Sides, whose YouTube channel is called Exploring with Nug and has 185,000 subscribers, ponders real-world mysteries in his spare time.
As he was shooting a recent video, Sides helped crack a 20-year-old cold case.
The two Tennessee teenagers were last seen in April of 2000 in Foster's 1988 Pontiac Grand Am.
Police were unable to solve the mystery, and the case of Foster and Bechtel became a cold case.
"When I saw two teens went missing and vanished in a car, that really stood out to me," Sides [told[(https://edition.cnn.com/2021/12/10/us/youtuber-finds-teens-car-cold-case/index.html) CNN.
"When I looked at the town where they were last seen, I saw that a big river ran through it. That just told me to go."
Sides arrived in Sparta, Tennessee, the place where the teens disappeared, in late November. Because he didn't know whether he'd find anything substantial, he didn't tell anyone about his mission and risk getting their hopes up.
In an interesting twist, Sides' work came to the attention of local police. Realizing he had access to unique equipment, police teamed up with him to search rivers, lakes and other waterways in the area.
The sonar revealed a car-shaped object in the Calfkiller River. The next day, Sides broke out his scuba gear and did a dive into the river.
Along the murky river bottom, Sides found what everyone had been looking for since 2000.
While it confirms everyone's worst fears — that Erin Foster and Jeremy Bechtel were long dead — the hard work of Sides and local police at least brought closure to friends and family members.
White County Police say that this road that runs along the river didn't have a guardrail back in April of 2000. They're working under the hypothesis that the Pontiac lost control and slid into the river.
The case also shows how easy it is for people to disappear, especially into lakes and rivers. It isn't nearly as easy to solve these mysteries as TV shows would lead us to believe.
Sides' channel was successful before, but ever since his big discovery, it's blown up. The video, which you can view below, has more than two million views. Make sure to check it out, because it's absolutely fascinating.
