On December 29, 2013, Donald “Donnie” Erwin left his Camden County home to buy cigarettes and never came back. It wasn’t until a YouTuber and drone pilot took an interest in Erwin’s case that investigators finally got some leads.
Almost 10 years to the day after Erwin’s disappearance, a Camden County Sheriff’s Office detective received a phone call from a property owner in the county, which is in south central Missouri.
The property owner had been contacted by James Hinkle, a drone pilot and YouTuber who operates a search and recovery channel called Echo Divers. Hinkle had taken an interest in the case and was working with Beyond the Case, a small outfit that investigates cold cases, according to a release from the Camden County Sheriff’s Office.
Hinkle thought he’d found Erwin’s vehicle in a small pond on the private property with his drone. This was one of several places Hinkle, who has been interested in the case for years, looked for Erwin.
For the last nine months, Hinkle had posted videos to his channel chronicling the search. He looked in quarries, a cave and Ha Ha Tonka State Park, to name a few.
There was little information about what happened to Erwin before his death. An Army veteran, Erwin was 59 years old at the time of his disappearance. He left home in his 2002 Hyundai Elantra and didn’t take his wallet, glasses or wheelchair. The state Highway Patrol’s missing person notice for Erwin states his left leg had been amputated above the knee.
In a December 2022 interview with Fox 2, Sergeant Scott Hines with the Camden County Police Department said Erwin’s amputation affected his mood.
“He was on several different medications, and that was another concern for us,” Hines said in the interview. “When he left that morning to go get cigarettes, he didn’t have any of his medication. … He had $14 on a gift card he was going to use to buy cigarettes, and the card was never used. So just without a trace.”
In his videos, Hinkle described the various theories related to Erwin’s disappearance. It may have been an accident, he said in a July video. He also said the ongoing theory was Erwin had killed himself.
Hinkle arranged to search the Camden County property on foot and by kayak. He discovered a light-colored car submerged in the pond, and authorities from multiple agencies dived into the pond. They verified the license plate on the vehicle matched Erwin’s missing Hyundai.
That was on December 16. On Sunday, detectives returned to the area with cadaver dogs, who found human remains in the pond. Investigators also found an artificial hip they believed belonged to Erwin, Camden County Police wrote in a press release.
Erwin’s vehicle has since been pulled from the pond.
In a recent reel, Hinkle gave a quick update to his subscribers.
“It’s finally over,” he said. “Donnie is coming home.”
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