YouTuber helps find remains of missing Missouri Army vet 10 years after he disappeared

The remains of a Missouri veteran who had been missing for a decade were found Sunday thanks to the help of a dedicated YouTuber.

Investigators believe the remains — as well as an artificial hip — belong to Donnie Erwin, a man who vanished on Dec. 29, 2013 in Camdenton, a city located in the Ozarks.

Erwin was last seen driving a 2002 Hyundai Elantra nearly 10 years ago to the day.

The same car was pulled from an area lake earlier this month after YouTuber and drone pilot James Hinkle spotted it during his own hunt for the missing man, a nearly year-long journey he has chronicled on his popular channel “Echo Divers.”

Hinkle — who boasts more than one million subscribers — found the vehicle on Dec. 14 while using freshwater mapping technology.

Scuba divers from the video blogger’s team jumped into the water for a closer look at the algae-covered car to confirm it was the one Erwin was last seen driving almost exactly a decade earlier.

“It is confirmed. That is the vehicle,” one of the team members somberly states in a recent video.

Detectives from the Camden County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that the license plates matched that of Erwin’s, but it took another week for cadaver dogs to detect human remains.

Investigators also found an artificial hip that is consistent with the one Erwin had.

Although a forensic pathologist has yet to determine whether the remains are those of Erwin, investigators are “confident the hip and remains belong to him,” the sheriff’s office said.

“Wow Brother. What a special Christmas this is. Even though you’re not with us, we know where you are now and we can rejoice because of it. I love you brother and I miss you terribly, but I know it was God’s will that brought you to us and I know you are no longer in pain,” Erwin’s sister, Yvonne Erwin-Bowen, wrote on Facebook following the news.

Detectives are still working to uncover how Erwin ended up in the water when he was making an early morning cigarette run 10 years earlier.

Although a common theory was that Erwin committed suicide, Hinkle also hypothesized that the Army veteran’s death could have been a pure accident.

“At that time, he would have left his house and it would still be dark. One of the other things Donnie did not take with him was his glasses,” Hinkle said in a July video.

“It’s dark, he can’t see as well — could this have been an accident? Could it be that simple?”