For more than two decades, the disappearance of Annette Mammone has haunted Charlotte, North Carolina. A 2001 mystery that grew colder with every passing year.

No new leads. No witnesses. No closure.

But on a chilly morning — 61 degrees, the water still, the sky hanging gray — two men launched a remote-control sonar boat into a quiet quarry on the outskirts of town. They thought it would be just another cleanup day.

They were wrong.

Because just minutes later, their sonar screen revealed something that would change everything.

🌊 “That Looks Like a Car”

The voice on the recording was calm but sharp — the kind of voice you hear when someone realizes the impossible might be real.

“Yeah… there’s something right there we just went over. That looks like a vehicle. That looks like a car to me.”

Jeremy Sides and Adam Brown — volunteer sonar searchers, divers, and cold-case hunters — had spent years traveling America, searching underwater for what families lost long ago. Their passion began as a hobby. It became a mission to give grieving families closure.

And on this day, that mission had brought them to a vast, hidden quarry behind a row of townhomes and businesses in Charlotte, NC — just a few miles from where Annette Mammone vanished on September 15, 2001.

They received permission from the property owner to scan the waters. It had never been fully searched. No one had ever dragged sonar over its black depths.

Until now.

🕳 A Quarry That Never Let Go of Its Secrets

Back in 2001, much of the land surrounding the quarry was undeveloped. Trees, dirt roads, fewer fences. For someone in a car, it might have been possible to get dangerously close to the edge without realizing how steep it was.

The sonar boat cruised across the surface. At first, the bottom was clean. Trash. Tires. Silt.

Then — the unmistakable outline appeared. A rectangle. Curved edges. Wheels.

“Vehicle. Definitely a vehicle.”

⏳ 23 Years of Silence — Broken

Sides adjusted the sonar feed. The water wasn’t deep — maybe 16 feet on the edges, 20 feet at its deepest. Perfect conditions.

“This one’s probably old,” he said on camera, “but who knows? A lot of people have gone missing around here. It could be anything.”

The car lay upside down. Its windows were down in the front, partially up in the back. A Dodge badge glinted faintly through the murky green water.

A car submerged for decades.

Could it be Annette’s?

🚔 A Disappearance That Left a Family in Pieces

Annette Mammone was last seen leaving a residence off River Birch Drive in 2001. She was driving a 1996 Toyota Tercel. Her case haunted the community — dozens of searches, endless dead ends. No trace of her, or her vehicle, was ever found.

For 23 years, hope had slowly turned into heartbreak.

But now… a car. A quarry. Just miles from her last known location.

Jeremy knew it could be unrelated. But he also knew what these discoveries could mean.

He launched his underwater drone — a small, high-powered submersible camera — and sent it into the darkness.

⚓ A Tangled Rope and an Unexpected Discovery

Visibility was low. The water was colder than expected. As the drone descended, a rope appeared — thick, old, tangled like a ghost of the past.

“I wasn’t expecting this,” Jeremy narrated. “This thing is wrapped around everything. I’ve gotta be careful.”

But then — headlights. A mirror. Wheels. And on the back, the Dodge logo.

It wasn’t a Toyota. Not Annette’s car. But this was no random hunk of metal either.

License plate: 0943. Partial tag. Old North Carolina plate. 2001.

The drone got stuck on the rope, wrapping tighter the more he tried to pull away. It was time to get wet.

🧜 A Solo Dive Into the Past

The next morning, the air was colder. 61°F. Jeremy zipped into his wetsuit and tied a line from shore straight to the drone — and the vehicle.

“It’s only ten feet of water,” he said, “but honestly, it’s not the depth that gets you. It’s the weight of the history down there.”

He slipped under the surface. The world went quiet.

Faint light glimmered on a twisted roof. Silt drifted like smoke around him. He reached out — the cold metal under his fingers felt frozen in time.

He brushed away algae and silt from the rear. Dodge Neon. Upside down. License plate still faintly stamped: 0943.

The windows were open. No one inside. The car was empty.

🚓 Not Annette — But Not Forgotten

“It’s not her car,” he admitted when he surfaced, water dripping off his mask. “But someone put this here. Someone drove or dumped it. And somebody, somewhere, might have been looking for this for years.”

The vehicle was reported to investigators. Records will have to be checked. It may be an old stolen car. Or it may be linked to another mystery entirely.

Either way, the quarry gave up one of its secrets.

And maybe — just maybe — it’s the beginning of uncovering more.

🧭 Why This Case Matters

More than 600,000 people go missing in the U.S. each year. Many are found. Many are not. Vehicles like this — submerged, hidden for decades — often hold the final answers to families’ worst questions.

Sides and Brown’s mission isn’t about treasure or fame. It’s about closure.

“When we find a car like this,” Adam said, “it’s like time stands still. This car has been sitting here since before social media existed. It’s a piece of somebody’s story.”

🏞 What Happens Next

Law enforcement will now work to identify the Dodge Neon and its history. Was it stolen? Abandoned? Or tied to an old, forgotten case?

Meanwhile, Jeremy and Adam are already scanning new ponds and waterways nearby.

Because where one car is found… there may be others.

And somewhere out there, Annette Mammone’s 1996 Toyota Tercel is still missing.

🕯 23 Years Later, a Spark of Hope

The discovery may not have been Annette’s car. But it was proof of something bigger: Charlotte’s waterways are still holding their secrets.

“Every time we find something like this,” Jeremy said, “we’re reminded — closure doesn’t expire. People don’t stop hoping. And neither will we.”

For the Mammone family, the search continues. But now, there’s a new chapter. A reason to believe answers may still be out there, resting quietly in the dark.

And somewhere, beneath another body of water, the truth might finally be waiting.