On February 4, 2021 the Adventures with a Purpose divers located a vehicle that
matched the description of the one belonging to Carey Mae Parker, who had
disappeared thirty years prior, submerged in Lake Tawakoni off the causeway on 751.
The Hunt County Sheriff’s Office was immediately notified and advised of the finding.
Hunt County Sheriff Terry Jones met the divers at the location and spoke with diver
Jared Leisek and the family of Carey Mae Parker. Sheriff Jones found out that months
earlier the family had contacted this group to seek help in locating Carey Mae Parker.
Jared Leisek advised Sheriff Jones that the group’s normal procedure would be to just
locate the vehicle and let law enforcement take over the investigation. Adventures with
a Purpose agreed to stay and assist Hunt County Sheriff’s Office in retrieving the
vehicle from the lake.
During the recovery of the vehicle and due to it being submerged for thirty years, the vehicle was not able to be recovered in one piece. The Hunt County Sheriff’s Office was able to confirm it was the 1980 Buick Skylark belonging to
Carey Mae Parker. The following day the vehicle was processed by Hunt County
Investigators and at that time no evidence was found that would place Carey Mae
Parker in the vehicle.
The Department of Public Safety Dive Team was contacted by the Hunt County
Sheriff’s Office to do an underwater canvas of the area to search for any other
evidence. At the time of the DPS search on February 23, 2021, they were unsuccessful
in retrieving any other items. Sheriff Jones then reached out to the family of Carey
Parker to discuss the possibility of getting Adventures with a Purpose to come back.
Sheriff Jones and the family contacted Jared Leisek with Adventures with a Purpose
and scheduled a date to return and conduct a third search.
On October 15, 2021 the Hunt County Sheriff’s Office along with Carey Mae Parker’s family met with the
Adventures with a Purpose dive team at the location on the 751 causeway. The divers
worked with the Sheriff’s Office for two days, locating the rest of the vehicle along with
human remains. The human remains were delivered to University of North Texas
Center for Human Identification for positive identification.
Sheriff Jones would like to give all the credit to the family of Carey Mae Parker for being
so persistent and to the dive team of Adventures with a Purpose who are only funded
by their merchandise and GoFundMe and work simply off their drive for helping bring
peace and closure to families. It was a privilege for the Sheriff’s Office to be a part of
working with the family and Adventures with a Purpose to help bring closure in this
case.
