta anywhere we need to. So we're gonna unload
right here where we're at, take the boat down and
put it into the water, right through those woods, right there. Let's roll, gotta unload the boat, hike it down through the woods. We're gonna jet over
to where we need to go. (ominous music) This is the area of concern right here. Let me bring you guys
into what I'm looking at. It's 23 feet deep, 18 feet deep still. We're right here off
the shore of this park, where we pulled in at and
over here on Garmin Livescope, you see all the fish swimming by. And we're coming to where
the boat ramp is right there. Lets see what's out here. Still 12 feet deep and
it just goes to show that the depth charts that we look up, are severely wrong and they're
not reliable, whatsoever. (engine purring) Just scan a little bit further
out than our first pass. We're at 11 point...
12 feet, 12 and a half. There's a lot of depth here. 14.3 feet, getting deeper. 19.1, .3, .4. 9 feet. Scan this whole shoreline over here. Three feet right here. Really shallow. (gentle music) (engine purring) So we just pulled up
to our second location that we pointed out this
morning, Winston Lake. This is the second most
probable search area in the search for Mr. Smith, so let's go. (gloomy music) Looks deep, looks deeper. It makes sense, something happens here, it's kinda off the beaten path. If this was open at the time, you could definitely get a vehicle in here at night with nobody noticing. We're at five feet right
here, seven and a half feet, eight and a half feet, nine feet. And I believe we have a car. I believe we have a car. Get a different scan on it. Should be coming up on it right now. There it is, that's a car. Absolutely a car. Did we just find Dedrick? It's possible, very possible. And 12.3 feet. There it is right there.
- Wow. - [Doug] That
- 100%. - [Doug] is a vehicle right there. So let's get a magnet on it.
- Alright. - I believe this body of water is closest to where he last was seen. You know, Dedrick suffered
from paranoid schizophrenia and there's a lot of
different things that happen when someone is schizophrenic. We're gonna get me transitioned to shore after we mark this vehicle. We're gonna get me suited up
with dive gear, coms, video, everything that we need to go down and see exactly what
mystery this vehicle holds. And within an hour, we're
gonna know for sure. So back to Dedrick Bernard Smith and the circumstances leading
up to his disappearance. We know that the police department and the family has
released that he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and amnesia. And I will say that, those two details combined with the fact that he was allowed to
operate a motor vehicle, stick out to me and are very concerning. Yes, this is hindsight. And I know it's really difficult to take somebody's freedom as far as stopping them from driving,
but it's very critical. Dementia, Alzheimer's,
Huntington's Disease, paranoid schizophrenia, amnesia
that, and in some cases, diabetes with James Amabile. These conditions people
should be seriously evaluated on whether or not they can
operate a motor vehicle. If this indeed is Bernard's vehicle, I contribute his death in
ending up in this body of water strictly to the fact that he was allowed to operate his own motor vehicle. Yes, you can come to the assumption something else coulda happened to him because of his illness with
schizophrenia and amnesia. But if this is him, this is not the case. He was in his vehicle, ended up in water when he was readily and commonly found confused
and not knowing where he was. And we know that. It's public record that he's been found extremely confused in areas. We've gotta do more as
citizens and neighbors and family members and so forth. I'm not putting burden or
blame on anybody, whatsoever. It's just, we really have to protect our family and our
friends and our neighbors. The department of motor
vehicles needs to do a better job of making sure
that certain individuals aren't allowed to legally
operate a motor vehicle. I think that's a plausible
argument and concern to have. - [Carson] Oh, there we go, right there. - Okay, got a good clear lock on it. So we're gonna pull ourselves above it. So we're directly above it. I'm gonna tie a knot in it,
right there above the water. That's gonna be an anchor for our buoy, I'm gonna put on here. The wind is just blowing us way off. So let's... Okay, so it's off to the side right there. Oh, right on it. Alright, got the buoy on there. Very, very probable that
this is Dedrick's vehicle. Let's hurry up, let's get in
the water and see what we have. (uptempo music) - Yep.
- Yeah. - [Doug] You find the other ankle weights in there for me, please? (upbeat violin music) - [Carson] Just bring him home, Doug. Bring him home. (upbeat violin music continues) Diver down, diver down. - [Doug] I am at what
I believe is a vehicle. Definitely, I'm on it. - We're looking for a
1993, turquoise Grand Am. - [Doug] I'm at the passenger side. Passenger side window is open. Rear window on the passenger side is up. The rear window on the
passenger side is up. Zero visibility. Absolutely zero visibility. I do believe I have a
license plate in my hand. Yep, there's a license plate on the trunk. This is a white vehicle. This is a white vehicle
in color, white in color. Rear window, driver's side, is intact. - He says that the vehicle's white. - [Doug] Driver's side window
is up all but two inches. Making my way to the front of the vehicle. To try to make identification on model. - It's clear now that
this is not our vehicle. - [Doug] Unable to make out the front end. Working with very little
visibility down here. Taking my knife out. I do feel an emblem. - Hopefully, we can figure out if this is potentially
connected to anything else. - [Doug] We have a Chrysler 200. Making my way up topside. - He's making his way up topside. - [Doug] I was not able to feel anything in the passenger area. I repeat, I was unable to
detect any type of human remains in the passenger side of the vehicle where the window was open. (heavy breathing) (water splashing) This vehicle holds the
registration of October of 2019. (water sloshing) This is not our vehicle. We're gonna call the police right now, inform them of this vehicle. Do some research to see this vehicle's connected to anything else. And then we're going on
to the next body of water. We have more areas to search. Let's go. (electronic music) Yeah, I have a detective
that's running it. See what it belongs to. When you're out here doing
good things in the world, you have even greater
people helping you out. (engine rumbling) Casting 75 feet still in either direction. (boat engine rumbling) What is that? What is that? Oh yeah, we got another car
right here, right there. There's another car right
in line with that trash can. - [Carson] Oh, okay. Is that a pickup truck? Looks like it might be a pickup truck. - [Doug] Alright, it's
right over to my right, right off to my left, right there. So we got one right here
off to our left, my left. We just passed it. Another one out there to the
right is the pickup truck. Coming over it right now. Oh yeah. I'm on. I'm on. I'm on. I'm on. I'm on. I'm on. That is, looks like an SUV. Come on. I believe I'm on the wheel,
so I got a really good... no, this is a car. - [Carson] This is a car, yeah. - [Doug] You kind of
see it on down imaging. That is a car. Ah, it's got those
funny roof marks though. That's definitely an SUV. And... there's another one right there. Definitely looks like some
type of big truck there, wow. Maybe a tow truck. - [Carson] What? (both chuckling) - Maybe a tow truck. Alright, let's go get some more buoys. Let's go, careful right there. It slips really fast. We gotta scan underneath
this dock out here. 'Cause as we know docks get
built on top of cars now. Getting really good readings
at the dock over here. 13 feet deep. What do we have on this side, over here. 11.2, eight feet right here, off this edge of this landing here. Mmm. Something out there. I don't think it's a vehicle though. Up, up, up. Oh, what is that? It's like 30 feet long, whatever it is. What have we got out there? Is that a vehicle? A bunch of fish, seeing all
types of stuff out here, but I have to do a lot
of scanning to make sure what we're seeing is legit. This entire roadway around here, that little fence you saw out
there, never used to be there. (engine roaring) Real bummer that wasn't the
vehicle we're looking for. I'd really like to find Dedrick today. We're trying. I'm not seeing anything else. Yep, well we'll do some more
scanning over there real quick. I thought I saw something weird out here, I just wanna double check. Yep, oh we got another car. We got another car. - [Carson] What?
- Yep. Straight in. Right here. Right...
- Oh, I see it. - Right here.
- Look at that, look at that. - Right here, there. This is gonna be the first car we dive on. Straight down the road.
- This one, this one. Look, straight shot. 14 feet deep. This looks just like a Pontiac Grand Am. Definitely a four door car. This is definitely gonna be
the first car that we dive on being as though we know that that one is some type of huge vehicle. Coming back on it right now. I'm gonna be dropping the magnet down. Dropping it down. Magnet should be coming into it right now. - Yep. - Yep.
- Yep. It's not wanting to stick. So it's got a lot of build up on it. Very hopeful. Here we go. Coming up on it right now. Drop the magnet down. Yep, yep, I got it, good lock. Good, strong lock. This is in the realm of an accident, not dumping a car. This is straight down the end of the road. (water splashing) That's him, that's his vehicle. I knew today when we started,
we were gonna find him. Now I don't know for 100%,
but I know that's his vehicle. I know my sonar. That's a Pontiac. That's a Grand Am, it's
1993, let's get to it. (tense music) (background noise) (tense music continues) This could be it, I'm confident it is. A lot of things going
through my head right now, as far as this being the vehicle, this not being the vehicle. There's a family that's finally gonna know where their loved one is. There's a mom who's gonna
know where her son is, finally after 16 years. (somber piano music) - Connector. (somber music continues) (water splashing) - Radio check, radio check. - I read you loud and clear. - I read you loud and clear, copy that. - [Carson] Diver down, diver is down. (somber music continues) - Are you at the vehicle, Doug? - [Doug] ...vehicle... - It's cutting in and out. It's cutting in and out, Doug. I think I heard you say
you were at the vehicle. - [Doug] Correct. I'm at the vehicle. Vehicle is blue in color. No visibility. Really dark down here. I'm at the passenger's
side of the vehicle. Passenger side windows are up. The vehicle is blue in color. Like a turquoise color. Making my way to the
rear of the vehicle now. I repeat, making my way to
the rear of the vehicle now. (gentle piano music) I have a license plate in hand. I repeat it reads NYB 3645. We have found Dedrick's vehicle. Oh my goodness. I just need to take a moment. I'm going to have to begin
my assessment of the vehicle. Damages, windows up or down, etc. I repeat, we have just
found Mr. Smith's vehicle. After 16 years, we have discovered Mr. Smith's vehicle underwater less than a mile from
his last known location. (gentle music) All of the windows are up on the vehicle. I repeat, all of the windows are up. I'm gonna begin my ascent topside. I repeat, I'm gonna
begin my ascent topside. (somber music) (heavy breathing) - [Doug] See how calm
it is right now guys? Can't believe we did it guys. What this is all about, doing the impossible. Relentlessness is to accomplish the impossible makes it possible. Being willing to do what
nobody else has done. It's just an accident. It's a road that leads right into here. He probably never saw it coming. - [911 Dispatch] Okay Mr. Bishop, I will send somebody out there. - [Doug] I'm Doug. - [Police Officer] I
guess you were waiting on a call.
- Yeah. - From one of us.
- Yeah. - Our CAD system went down as soon as you called.
- That's fine. We couldn't find your number, they couldn't do anything.
- That's fine. - My name is Doug, I'm with
Adventures With Purpose where I volunteer, Underwater Sonar Search and Recovery Dive Team. We travel the nation investigating cold cases.
- Okay. - We do not charge law
enforcement or families anything. After diving on it, I was able to confirm
that it was a vehicle we were searching for.
- Okay. - All the windows are up on the vehicle. - Okay. - So at that point it's a crime scene, we do not disturb.
- Yeah. - I did a full assessment. There's no other damage or
anything on the vehicle. - Okay. - And at that moment, as soon
as I got out, we reached out, told you guys, which is our
normal process and what we do. I pulled the plate. I have the plate.
- Okay. - And at this point, we're
here to offer you guys, - Oh yeah. - any help you need. Some jurisdictions might elect to do it during daylight in the morning. - Honestly that's kind of...
- Yeah. Shut down the park. - Cause it's not going anywhere. - Yeah, shut down the park. I have a magnet on it, I can remove that. And if you want to wait till tomorrow we can go out and remark it, rig it. - Well, can we leave it? - We can leave it. It's just if you worried
about somebody coming in here wondering where it is, they're gonna easily be able to find it with the marker on it.
- Yeah. - And it'll take me
seconds to mark it again with sonar in the morning, if
that's what you wanted to do. But I know you guys have a whole process you gotta go through at the moment. (chatter) - [Voice Over Radio]
Call back and request. (chatter) - So great guys, great
crew, great attitudes. They were familiar with the case. And at this point it's just
a bunch of formalities. They're gonna have to
make a lot of phone calls when it comes down to the higher ups that they have to communicate with. This is a very old case. So there's gonna be a very
tedious process from here on out. There's a beat officer
that's gonna come out, take the report, go from there. Determine whether or not their
dive team's gonna hook it up. Whether or not we will be helping and assisting with the recovery. And also whether not
that's gonna take place tonight or tomorrow. I dunno, we'll see. We just got through meeting with CID, full debriefing and
breakdown of today's events from our search investigation
from this moment we started this morning until right now. We've come to the
conclusion that we're gonna be back here tomorrow morning, first daylight to recover this vehicle. They're gonna be using me to dive and rig the vehicle the way it should be. They're relying on our expertise and experience as we
are the leading experts when it comes to underwater
vehicle forensics removal. Tomorrow, we will be
surfacing this vehicle from where it has rested for 16 years and possibly have confirmation
on the human remains that may be inside of this vehicle, possibly belonging to
Dedrick Bernard Smith. (gentle music) (upbeat music) (engine rumbling) (upbeat music continues) (water splashing) (heavy breathing) (water gurgling) - Hey Doug, can you hear me? - [Doug] 10-4, I got ears on you. (water gurgling) - I got ears, I got ears. First connection has been made to the front passenger side wheel. I'm gonna begin to take
the second strap down to get it connected. I'm gonna need that big red
strap ready when I get back. Heading back down, (indistinct). (heavy breathing) Alright, I'm at the
front driver's side tire. I'm going to putting the rigging on the front driver's side tire. Alright, the front end
is successfully rigged. I'm coming back for the big red strap. Red strap, red strap, red strap. - [Carson] Red strap? We going to feed it to you. (repeated heavy breathing) (repeated water gurgling) - Yeah, if you ain't got
enough, I can pull some. - Right, just pull it backward. - Yep. - And I'm gonna start laying it down. - [Doug] Alright come over here. You gonna clip that on
this line, right there. Lock it. Alright. What that's doing is it's... we locked it on the line. We just ziplined it down to the vehicle. (heavy breathing) (water gurgling) We got all the rigging into place. Uh (indistinct) 100%. We'll get a good boom angle above this. I'm heading back over to the wall. Making my way back up the
winch line at the dock. (heavy breathing) (water gurgling) (background noise) (chatter) - So what we have right now,
I have the front end rigged. I have two separate basket
riggings on each front end tire, married to the top with
another basket in a triangle to the winch line. So the second we start
pulling on that car, it's a little bit at an
angle, should break it free. The angle from the
rotator, we're gonna take all the stages of it out. And we're gonna be pulling from an angle, that's not only gonna
be pulling it to shore, but pulling it up to break
the suction from the bottom. I'm very, very happy
with the way that went. We're gonna have this car
out of here in a few minutes. (melancholy music) (multiple beeps) (melancholy music continues) (multiple beeps continues) - The windows are all up, so it's not gonna be
that big of a mess there. - The inside? - Yeah, yeah, it's just
gonna be bones, yeah. - And we may get busy and not
have the opportunity later to thank you guys.
- Absolutely. - God bless you for what you did. - Yeah. - [Reporter 3] Smith suffers
from paranoid schizophrenia and not remember who he
is or how to get home. - [Reporter 1] Since October 4th, 2006, it was the day 26 year old Dedrick Bernard Smith disappeared. - [Reporter 2] He had been
missing for more than 15 years. A business, known as
Adventures With Purpose, found his car submerged in Winston Lake. - [Doug] There's a mom who's
gonna know where her son is finally, after 16 years. - Community, that's what
Adventures With Purpose is about. You guys put us in the
position to do this, to bring answers to families. That's what was done today. Huge community effort
with the Winston-Salem Police Department, as well as
William Folks Record Service, bringing their rotator
out on their own dime, volunteering their services
to make all of this possible. I want to take a second to encourage each and every one of you to make
sure that you subscribe, like, share these stories, so another family can get help as well. Until next time, we're gonna
jump right back on the road to our next case, we will see you on the next one. (somber music)
