After 20 years, Erin Foster and Jeremy Bechtel laid to rest after YouTube star finds car

• Youtuber located vehicle using sonar
• Investigator confirms no signs of foul play
• Two teens finally laid to rest, 21 years later

Last winter, a YouTube star made national headlines when he dove deep into a decades-long mystery and located the remains of two missing teens in Sparta, Tennessee.

After Erin Foster and Jeremy Bechtel vanished in 2000, there had been no new evidence until YouTube diver Jeremy Beau Sides discovered a car belonging to one of the teens underwater in November 2021. 

Now, after more than 20 years of speculation, the families have laid to rest their missing children. And although lead investigator Major John Meadows said he is keeping the case open, he confirmed there was no evidence of foul play.

Foster, 18, and Bechtel, 17, were last seen on April 3, 2000, after leaving Foster's home, White County Sheriff Steve Page said. For years, there had been no new evidence in their case.

Sides, who creates videos where he uses sonar technology and dives underwater to track down evidence in cases with missing people, began looking into the teens' disappearance and explored several bodies of water starting last November.

White County Sheriff Steve Page was contacted about the search and reached out to Sides, suggesting he look into one more site: the Calfkiller River, which runs along the road to Foster's home. 

On Nov. 24, Sides posted a Youtube video showing his discovery of the 1998 Pontiac Grand Am belonging to Foster.

"I'm lost for words. I'm so glad I could find them. I'm so sad that that's where they ended up. I can't believe – it's been over 20 years that they've been sitting there waiting for someone to find them," Sides said in the video.

Sides called Page, who quickly confirmed the license plate number matched Foster's car.

The details of how the car ended up in the river are still  unknown, however.

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Investigation derailed by multiple rumors 

What was known all along: On April 3, 2000, Bechtel and Erin attended a party. Later that night, around 10 p.m., they were seen together in her car.

But because investigators at the time focused on the wrong end of the county, where the party was held, no trace of the teens or Foster's car were found.

Over the years, there were numerous theories and speculations among law enforcement and the community as to what happened to Foster and Bechtel.

To name a few: robbery gone wrong; their car plunged into a body of water; drug deal gone wrong; someone killed them out of jealousy; they stumbled onto something criminal and were silenced; killed by thugs for Foster's car; one was the target, the other killed just for being present; they simply ran off together.

Meadows, who was appointed lead investigator when the car was recovered, went to school with both teens and at the time subscribed to the runaway theory.

"I had classes with Jeremy," he said. "When they went missing, I just thought it was two kids in love ... who just took off."

After he joined the sheriff's office, Meadows worked leads through the years.

"Every time we got a tip, we would follow up," he said. "But they never did pan out."

In 2005 and again in 2006, investigators actively searched for Foster in Pensacola, Florida, following reports that she was living and working there.

Closer to home, authorities periodically dug up wells in White County. Those searches were sparked by a tip claiming the pair had been murdered and their bodies dumped in a well or an abandoned well site somewhere in White County.

Families remained in limbo

Bechtel's mother, Rhonda Ledbetter, told Knox News in 2012 she did not believe either her son or Foster ran away. 

"You need money to go on the run," she said. "Both of them worked, and neither picked up their last paychecks. And none of their personal belongings are missing. ... I don't believe they got out of White County that night."

Ledbetter no longer believed her son was alive, but said she thought about him and the case every day.

"I hope that someday we can find them both and bring them home to rest," she said. "I need that closure."

Ledbetter died in 2018.

"It haunted her, not knowing what happened to Jeremy," Meadows said. "I hate that she didn't get any closure before she passed."

Murky river hindered discovery

Meadows called it "pure luck" that Page was able to steer Sides in the right direction.

"Back then, to my knowledge, the river was never physically searched at that location," he said. "It's amazing they were there all this time."

That stretch of the Calfkiller River runs right alongside the road and locals say it did not have a guardrail back then, Meadows said.

"If you dropped a tire off the side of the road, just a few feet and you were in the water," he said.

Even though Foster's Grand Am ended up just a short distance from shore, it settled in more than 12 feet of "murky" water, with visibility only a few feet.

Meadows had nothing but praise for Sides, calling the work he did to locate Bechtel and Foster in those murky depths "amazing."

After the vehicle was recovered from the river, the remains were identified through dental records after being sent to the medical examiner in Nashville.

"We have ruled out foul play," Meadows said.

He added, however, that due to the remains having been in the water for so long, there wasn't much evidence to examine.

"We're very excited, and sad at the same time, to provide closure for the families," Meadows said.

In a letter to the community, Foster's family thanked Page and Sides for their dedication.

"For the past 21 years, our lives have been filled with multiple emotions — trying to piece together a puzzle in an attempt to locate our Erin," the letter read. "It seemed there was no place we had not looked, no lead we had not followed, all in hopes of answering the question everyone was asking:  'Where could Erin and Jeremy be?'  Last Wednesday, the mystery that has haunted our family and the friends of both Erin and Jeremy was unraveled. ...  Our family is devastated at the finality of this event, but we are also relieved that we can bring Erin to a final resting place and no longer have to wonder."