- Day three, as our search
for Donnie Messier continues here in Waterbury, Vermont. Day one, we found the
potential vehicle here in the Winooski River. Day two, yesterday, we
confirmed it was in fact the vehicle that belonged to Donnie. And today we're working with
law enforcement to recover the vehicle, and hopefully
find the remains inside. - [Commenter] I hope
it's there, still there. - [Reporter] In October 2006,
Messier was last seen leaving a party in Waitsfield in his red pickup. - [Reporter] Currier
tells me at this point, she just wants to know what
happened to her brother. (compelling music) (compelling music) (compelling music) - All right, ladies and
gentlemen, boys and girls, you're probably wondering right now, what am I holding in my hand? What is in this picture frame? Now, let me just tell you that
this picture frame entitles me to change my name. Not only does it change my
name, it changes who I am. I am now officially holding
a certificate in this frame that certifies me as a lord. I have also known now
as Lord Douglas Bishop. That's right, at establishedtitles.com. You may be asking yourself,
what is Established Titles? Well, let me tell you this. If you use our promo code
we're gonna give you, you're gonna have access to
own one square foot of land. That one square foot of
land is going to make you a lord or a lady. Title packs gives you
at least one square foot of land in Eddleston, Scotland. Your certificate features a
unique plot number as well that'll give you access
to its exact location. Not only are you going to receive one of these same exact certificates that makes you an official
lady and/or a lord, Established Titles is
going to plant one tree to help global reforestation. How amazing is that? The kicker is Established
Titles told me directly that the first 200
people that hit the link in the description and use
our promo code is gonna have their square foot of
land right next to mine, the first 200 people now. Don't run to do it, but
please run to do it, 'cause I want your square foot
of land right next to mine, and I want to see 200 trees
in the next hour planted right next to mine. This makes an amazing Christmas gift. Like, you guys should have
saw me when I opened this up and saw that I'm officially a
lord, smiling from ear to ear. This is really, really cool. It's not just a novelty gift, this is a real deal
gift to give to anybody. You want to impress somebody,
you want to be different, that different gift that
has an impact on the world, you're gonna get a tree planted. You're gonna have an official
one square foot plot of land. This is one of the best
gifts you can give somebody. Now, before we get back to the episode, I really want to encourage
anybody out there who wants a really cool,
amazing gift that's gonna make an impact on a creative level as well as help global reforestation, hit the link in the description
below, use our promo code, and I wanna see your square
foot of land right next to mine. (lively music) - [Reporter] 16 Years after
Donald Messier's disappearance, a major break in the case as
divers found a red Ford F-150 at the bottom of the
Winooski River believed to be the same truck Messier was
driving the day he disappeared. - If you haven't seen episodes one and two of the first two days of this search, please check those out now. For those of you who have not seen those, we're gonna give you a
quick overview right now. So Donnie went missing
October 15th of 2006. He was driving a red 1997
Ford F-150 dual cab pickup, license plate number BGG890. That's bravo, golf,
golf, eight, niner, zero. Donnie was last seen at
a party at a location that was about 10 to
15 miles north of here, and it was about 2:00 a.m.
when he left that party. He might have had a few drinks, so maybe slightly intoxicated,
we don't really know. There are some witness
statements out there that say that he wasn't super intoxicated,
but you know, who knows? So, you know, it's obviously
dark, it's October, the temperature that night
got down to 31, 32 degrees, so there could have been
some ice on the road. Earlier on too, there was
some witness statements saying that perhaps he was
feeling a little depressed, and he was drinking for the wrong reasons. Next thing I'm gonna show you here, this is a map that Bill has put together. Now Bill, can you explain
to the viewers why and how you have such
knowledge of this area? - So I graduated from
Norwich University in 1995, and spent a lot of time up
in Vermont during that time. So I put a search map
together by literally looking at every one of the locations
that Donnie frequented, whether it be Denny's or
Domino's in Burlington, Vermont, and Winooski to the locations
that he went to for the races that he went to at the Thunder
Roads race tracks in Berry to his trips to to Waitsfield. And so what we did is I
put a circular map together of most of his travel
patterns where he stayed within that in his life pattern, and then cross referenced
that where the center of the map around his
house being the center of all of those trip
lines that he would go on, whether it be in the vehicle or whatnot. So in the end what we did is we, the Adventures with Purpose had started with the Waterbury Reservoir, which is in the central
section of the search. And what we ended up
looking at is, you know, at the end of this trip, let me just put a little
piece here for you, we were gonna go back at
one point in the search to the Waterbury Reservoir, because it was under construction back when Jared came here the first time. - Yeah, so just for those
of you that don't know, about a year ago, Adventures
with Purpose came up here to work this same case. I wasn't on that trip,
but Doug and Jared were, and one of the places that
they were able to search was this Waterbury Reservoir. At the time of that search, there was some construction
going on on this location of the lake over here by the dam. They weren't able to search, so this was another location
that was on our list for this year's trip that
we were looking for Donnie. - And if you look at the map, Waterbury Reservoir is
in the central circle where they cross over,
so this circle to go to the racetrack, and this circle to go to Burlington and Denny's, the center of that is
the Waterbury Reservoir and the Winooski River. And ironically, in the
end, we found Donnie right on the corner of that circle
on the straight azimuth of the middle of both search circles. So our first search of the day on day one, we went to Blueberry Lake
as our first location, because it had two means of egress as well as a large
hillside off the main road. So we went to Blueberry Lake, came in the backside to the parking area, put the boats in, and
looked at Blueberry Lake. Found that for the most part, the deepest section was
nine and a half feet, but there was nothing in that location. So we moved down the
road to Hartshorn Farm, which is very close to the
Canyon Farm where the party was. We went to that location,
searched every one of the ponds, the family allowed us onto the property. We cleared that area,
and moved on from there, and started working our way
towards the Winooski River. The reason why the Winooski
was a very key point is Vermont doesn't have on Google Earth, you're not able to really
zoom in on the road itself and have a road view,
but there were pictures on the Duxbury site are
showing 10 foot drop-offs, and nine foot, and 15 foot
drop-offs along the river's edge. And when Donnie comes home, what he would do is he
would take back roads, and those back roads
come through River Road. River Road's a dirt road
starting from Route 100, coming over the bridge, it's a dirt road. So in 2006, the roads,
according to the locals, were very muddy in this section,
and kids would come out here at high rates of speed
and play in the dirt, and this section where we
were actually sitting at, they would do donuts in this field. This is actually a town property, so it wasn't really monitored that much, so guys would come out here and play. I had a really good sense
that this was the location. Actually I have a 17 year old
daughter I was up here with, and she said Winooski
River is where he is. And so when Nick and I
started to talk about it, he said, "Well it's only six
inches to a foot in here." I said, "But there are deep holes." So in this section, not
only do you have some bends and turns in the road that
go right along these edges where he could have come
in, but there's also, this is a horse track
that kids used to play on. This is an area that
they used to to frequent with four wheelers as well as trucks. So we had a feeling that
there was a potential for this area to be, you know,
in the top, a top priority. On our list of locations,
we had 14 locations. This was number three on the map. - So when we come into this case, we're looking at a
couple different things. One is a potential accident scenario after he left the party, depending on which direction
he went, where he was going. And the second is a
potential self-harm scenario where because of the fact
that he was drinking, and maybe he was already
in a depressed state, maybe that intensified his emotions, and maybe he left that party
with some ulterior motives that nobody was aware of. So that's why we had to go into this case, and look at all these different scenarios, all these waterways in these areas, and that's why we have
so many areas to search. And at first it's a little daunting, but when you start breaking it down, and start following the
routes, as daunting as it is, you just have to start
process of elimination, knocking 'em out,
checking 'em off the list, and keep searching these waterways until you either clear 'em all, or find what you're looking for. (truck beeping)
(compelling music) (rocks tumbling)
(compelling music) (vehicle engine humming)
(compelling music) Oh look at that, they've
got this all settled in. So I don't know if you
guys could see yesterday, but this particular
embankment was kind of, it's all dirt and muddy, and
the wrecker that's coming in to get this vehicle out of
the water is a very big piece of equipment, so they
brought in some big rock here and flattened it out and
made a nice solid place so they can park the wrecker,
put out the stabilizers, and hopefully piece of cake
they can reach over there, the divers can hook up the
rigging to the vehicle, and then they can just get that
thing outta the water safely and hopefully intact, and then start doing their investigation to find out what the cause of this accident was. They're getting ready to
bring the dive team in, and I can see 'em right there
coming around the corner. So they're relocating all
these vehicles farther, closer inland to leave
room for the dive team, and plus that, they don't want
the vehicles to get trapped. In case of an emergency, they can. (imitates engine whooshing) (compelling music) (compelling music)
(truck engine humming) Scuba teams have just arrived
from the Vermont State Police. They're getting in position. As soon as they do, and they get out, I'll go talk to 'em and
tell 'em that we're here for any assistance that they may need. We've got our dredger already out. We'll go just give 'em a
briefing of what we saw, see what we can do to
help make this happen as quickly as possible. There's the bed. As you can see, it's pretty filled with pea gravel and whatnot. It's weird, the hood's gone, but the visor that was above the windshield
is still sitting there. Now this is the passenger side. One of the tires is still
sticking up a little bit, and the tailgate was down, and there's a lot of kind
of gravel in the back, sand and gravel. And just so you know, the front of the
vehicle's facing upstream, back is facing downstream, so it's pretty much parallel to the river. - [Commenter] With the hurricane
though, there's no telling. - You're right. - He could gone in miles up, you know? - You think it would
push a vehicle that far? - [Commenter] The
hurricane, Hurricane Irene. - Oh, really? - [Commenter] We were
devastated from that. All of Waterbury flooded. - I don't think it's moved. The way it sits, it's in a
deep hole and the only hole. Everything else is six to 12 inches deep. - Okay. - I guess that would be
surprising though, right? Like, the roof took that much damage compared to like, the rest? - Well I mean, it depends
on how he impacted too. If it damaged the roof enough
to just start it peeling back, and then if the truck
had enough sediment in it that it wouldn't flow. Like, maybe in the hurricane
when the waters were so high, it could have just slowly
kind of tore the roof if it started with some
damage in a corner. - The passenger's side
door, they were closed. But the passenger side door
you'll see is actually broken and dented down and out,
but it's not unlocked, so as if it took a heavy hit. - And then we started working
our way towards the back, and you'll see the tailgate
down here in a minute, kinda like the previous
footage, and then after that, it took Dan and I 10 to 15 minutes to dig the pea gravel out. We tried to lift the
tailgate up to get to it. That wasn't working, so we were at, one of the cables was pretty loose, so we snapped that free, spun
the tailgate outta the way, and were able to dig down
to the license plate. The back of the vehicle's downstream, so obviously maybe 10 to
15 feet behind that may be worth sifting through too,
'cause stuff might have- - Yeah, I think we're gonna try to get it. If we can get that vehicle
out, once we empty that, we're gonna try to get
what's around where it is. Yeah, I mean, the hood and the- - Right, they've gotta be somewhere. - They could be, you know? - But they could be miles down. - Right. - They could be a ways,
or they could be buried under that soil as well. - Anyway, so- - Thank you for showing that, thank you. - Yeah, absolutely. Okay, cool, so we got them the information that they need for now. Now it's in their hands. I'm sure at some point
they'll come over and ask for our assistance with the
dredger, 'cause as you can see, the thing's pretty full of pea gravel. It's gonna take 'em a
few hours to get anywhere for that recovery. I think yesterday they were
talking about first trying to go into the vehicle, and
actually specifically looking for remains, and then worry
about getting the vehicle out. So we'll wait and see what their plan is, and we'll go from there. (compelling music)
(indistinct chatter) So Jared and I just went down
there and helped them get the dredger set up, and you know, talked about how they're going
to maybe make enough hose to make it over there. Hopefully they have enough. - I mean, I'm almost- - It's gonna be close. - Yeah, I'm kinda scared they
might be like 10 feet short. - Right, so they may have
to go get some more hose, but we got 'em set up on
that, so they were stoked. It looks like they're divers,
they've already got a diver that was just coming outta the water. They got buoys on the vehicle,
they got a diver buoy up for marking to stay 200 feet out the area, and yeah, we'll just see what happens. They got a lot of divers
ready to go in the water. They got their whole setup. Looks like they're gonna, you know, pump all that pea gravel outta
there and sift through it, see if they can find any in remains and any evidence, and go from there. (melancholy music) (keyboard keys clacking) (dredger motor humming)
(melancholy music) (keyboard keys clacking) (music continues) (keyboard keys clacking) (music continues) (dredger motor humming) That's the jacket. I feel like that's a really good sign. Just the fact that there's been a lot of current stuff
moving through this area over the years, you
know, it's been 16 years. If the jacket was just out in the open, chances to me, personally feel
like it would've been flushed outta the vehicle by now. The fact that it's been
contained in there for so long underneath all the stuff, that gives me a pretty good feeling that possibly it was the jacket he was wearing
the night he disappeared. (dredger motor humming) I feel like they're getting
closer, and you can see they've still got divers
in the water, at least one. I can't tell if it's just one. Oh there's two, two divers in the water. The dredger's still rolling,
so they're still working. My guess is right now
they're doing two things. They're both sifting through
material looking for remains, and they're clearing
out the vehicle itself, getting it prepped to hook onto a wrecker. The wrecker's on standby
up here, so you know, it could be in the next 30 minutes, it could be in the next couple hours, but we're gonna stick around, and we're gonna see it
through till the end. And if you haven't done so
yet, please get on YouTube and check out Downunder
Dan, and subscribe. He's doing great things
over there in Australia. He's looking for missing
people just like we are here. It's great to see this
movement has gone worldwide, so please give him some
support, watch his videos, like, subscribe, and share, and we appreciate everything
you've done for us, so help Dan here, Downunder
Dan on YouTube, thank you. (winch whining and knocking) - That little wrecker ain't gonna pull it. They can't block it enough. That's a problem unless
they hook to a tree. - You know, winch is maxed out. - Oh it is maxed? - Yeah. (keyboard keys clacking) (winch whining and knocking) Got it on its side right now. Got it on its side. - Oh it is? - Is it really? - Yeah. - Now they've flipped the truck over. - Well, see that. - [Commenter] So you looked
through the binoculars and you can tell? - Yeah, so driver's side fender flare, that's what it looks like. (indistinct chatter) - [Commenter] So they flipped it? - [Commenter] Yeah. - I don't know why they didn't
just get a bigger wrecker. - I thought they were gonna take that, bring a crane from Charlie Boys maybe. - [Commenter] One's
here, one's over there. - I've watched you guys
get out vehicles holding the integrity of its content
at its highest priority, holding together vehicles
that were literally pieces of paper, and getting them
out in a compact package. This is heartbreaking. (winch whining)
(indistinct chatter) I hope the family can have what they need once this is done. I hope what's there is still there. (winch whining)
(indistinct chatter) I just think about like
your equipment sitting in that truck right there, right? Your float bags, your whatever, you guys would know how to do it. You would know how to hook it. You would know how to turn it and lift it. You would've told them what
kind of equipment they needed, whether that truck was big enough, heartbreaking. I don't know if this is ego or what it is, but it's not right by the family. It's not right by the family
to sit here and watch this. - Well, they found a watch. I saw the picture of the watch, and it was hard to tell
whether it was still clasped. - [Commenter] The family
said it was still clasped. - Oh it was? Okay, well that's a good sign. If we would have the go at
it, we would've had this taken care of probably several hours ago, but you know, it's not our place. We gotta let law
enforcement do their thing, so we're just watching and
observing, and seeing what things in the future that could go better. But we've now been here
for nine and a half hours. It's basically, I think 5:00. (keyboard keys clacking) And we arrived at 7:30 this morning, and they were just still
finishing up the excavation of the location where
they're all parked at now, and at 5:00 we still don't have
the vehicle above the water, so it's just a time-consuming
process all the way around. They have their own dive team
here, and so if anything, this is a good way for
them to get practice. I don't know how many real
life scenarios they get throughout the year. Might just be a lot of training. So hopefully the benefit
that'll come from this is all these people that are
involved today can put this in their book of notes,
and maybe have a debriefing afterwards and after-action review, and talk about what went
right, what went wrong, how could we have done
this better in the future? So let's hope it's a learning
experience for everyone. (compelling music)
(indistinct chatter) (keyboard keys clacking) So right now they're
decontaminating the divers. They're washing their gear. That's actually a really
good way to do it. And then they also brought in a rotator, so they got a way bigger
tow truck that's gonna help, because the smaller one that
they got was struggling, so they brought in the big dog. They're gonna get those out of there. They got divers on standby
ready to go back in and re-rig this one, so
hopefully within the next hour, we should make some progress
and get it out of there. (vehicle beeping)
(compelling music) - You ready? - Yeah, go, good to go. (compelling music)
(indistinct chatter) (melancholy music) - [Reporter] Tonight, police
have found the truck belonging to a Waterbury man missing
for nearly 16 years. (melancholy music)
(metal clanking) - [Reporter] And Messier has been missing for over a decade and a half. Adventures with Purpose, an
independent search group found the truck Tuesday afternoon, and alerted police shortly after. (melancholy music)
(indistinct chatter) - [Reporter] In October 2006,
Messier was last seen leaving a party in Waitsfield in his red pickup, and he was reported missing
when he didn't show up for work. Police have not been able to
locate Messier since then. Adventures With Purpose,
an independent search group that produces a YouTube show
started working on the case last year, independent from the police. They say they didn't
find anything originally, but new information from
locals in Waterbury caused them to come back this year. (melancholy music) (music continues)
(indistinct chatter) (music continues)
(indistinct chatter) - [Reporter] Donald Messier was driving his red 1997 Ford F-150. Currier says her brother liked to drive around the region as an escape. (melancholy music)
(branches crunching) - [Currier] You know, my
brother was the kind of person that would give you
the shirt off his back. If he had $5 and you needed
four, he'd give you five, just so that you were taken care of. (melancholy music)
(branches crunching) (indistinct chatter)
(music continues) (indistinct chatter)
(music continues) - [Reporter] Currier
tells me at this point, she just wants to know what
happened to her brother. - [Currier] We would love closure just to know what happened
so we're not wondering. I mean, at this point,
it's been almost 15 years, so we're realistic. We know that the likelihood of him being found alive
is extremely unlikely, but I think it's, we still
just need the answers. (winch whining)
(melancholy music) (melancholy music continues)
(indistinct chatter) (melancholy music continues)
(indistinct chatter) (melancholy music continues)
(indistinct chatter) (melancholy music continues)
(indistinct chatter) (melancholy music continues) ♪ I'll hold on tighter to you ♪ ♪ When all this is through ♪ ♪ And till then, tighter to you ♪ ♪ We'll just head down carry on ♪ ♪ 'Cause what else can we do ♪ ♪ We'll get through and
we'll sing hallelujah ♪ ♪ What is that to ya right now ♪ ♪ But let's talk in a way ♪ ♪ That can give us some
faith to go around ♪ ♪ We'll hold tight as we
can when it's better again ♪ ♪ When we're together again ♪
