A YouTuber recently went diving for treasure at Foster Falls State Park in Tennessee, but what he found is priceless for one Sandy Springs family.
YouTuber Rich Aloha found a GoPro that belonged to Richard Ragland, who died in June 2017 while vising the waterfalls with some friends, Channel 2 Action News reported. Ragland’s family has been looking for answers that might explain what happened, and they’re hoping the camera could provide some closure.
“The SD card (is) intact. All his footage was on there,” Ragland’s mother, Robin McCrear told Channel 2 after receiving the GoPro from Aloha. “It was like an out-of-body experience.”
Ragland was returning to Sandy Springs after a trip to Gatlinburg with his friends, but they decided to stop by the state park to swim near the waterfalls, Channel 2 reported. He was able to take a picture near the falls shortly before he went underwater and didn’t resurface.
"He was a good swimmer, so what happened?" his father, Gary McCrear, asked the news station shortly after Ragland's death. "What got him to that point where he couldn't get himself out of the water?"
The couple hasn’t watched much of the video yet, but they’re grateful Aloha found the camera, which might answer some of their lingering questions. Before finding the GoPro, park rangers told Aloha that he might find items belonging to Ragland, so he realized the gravity of his discovery immediately.
“I strongly believe that God led me to this GoPro,” he told Channel 2. “I was going through the footage, and I said, ‘Oh my God, this is the guy.’”
TODAY AT 5: Two years after a local man drowned, his family got an unexpected call about his missing camera. The closure they might now get after his death. pic.twitter.com/QBMWSdJVbL
— Mike Petchenik (@Mike_Petchenik) August 15, 2019
A few Google searches later, Aloha was able to track down the McCrears to give them back their son’s camera. It was especially meaningful to them since the last time someone tried to send them video that could show their son’s drowning, it was stolen, the news station reported.
After the drowning, park rangers mailed the family a thumb drive containing footage someone had taken of Ragland before he drowned, but someone stole the thumb drive before the package arrived, Channel 2 reported.
“For (Aloha) to go through his effort to do his research, make numerous phone calls — he didn’t give up until he got in touch with us, and that means the world to us,” Robin McCrear said.
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