Okay so usually I'd put an edit at the end, but given the seriousness of the circumstances I'm putting it first - almost as a disclaimer:
EDIT
Following the allegations / charges against Adventures With Purpose (AWP) creator Jared Leisek (https://www.the-sun.com/news/6609361/adventures-with-purpose-rape-charge/) I have a few things to say:
1. Innocent until PROVEN guilty. Bear in mind what happened with Ricky Martin so recently; smoke without fire is definitely a real thing. Think too about JD vs AH - for six years the vast majority believed the allegations, supported the victim... and were shown to be wrong once the evidence was available. DUE PROCESS IS ESSENTIAL. Of course miscarriages of justice (innocent going to jail, guilty set free) happen but at least both sides get heard along the way; a one-sided allegation-only account is never adequate.
2. Bear in mind that Jared is 47 years old (as of date: 2022) - IF guilty that means he was 17 at the time of the offences. Certainly plenty old enough to know right from wrong and to be held responsible for his actions but still a minor. The law treats minors with a degree of leniency because it is supposed that they are less responsible and more capable of being rehabilitated. THIS IS NOT IN ANY WAY DIMINISHING THE CRIME but context is also important.
3. IF guilty that does not make ANYONE guilty by association - not his wife, his kids, his co-workers, or AWP supporters. EVERYONE has a past and you have NO CLUE what secrets those around you might be keeping. It could just as easily be your relative, friend, or colleague.
4. IF guilty that does not invalidate the good Jared & AWP have done, nor does that good negate past evil. Very few people are all good or all bad; even serial killers can make seemingly incongruous acts of kindness, and people still revere Gandhi and the man was dodgy af! Modern 'cancel culture' leaves no room for the shades of grey most of humanity comes under. Once time has been served the hope is always that criminals will not reoffend, will re-enter society as better people who have the potential to do good in the world. Time may need to be served here... but the good still stands. They are not mutually exclusive.
Please do not take this as ANY kind of defence against child sex offenders; just a plea to keeping an open mind until more is known and not misdirecting blame on bystanders. With that said, I have rephrased a couple of points in the body of this blog, changing those sections to red text in the interests of transparency.
I forget exactly how I first heard about Adventures With Purpose (AWP) but it was either through this YT video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxYGBOfJRU0&t=325s) or a news story about the same. As the rant video was posted on 9th October 2020, the same day as AWP posted their video of the solved case, I can safely say it was now two years ago. I have been following AWP ever since.
Starting at Nicholas Allen
Nick Allen was a young man of 17 from North Carolina who disappeared in February 2020 with his mother's vehicle. It later transpired that he'd broken up with his girlfriend and his mum feared the worst. As Nick had introduced his mum to AWP, and as her gut pulled her to a particular stretch of river she called them in... Her instincts proved to be spot-on; despite the police's claims the river had been searched they found her vehicle within minutes. (https://eu.the-dispatch.com/story/news/local/2020/10/02/body-found-car-may-connected-missing-teen/5893349002/)
However, the police's reaction was DESPICABLE. AWP were treated like crap on-scene which is one thing but the police kept denying it was her car even with the license plate in hand, there was no way her boy could be in there etc. etc. Given that I'm in the UK and heard about it before the bad press forced the Sheriff to issue an apology (https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/state/north-carolina/article246433185.html) you might get a sense of just how bad it was.
I seriously recommend watching the AWP video on the case (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAfYtXB-qN4); both for the context of the controversy and to understand the amazing 'job' AWP do.
AWP: A Superhero Origin Story
From scrolling back through the available videos on the channel AWP started out in July 2018 with videos of collecting trash from waterways. That was the original, intended 'purpose'. A diver named Jared Leisek using his skill set to do some good cleaning up the environment and making some fun 'treasure hunting' YT videos along the way.
But sometimes the universe has other ideas. Trash like lost go-pros and sunglasses became bikes and cars... They could have simply decided the job was too big, to daunting, but they just took it like "huh, guess this is what we're doing now."
On January 10th 2020 AWP premiered their video about the recovery of Nathan Ashby, a 22 year old missing almost 5 months in Missouri (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUc87t6yIF8&t=64s). The diving conditions were terrible, visibility was non existent... Jared identified that the car contained human remains by touch. Think about that for a sec. That's a horrific enough thing to have to do even if you've had some kind of specialist training.
Another key moment was during a livestream on 27th May 2020 when a car pull went from clean up to call the cops (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJ1z9M4KAhM&t=5s). Timothy Robinson of Oregon had been missing for 12 years; he was 56 (https://lailasnews.com/international/timothy-edward-robinson-oregon-what-happened/). Again, they could have baulked. It's the sort of experience that might stop anyone going back in the water. Instead they accepted this new direction, and became dedicated to cold cases - specialising in searching underwater for people who had gone missing with their vehicles which was where their accidentally developed skill set had led.
Over time the team changed and grew. I don't want to get into the Sam Sam The Adventure Man debacle except to say that I am strictly Team AWP over that. There will always be those who disagree with how a thing is done but I strongly support AWPs ethos: they are not paid by the authorities, they ask nothing of the families they assist, they are funded through YT revenues, merch sales, donations from subscribers (inc. premium memberships), and they rarely accept sponsorships as advertising products while dealing with sensitive cases doesn't sit well with them.
I don't have any time for those who diss what they do. Indeed, while researching the sources for this blog I have unsubscribed from another, unrelated YT channel because the owner used a secondary channel to throw sh*t at AWP. NOT that I believe anyone is above being critiqued (nobody is perfect and nobody is obliged to make the choices others would wish of them) but sh*t throwing is not acceptable and the YouTuber in question was already on their last red flag for me given some of their content (esp. borderline transphobic BS).
AWP have, in the time I have been watching them, gone from a small, fairly amateur group with a beat up Winnebago to a highly respected movement operating two fully equipped teams in proper rigs. The videos have become far more professional and as they've honed their skills they've been encouraging people to check boat ramps with their fish-finding sonar and helping train up volunteers. They want more people found so it's all about getting more people looking; if they were all about 'the fortune & glory' (what fortune?! There was only one case where a reward was offered and that never materialised) as some like to accuse them of why the heck are they so keen to share their unique skill set?
Some have accused Jared of being fame-hungry but he's deliberately stepped back lately, probably in part to counter those accusations. Probably the worst I could say of Jared in terms of his role in AWP is that he knows what he wants said and has a tendency to say it before anyone else gets the chance! Most of the recent videos have been presented by Doug Bishop - to the endlessly asked question of "where's Jared?" lol.
Doug was operating a towing company when Jared reached out to his business for help recovering a sunken vehicle. Not only did he immediately jump to help but he trained as a diver and is now leading an AWP team (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zEcGU7-iwU). For some this is clearly a calling. There are literally people being inspired by these videos to learn to dive, learn to use sonar, to trawl through missing persons cases looking for leads, to create apps that help track searched areas for accuracy... all sorts of people with all kinds of skills bringing what they have to the table in order to get the lost found.
That beat up Winnebago was donated to Chaos Divers (Jacob Grubbs) who regularly works with AWP as well as working on his own channel solving missing persons cases in water (https://www.youtube.com/c/ChaosDivers). AWP also work with others such as Team Watters (https://teamwatterssonar.com/) and Exploring With Nug (check out this truly amazing video of him solving the 21 year old cold case of Tennessee teenagers Erin Foster & Jeremy Betchel solo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjL4TZse6hs).
Kiely Rodni
I remember seeing a tweet come by with a missing persons poster for 16 year old Kiely Rodni and my immediate thought was it was an AWP case, despite AWP not running a twitter account. Turns out it was a retweet from someone I'd been following since my Blockhead (NKOTB fan) days. But I looked at it and just *knew* she was in the water and AWP would find her. Ridiculous, I know. She'd gone missing with her vehicle at a lakeside party and the similarities with the Ethan Kazmerzak case seemed startling.
About 24 hours after I saw that tweet AWP livestreamed that they were dropping what they were doing and heading to California for Kiely.
This was probably the case that garnered them the most public attention yet, it was an incredibly high profile case (*cough* Missing White Woman Syndrome *cough*) costing around 20,000 man hours in the search for her over just a couple of weeks. In my mind it also tied back to Nick Allen because multiple agencies had already searched Prosser Creek Reservoir, insisted it was clear - AWP even searched multiple sites before returning to Prosser Creek Reservoir just to check for themselves... at which point they found her vehicle after approx. 35 minutes on the water. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPwnDyW26gk).
Not only had the 'amateurs' found what the 'professionals' had missed they'd done it in next to no time. No disrespect to the authorities but they deal with that sort of case every once in a while, AWP do it all the time - that makes a difference.
Watching and Weeping
It's a strange thing to get hooked on perhaps. I have a particular horror of drowning, being trapped underwater, and of bodies in water... but for anyone to be brought out of that? To be returned to their family, given a proper burial. That's beautiful. Sad that it's ever necessary but no one should stay under water for months, years, even decades. No one will ever convince me otherwise that AWP are doing something truly incredible and bearing witness to it reassures me that there are at least some good people on this planet.
It's so damn emotional when they find someone. The one that probably broke me the most was Samantha Hopper. She was exactly 7 months younger than me. When she died she was 19 years old and 8 months pregnant with her third child - I was five months pregnant at that date. My older daughter was just a few months younger than her daughter Dezarae who was with her grandmother and was the time and so survived. It felt entirely too close to home, for all they were from Arkansas.
It's also truly humbling to see some of the cases which contrast so starkly with that first one I saw. The livestream regarding finding Tod DiMinno was just two days ago and they spoke about the way they worked with local authorities, and the mutual respect they usually now receive rather than being treated as interfering amateurs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXGKvJTsVcw).
Found So Far
(apologies if I've missed anyone, this was purely from scrolling through thumbnails)
