Cell Records Help Locate Missing Teens Bodies

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WOLO) — “Because they had been searching for two weeks, he knew the plate number and said, “Oh my gosh, this is it,” says Kershaw County Sheriff Jim Matthews. Sheriff Matthews says he was shocked when he received a call Sunday afternoon that officials may have found, then missing, Jake Ziegler and Ray Pierce, of North Carolina, in Kershaw County. “It was kind of a surprise to all of us that it ended up in Kershaw County,” says Sheriff Matthews. The teens, both of Catawba County, were missing for two weeks after they left for Myrtle Beach on October 13th. Their family’s pleaded for help and local along with state law enforcement searched for days, but there was no sign until yesterday when cell records offered a clue. “I was told that the person who checked the records told them to search right around Interstate 20 and Wateree River,” says Sheriff Matthews. The information turned out to be accurate after a volunteer with Community United Effort of North Carolina, stumbled upon the bumper of the car the teens were traveling in. “He walked down to it and just kind of kicked it over with his foot and when he did the North Carolina license plate was visible,” says Sheriff Matthews. That discovery, says Sheriff Matthews, was almost unlikely. “Periodically, they draw down the lake, the large pond that feeds under the interstate and even if they had drawn it down 3 or 4 feet, we still might not have seen the vehicle,” says Sheriff Matthews. Nevertheless, DNR and the dive team were called in and hours later, the Pontiac G6 was pulled from the water, Ziegler and Pierce, were found inside. The teens were later confirmed dead on Monday. The cause of the accident is still under investigation.