MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Florida ranks among the top states for missing persons cases with loved ones disappearing without a trace.
A group of local volunteers have made it their mission to clear those cold cases, making history in the process.
On a small tender dingy roughly six feet long and with a small outboard motor and a sonar device, they travel through the Everglades.
Minutes in, Mike Sullivan and his brother get their first hit, so they suit up for a dive to investigate.
They marked what appeared to be a black Chevy trailblazer under around 20 feet of water and they make sure that it’s empty.
And just like that its onto the next site.
The boat goes out and more cars are found, so they dive and resurface, rinse and repeat.
Within the hour, four cars are found using three sonar devices, but there are no hits on missing people.
Sullivan and his brother John Martin are searching for answers in the case of Steven Mackrell, who went missing after some sort of dispute at Pompano Beach gas station in July of 2015.
It’s the type of case Sullivan and Martin have had much success solving as volunteers, operating Sunshine State Sonar which is focused on missing persons cases where the victim’s car also vanished.
The team has worked dozens of open cases and spent hours researching, all organized from various databases to make a plan.
They’ve cracked 12 major cases in less than two years already.
Among them, Doris and Caren Wurst.
The team retracing their steps from back in 1974, chipping away and scanning various bodied water until they found their Chevy Impala in Plantation this year, complete with their belongings and their remains some 50 years later.
Every name, every story, every case, they remember.
Eduardo Graterol and his car were found after being missing for six years out of Pembroke Pines.
Bernie Novik’s family received closure after 20 years that he was missing from his home in Plantation.
The brothers do this part-time, traveling the state once a month from their home base in Central Florida, chipping away at cases and finding hundreds of cars in the process, many that are tied to various crimes.
But their focus is finding answers for loved ones stuck and left in waiting.
Sunshine State sonar is looking to do this full with help from the state.
In the past few weeks alone, the group historically found a car belonging to the Romer family, who disappeared in 1980.
They say they will continue the search for Steven Mackrell.