- [Man] Samantha Jean
Hopper went missing in 1998. - Samantha Hopper, a mother
who was reported missing in September of 1998. - [Doug] It's been 23 years. She went missing 1998. Hopper was eight months pregnant at the time of her disappearance. She was last seen in
Russellville, Arkansas. She came home from work
and told her mother that she and her 22 month old
daughter, Courtney Hopper, and a friend were going to a concert in Little Rock, Arkansas, and will be back on September 12th. - This is one of those cases
that your family knows about, your kids know about, and it's emotional. - [Reporter] Samantha
Hopper and her daughter were reported missing
back in September of 1998. - [Doug] They were traveling
in a blue 1989 Ford Tempo. (melancholic music) - I'm Jared.
- Nice to meet you. This is my daughter.
- And this is your daughter? - Yeah.
- Oh, she's so cute. - [Dezarae] Yeah, this would've been- - [Debbie] I'm Debbie, I'm her mom. - [Jared] Good morning, Debbie. - [] This would've been
her first granddaughter. - [Jared] And what's her name again? - Oakley.
- Oakley. Hi Oakley.
- Say hi! - So, let's just kinda
start at the very beginning. Samantha, tell us about Samantha. You were three years old at the time, and you have an 18 month old sister and as we were talking on the phone, you only remember your
mom through pictures - Yeah.
- and nothing more. - Yeah, it's hard when you're that young and something like that happens because I'm sure at that time I
remembered a lot of things, but as you get older, you
remember a little less and a little less and a little less. Yeah, now I just really remember
things through pictures. - She comes to you and she says, "I'm going with Selena to a concert. Will you watch Dezarae?"
- She said, "Will you watch Dezi and Courtney? I said "No, I can't, I can watch one." And I never saw her again (sobs). - And I don't want to, if we need to turn the cameras off, let me know at any point, okay? - She said, "Mom, I'll
be back in the morning. I promise." And I said okay. She said "I'll take
Courtney to her daddy, Les." And I said okay. And that's the last I saw her. - And so where's Les' house
in relation to all of this? 'Cause Scotty lives in
Little Rock, or where- - West Memphis. - He lived in West Memphis at the time. - Okay, which is how many hours from here? - [Debbie] Oh god. - Maybe-
- Three or four. - Okay, so she would not have gone, nobody feels as though she would've taken Courtney with her 'cause
she was going over to have private time with
Scotty for the night. - I don't think that she'd have taken her. She had so many people here
that she would have watch us, I don't think that she
would've taken her with her. - So we now know that, now, when she had her
conversation with Les, was it in person? - Yes.
- Or it was over the phone? - [Dezarae] In person. - Okay, so she was actually at his house and then left his house. So let's start there;
where was his house at? - Over towards like the
Dardanelles Bridge area. - Okay.
- Yeah, it's off of Fourth Street area, let me see if I can-
- It's on South Arkansas. - Okay and so then what brings us up to Mill Creek and Pleasantville here? Is it because of your house? - Yes.
- We lived- - On Ball Hill Road.
- Over on Ball Hill Road. - Okay. - Okay, you can either come
this way, or you can go- - Past the strip bits.
- So give me a pin as to where mom's house is
at, where she was living. So here's where mom lives at the time, at this location. - It's not there anymore. It's just bulldozed and everything, but it's just right there on that corner. - Bring me back to, she
worked at Waffle House. - [Debbie] Yes. - Was her check ready, so
that she may have been going to Waffle House after she left Les' house? - Well, it was Friday, so
it may have been her payday. What day did they get paid? - They always got paid on Saturdays. - On Saturdays. - Okay, so the check
would not have been ready. So now what I'm looking
for is if she was down in Russellville, what's
going to bring her back up to the north, towards mom's house, or up here on Mill Creek or Pleasantville? That's what I'm trying to
do is get her back up here for our search up here. - She went to your house first, right? - To drop off Dezi.
- To drop off Dezi, and then she was gonna go to- - Down into town, to Les'. - To Les'. - Around six o'clock. - And did she make it there? - Yes, she made it to Les'.
- She definitely made it. - So Russellville back to your
house is 10 to 15 minutes. - [Debbie] Yeah. - Okay, so she has plenty
of time for a round trip. So then bring me into the route. You rode with her most often, so if she's heading from Russellville back up to mom's house up here. Back up here, so what is the most likely route or routes that she would've taken? - [Selena] She would've
gone to Pleasant View Road. - [Jared] And that's straight up here? - [Selena] Yep. - [Jared] So she would've
gone to the north. And then is that one Pleasant View? - [Selena] Yes, there's Pleasant View. - So then she would've taken this one and it looks really shallow here, but we have a bridge with some depth. We have some depth here. Did she ever just, was there a boat ramp there or anything? Would she ever just go to the edge of the river to wait and - No, she was scared of water.
- kill time? - Okay, so she's never- - She wasn't a big swimmer or any of that. She was, I'm not gonna
say terrified of water, but she definitely did not go swimming. She didn't have nothing
to do with like, you know. - Okay. So we come back up Pleasantville, and then we're going ahead and stay on Pleasantville, which is then going to bring us over. - 'Cause Pleasant View
Road and Mill Creek Road will connect you together. - Okay, so she's coming
across Pleasantville. She's never making her way
over to Mill Creek then? - [Selena] No. She would only turn on Mill Creek to get to Pleasant View Road
to get to Ball Hill Road. - And Pleasantville is the one
with the water on both sides? - Yes, yes. - Is there a second road
besides Pleasantville, or she always took Pleasantville? - She always took Pleasant View Road. - Always.
- Okay. - [Selena] That was her, yeah. - [Debbie] She always said,
"Mom, it's faster if you get on Pleasant View." - Because there's not as many curves. - Yeah.
- Okay. So with this body of water here, has this body of water
been there the entire time? - [Selena] Yeah. - [Jared] Okay, so we may
wanna take a look at that. - Okay.
- Here's what I need though, is I need to figure out what
brings me to Mill Creek? Do we have any reason why
she would be over here on Mill Creek? - Sometimes she took that
road, the Mill Creek road, to get to the Pleasant View Road. - So she's down here in town,
in Russellville, at Les'. - Yeah.
- Did she ever take the parkway which
would've then brought her to Mill Creek to then connect back around? Did she ever go this direction? - [Selena] Not that I'm aware of, no. - So never crossed the bayou here on 64? - [Selena] I don't think so. - This road right here on Mill Creek appears to be my number
one, I want to do this one, but I need you to help put me
here is what I'm trying to do. 'Cause it's more likely the
way that this road curves and the way that you
explained that she drives, this is more likely than Pleasant View in my opinion right now. - Like I said, she was a terrible driver. Everybody's like, "No we'll drive! We're not riding with you, Sammy! You stop driving!" (Selena laughs) - Okay. So really, we have two
main bodies of water off of Pleasant View or Mill Creek. - Yeah.
- Since we're already here, there's a boat ramp here, this one's still in question for me. We've learned to never rule anything out. Well, we got another dive
team that just showed up, so I'll introduce you to them real quick. I've got Jacob Grubbs here. He's Chaos Divers. - Hi, Dezarae. - And so we're gonna send
him over to Pleasant View area from here 'cause
he's got a faster boat, and then Doug and I, we're
gonna jump in the water here and cover Mill Creek, all right? We'll do what we can, okay? - (sobbing) I'm gonna have
a breakdown, I know I am. - Hey, we're gonna be
here to break you back up. - We'll leave no stone
unturned and we're gonna check all the water that we can for you, okay? - [Dezarae] Thank you so much. (melancholic music) (boat engine rumbles) - The river's gonna be
nice and deep today. It's already at 10, 13 feet here, so we'll scan both sides of this bridge, just to make sure, and then we'll head up along Mill Creek up there and cover everything up there. (boat engine rumbles) There you got some big fish on the bottom and then a bunch of bait fish there. All the fish there, all the
fish there, bridge structure. And just how clean this
is reading right now. (melancholic music) (boat engine rumbles) That guard rail's new. - That guard rail, specifically that one, has not been there no more than 10 years. I would say less than that. - [Jared] I'd say five years. - Yeah. The fittings are all new. There's no corrosion, there's no buildup. I mean, there may have
been like a rope wire guard or something like that, but
no matter what was there, doesn't matter because we know cars can clear a guard rail
without even touching them. And also we know cars
go through guard rails and railings and they get
replaced and are never questioned. I'm just gonna say if
you're a road worker, if you're a maintenance crew worker, and you come out and you see a railing in a place that has been torn down, it looks like it's been damaged, a guard rail that's been damaged
and you have to replace it, I want you to question
why that was damaged and look and consider that somebody may be in a car right off of there,
'cause there's several cases that we've dealt with where guard rails or railings were replaced after
somebody went through them and nothing was ever questioned. So just stop and ask yourself,
how did this get damaged? I know a lot of times
they're probably like, oh, my supervisor sent me out, this situation was already dealt with. But contact your supervisor, make sure they're aware
of why that happened. Then question, is something in the water? Has anybody verified or checked to see if something's in the water? Do that, 'cause as we know, it happens. (boat engine rumbles) - So any time I see any
fishermen on the water, normally they have a fast boat. They usually have sonar as well. So we might ask him if he's seen vehicles under water by chance. Or if they know of any cars in the water. Hey, how's it going? Hey, do you know of
any vehicles underwater in the lake that you know of? - [Fisherman] None I know of. - [Jared] All right, awesome. Thank you! (boat engine rumbles) - [Doug] It's easy to misread something. - Yeah.
- Like that you know is a rock, but it could look
something similar and not be. - [Jared] Yeah. - In the beginning, when I
first started reading sonar, I would circle over that
at least 15, 20 times and be like, "That's a car!" Like you just want to see a car. - The car, if it's here, it's gonna be completely visible. It's gonna stick out like a sore thumb. It's not buried. It may be sunk in maybe a foot, not even, but it's gonna be right there. It's gonna stick out like a sore thumb, and 23 years later it's gonna look as though that car
probably went in last week, except for because it's
been underwater so long, it's got buildup on it so it's gonna absorb sonar
the way a newer car won't. I know I just said was
gonna look like a car that just went in. I'm referring to a car going in, it's gonna be clear as day. Some people would think, oh,
a car went in 23 years ago, you're never gonna find
it, it's gonna be buried. No, it's gonna be completely
visible in a river like this. - [Jared] Depth is still good. The other thing too when
you don't have clarity, like you can see the transmitter there? It's not even a foot in the water, and you can barely see
the bottom of it, so. These are the types of
waters that hide vehicles. - Yep, and even if the water
drops four or five feet, the car could be 18 inches underwater and you're not gonna see it. (emotional music) - Oh, Jacob's calling me. Hold on a minute, Jacob. Hey, what's up? - [Jacob] So I see a small car. - Really? - [Jared] On the Pleasantville... Road. - Yep, that's the road
that she would take. Like this over here on Mill Creek, we wanted to have a reason to
come over here on this one, but there was no reason. - [Jared] Yeah, so there's a
small car that's upside down and I went over it six different times and it's given me the same reading. - All right, well, I think we all know that you just found it. So send me a pin, and is
there a location over there for us to drop in with
you and we'll put Doug in and water as well? - [Jared] It's some kind of party here. You can actually drive down. I don't know if this is, when I went three different times, I'll send you a picture of it. - Okay.
- And you tell her. - All right?
- All right, yeah, send me a picture, good job, Jacob. - [Jacob] All right, later. - Bye. We have a small car right
off the Pleasant Hill road, which was our number one place that the family felt like she would be. That was quick. He will not say that he has a car unless he's confident that he has a car. Yep, sure enough. There it is, right there. There's the one. There's the two. (melancholic music) - Jacob has a vehicle underwater. We do not know what this
vehicle is until we dive on it. So I just want to err on caution. - Yeah, absoutely. - Please remain
optimistic, but until I get into the water,
- Until you get in the water- - Yes, we don't know if
there's a Ford Tempo there. - That you're gonna know.
- Yes, right. So I'm gonna do, they're gonna put a marker on it. - Okay.
- And what that'll do is it'll give me a direct line to go down, and the first thing I'm gonna
do is make identification on the vehicle, and then go through my other processes too. And if it is the vehicle
we're looking for, like Jared explained earlier, we'll contact law enforcement immediately and we'll put together a recovery plan. - The other side, about 10 feet from this pillar. - Okay.
- Straight, directly in line with that pillar right there. - [Jared] In line with the pillar? - In line with the pillar. So as soon as you drop off, it's right behind the boat. (boat engine rumbling) Right there. That's it right there,
so we just went right over the top of it. As soon as I say, throw
it, we'll throw it. Throw it. (water splashes) Let it go. (boat engine revs) - [Jared] Oh wait, there
we go, that solid block. - Okay.
- Okay. - Got it, yep. - Yep, we're on it. Good job. So I'm sure, as Doug said, you know- - Oh yeah.
- Again, no promises. We have a target, that's
all we know right now. - That's good.
- So Doug's suiting up and we'll know in the next 30 minutes whether this is our target or not, but, it's the right location, it's
the right road, it's the- - [Dezarae] It would make a lot of sense. - [Jared] Yeah. - I was just telling them
I started to lose faith that I would ever know anything. I know the current
investigator, like I said, he's done more than anybody's ever done, but it also feels like
in the last five years, he's just gotten to a point
where his hands are tied. Like he can only do so much, he works for the police department. - Okay, and you have his direct number if we need to?
- Yes. - So we'll wait until we identify, and then let's call him
as well as law enforcement if this is what we're looking for. - [Dezarae] Absolutely, yeah. (Doug breathes heavily) (melancholic music) - [Jacob] So, after I get
there, I'm gonna drop you off. (music drowns out speaker) (emotional music) (water splashes) - [Jared] Check, check,
do you have ears on me? - [Doug] Check four, diving down. (emotional music) Visibility is poor. It's about two feet. I have reached the vehicle. There is no emblem on the
first tire that I have reached. It appears I'm at the rear of the vehicle. I'm pretty sure this is a blue vehicle. - Confirmed, blue in color. - [Doug] I have located a Ford emblem. - We have a Ford emblem. - [Doug] No license plate on the front. - How about the windows? - [Doug] Rear passenger window is up, front of the vehicle is
completely sunken in. - I copy right now, I hear that the rear
passenger window's up, I did not receive word
on the other windows. - [Doug] Driver's side, rear window is intact. Both passenger side windows are intact. - All right, confirm both
passenger side windows are intact. I don't have a reading
on the other windows. - [Doug] Every window is intact. I have not been able to confirm
the driver window itself. It is completely buried in. - You're saying the
driver's window is buried. - [Doug] Ten-four, that is correct. There is no license plate
on the rear of the vehicle. I repeat, no license plate
on the rear of the vehicle. Trunk is closed. The vehicle has all four wheels. All four wheels. None of the wheels appear to have heavy damage. I think we just found Samantha Hopper and her babies. - The way that he just said, and it's tough, the way that he just said, "I think that we just
found Samantha Hopper and her babies." - [Doug] I'm gonna begin
my ascent top side, I'm gonna begin my ascent top side. - He's coming up. (water splashes) (emotional music) - Are you serious? Oh my god! How crazy is that, that
we found that so quick and it's been all these years? (Debbie sobs) (sobbing) Thank you so much. (sobbing) Thank you so much. (Dezarae sobs) (emotional music) - [Debbie] (sobbing) I knew it, I knew it. (Debbie sobs) - Thank you.
- You're welcome. - [Dezarae] (sobbing) I
really appreciate you guys taking the time to come down
here and do this for us. - You're welcome, we have to
call the police right now. Call the detective, okay? And we're gonna start
arranging the removal, okay? - [Dezarae] Okay. - All right. - [Doug] It is a blue vehicle. - Okay. - [Doug] It is a Ford. I can confirm that all of
the windows are intact. The driver's side window
and the front windshield are buried to the point
I cannot get to them. The rear window and all three
other windows are intact. - Okay. - [Doug] It's laying upside down. - So whatever is in the car is gonna- - 100%.
- At this moment, yes. - Okay. (Selena exhales heavily) - [Doug] All four wheels are exposed and when it comes recovery and getting it out of the water safely, this is the most ideal situation. - Okay, perfect. - Well, whatever needs to be done to- - [Doug] Correct. - We'll arrange everything, okay? - We're here to assist
them every step of the way. - [Dispatcher] One,
where's your emergency? - Yeah, hey, we're an
underwater sonar search and recovery dive team. We came in the area to work a 23 year old missing persons case of Samantha Hopper and her two children. We have identified the vehicle, we have positive identification. We need a officer over here. - [Dispatcher] Where are you, sir? - So we're off of Pleasant View Road. You have two bridges here
and we're at the west bridge. We're not from the area, so I don't know what
this is actually called. - [Dispatcher] That's okay. I'm glad you called me at 911. Hang tight and let me
ping your phone location. - Thank you very much. - [Dispatcher] Did you locate the vehicle? - Yes, we identified it on sonar and then we just put a diver in the water and we have identified the vehicle. - [Dispatcher] I've got
you about the 3,700 block of Pleasant View Road. Are you easily seen from the highway, sir, from the road that's there? - [Jared] So we're currently stationed underneath the bridge. - [Dispatcher] That's
where I'm gonna send them. I'm gonna have them go and locate the unit that you've got marked out there. - We have all the
capabilities and the rigging and everything to take
care of this for you, but we are gonna need a rotator. I'm gonna say you're gonna
have to close the bridge down. So it's best to get an officer down here and then I can help
coordinate all that with him. They have a deputy on the way down. - Okay. - And then we'll coordinate with them and we'll do what we can
to control the situation to make sure that this is handled properly. - So you think this is
the car that has the- - [Doug] So I dove on it. - [Officer] Okay, you did dive down? - Yes. - And normally we would
pull a plate, however, because the vehicle she
had recently purchased it, it did not yet have a plate. So there is no plate on here. We identified it as a Ford. Where the Tempo used to be, it appears as though
it's already rusted off, and I'll pull up a couple
of pictures here for you. - [Doug] And it is blue in color. - And it is blue in color
for what we're looking for. And your OEM guys coming down. - Yeah, yeah, they're really
good at preserving that. - Yeah, so we're happy
to let them take control, but if you don't have, and you feel like we would be better
suited, we're happy to do this for you as well.
- Oh sure, sure. - We're not here to cowboy anything. - No, no, no. - We've got a great OEM that
has done this many times. - Wonderful, so in that we would prefer that we actually do step back. As much as we want to do it-
- Sure, sure, sure. - With an incredible team
that you know for sure, we wanna just step back
and then just finish the storytelling on it. - Okay. - We do value that they
have all listened to what is it that we've
done, what is it we found and the best way for this to come out. - [Doug] The vehicle sits like this. Here, and this entire front end is under, so, lifting the front end up and
tilting it like that also gives us the ability to contain
the driver's side window, if in the event it is open. So we have this bridge
that we're gonna shut down in entirety. We have these lines up
here, which I estimate to be roughly... 30, 25, 30 feet high. I'm sending the crane
operator pictures, videos. He's got those. (suspenseful music) - This way, or this way? If you can send that in parking. - All four wheels are exposed. All passenger side windows are intact. - [OEM Team Member] It'll
be pretty easy for you guys. We just crane it up and we'll lay, we have a huge tarp so we'll lay it out, drop it on, and then just wrap it up. - Wrap it up.
- Rig it, zip it, or strap it, however you
want, but it's a huge tarp. - We have the towing company
here that's on police rotation. They got a rollback as well
as this carrier right here, the trailer behind me. We're waiting on the
crane service to get here. We still got about an hour for
the crane service, roughly. (suspenseful music) (crane engine rumbling) Shield and the driver front are buried, so we gotta presume that they're open. So it's gonna be five feet
inside of that buoy there. It's eight feet deep to get to the car. There's a 20 foot line on that buoy so there's some slack there. That's just approximate. - Safety, so I would have them
just stay here to watch it and then we stop. - And then I've gotta start reading the other one as I come up, and kind of split the
difference, remember? (suspenseful music) (dramatic music) - And you know what? The worst case scenario, I mean, if it's just
the front and it holds, that's fine too, but also
that makes it longer too, coming up over the bridge, so. - [Jared] We just don't
wanna bring it straight up and then bust out that back window. - Yeah. Now, in order to stop that
strap from slipping off, we could run a line... - Between the two?
- Between the two, just to stop that. - How are we gonna make sure that he knows we're not getting
confused on which one goes to which side that way you pull? - One at a time, breaking
that front free slowly is gonna be the key to it. - Yep. So for that back trunk,
I would hook it to, 'cause you're solid on
that, hook it to one, and then you'd already had
the other one over laying next to the wheel, so
when you come up with it, you finish hooking it,
and you're good to go. (dramatic music) (chains clinking) - I'm confident that
this is gonna hold up, and the way that we've
planned it is gonna work. But there's always an
X-Factor when we're dealing with something that's been
underwater for multiple decades. So it's not easy, it has
to be extremely calculated, just like any recovery is
gonna be very calculated. (dramatic music) - Yeah, let me grab you a com box. All right, so let's pop
your a regulator out. Right now, I have you set a vox, you wanna push to talk. All right, are we on push
to talk, you got ears on me? (emotional music) (melancholic music) - [Selena] First and
foremost, we can't be grateful and thank everybody enough
that's made this possible. We found Samantha. It doesn't matter how it happened, at the end of the day,
Debbie's got her answers and she's got her babies
home, all three of them. - [Debbie] I don't have to worry anymore. - [Selena] Nope. All those could-haves or
would-haves or should've-beens, they're all answered for you
and that's what's important. - [Debbie] That's right. - [Selena] And you got your daughter home and your two grandbabies. (emotional music) - Hey!
- Yeah? - [Officer] Can y'all grab
that purse right there before we lift it any more? Y'all feel safe doing that? - [OEM Team Member] Yes. - [Officer] Okay. (crane engine drowns out speakers) It's on the magnet line. (water dripping) A shoe in front. (emotional music) (melancholic music) All right guys, you don't
have to dig so much. We just pull the dead car back. - I have the shoe. - [Officer] You have the shoe okay? - Yeah, and there's another shoe inside about ready to fall out, so let me just grab that real quick. - [Officer] Okay, go ahead. Thank you.
- Yep. (emotional music) (indistinct chatter) Confirmation, yes sir. That was the, so the shoe, when I pulled the shoe out,
the sock pulled out of it and I managed to get the sock and I have foot bones with me right now. (water splashing) (melancholic music) (crane engine rumbling) - [Debbie] I want your address. I want it. - [Jared] I'll make sure you get it, okay? - [Debbie] Okay. - [Jared] All right, I'm
gonna go up right now, okay. I'll be back and I'll chat
with you if you need to, okay? - [OEM Team Member] Pull back under it. Hey! (melancholic music) (window shatters) - Here officers, I pulled out two shoes, - Okay.
- the purse, - Okay.
- and then a sock. I don't know whether it
was the left or right, or what shoe it was, but within the sock you had some human remains
left inside the sock. - Okay. - So that's where I was able
to give you a confirmation. It's the answer, just the resolution. - Yeah, it's knowing. - [Jared] That you're able to
start that healing process, that you can move to the next chapter. - Yeah, absolutely. - [Jared] We really appreciate
knowing you and your family - Thank you.
- and allowing us to share the story. - Appreciate you so
much for lending a hand. - [Jared] You're welcome. If there's anything
else we can do for you, please let us know, okay? - [Dezarae] Absolutely, I definitely will. - [Jared] I'm happy for you. It's a bittersweet happiness. - Maybe I can get on with life now - Yes.
- since I don't have much left anyway. At 65, we're almost there. - [Jared] Look, you have an
incredible smile on your face. - Thank you.
- Yes. So I'm happy for your family. - Thank you. And my husband, he just
couldn't stay and watch. And I told him I can't
know, I have to stay. - [Jared] Yeah. - And when they started pulling it out, I knew it as soon as I
saw that car it was her. - [Jared] Yeah. (melancholic music)
