A diver equipped with an algae camera erases the dashboard of a car to find the remains of long-missing Americans, in the latest episodes of the YouTube show of amateur investigators releasing recordings that show them probing the depths of the American seas in search of sunken vehicles, to uncover the circumstances of disappearances that have remained mysterious for years. .

In the southern US state of Tennessee, the mystery of the disappearance of a 21-year-old has finally been solved, in the context of this type of search in which publishers of related videos receive money from YouTube based on the number of views.

Experts say that the results of this phenomenon of novice investigators were conflicting, with some major failures of people who tried to create content that spreads quickly on the Internet, in return for the remarkable successes achieved by some of these amateurs.

Answers for families

Erin Foster and Jeremy Bechtel, two teenagers from the small town of Sparta, central Tennessee, mysteriously disappeared in April 2000. For 21 years, their parents held on to the hope that they had escaped to start a new life.

But Jeremy Sides, a 42-year-old diver who runs a YouTube channel called Exploring with Nag that specializes in tracing missing people and lost objects, posted a video on December 4 that has racked up more than two million views. In it, he explained how the mystery of the disappearance of these two teenagers was solved.

"The results of this phenomenon of junior investigators have been conflicting, with some major failures of people trying to create content that spreads quickly on the Internet, in contrast to the remarkable successes of some of these amateurs."

"When I was sure it was the license plate, it was like a wave to me," Sides told AFP of his discovery in the Calfkiller River. "It'll be over, their bodies will go home, and their families will have answers to their questions."

This is the second time in a month that a diver has a decisive role in resolving a case.

He previously found a car related to a woman missing since 2005 in Oakridge, Tennessee.

Another group, including YouTube content makers, calling itself Kayos Divers, which means "divers' mess", claimed that in the past two months it had found the remains of seven missing persons in various cases that prompted them to travel about 13,000 kilometers across the United States.

Their work provokes intense emotion, especially when it comes to bringing the news to the families of the missing.

"It's heart-breaking and emotional," said Lindsay Boucek, co-founder of Chaos Divers, Jacob Grubbs.

According to these investigators, their job is not just to collect interactions via YouTube.

"I'm sorry for producing such content, but this way we can save money to help another family," says Grabs, a 38-year-old former coal miner.

"selfish"

Adam Scott Wandt, assistant professor of public policy at John Jay University of Criminal Justice in New York, explains that these "amateur detectives" have turned their investigations into a true cultural phenomenon over the last decade.

While noting that some have helped find the body of Gabe Pettito, an explorer who went missing in the United States this year, Wandt notes that the results are highly mixed.

Some online investigators denigrated an innocent student while searching for the perpetrators in the hours and days after the 2013 Boston Marathon attack.

Referring to some people wanting to just look for more views for their videos, Wandt says, "The audience is getting better but it's still a bit too selfish at times."

In their efforts to help the police rather than try to flood investigators with evidence and theories, the amateurs have imposed themselves in a new role.