UPDATE: Carthage Police Chief Bart Davis said the State Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed the body is Doreen Carr, and “no water was found in her lungs, so it appears she suffered a medical episode prior to the accident.”
Officials believe the body of a Moore County woman missing for more than a month has been found. The woman’s body was found in her vehicle, which was mostly submerged in water, on Wednesday morning.
The woman, who authorities believe is Doreen Carr, 64, was last seen on Nov. 13. Her friends reported that she was at home that evening and was expected to be at work early the following morning, but she never arrived.
Her vehicle was discovered on Dec. 18 by Jason Souhrada, a Myrtle Beach, S.C., man with a history of locating missing persons. Souhrada, who has assisted in similar cases, arrived in the area around 9 a.m., retraced Carr’s route to work, and located her vehicle before noon. The vehicle had gone off the road and plunged into Little River off Highway 22 in Carthage.
“This is the seventh person I’ve found this year,” Souhrada told Sandhills Sentinel during an on-scene interview. “It’s a kind of gift. I follow YouTubers who do the same thing, which inspired me to get involved because of the sense of closure it can provide families.”
He said that he made a note of every body of water Carr would have passed on her daily commutes, and that was where he planned to search.
Souhrada’s efforts have led to the discovery of multiple missing persons. In two recent cases, he located a total of five individuals who had all been missing for over 40 years. His method involves the use of a remote-controlled sonar device that he built himself.
“I built it to scan bodies of water you can’t get into with a regular boat,” he explained.
In Carr’s case, however, the sonar device was not necessary. Souhrada spotted part of the vehicle sticking out of the water beneath a bridge, which led to the discovery.
According to officials, law enforcement and Souhrada were able to identify Carr at the scene by confirming that a tattoo on the woman’s leg matched hers. Carthage Police Chief Bart Davis told Sandhills Sentinel that her body was taken to the State Medical Examiner’s Office for official identity confirmation.
The investigation into how the vehicle ended up in the creek is ongoing. No further details were immediately available.
Feature photo: Authorities respond to Highway 22 in Carthage after a volunteer investigator finds a vehicle in Little River on Dec. 18.
~Article and photo by Sandhills Sentinel Assistant Editor Abegail Murphy. Abegail has been writing for Sandhills Sentinel since 2021.
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