March 17, 1991 — it was supposed to be a joyful day.
Twenty-three-year-old Carey Mae Parker, a young mother of three, had just finished her shift in Quinlan, Texas. She was on her way home to get ready for her son’s birthday party. The balloons were ready, the cake was waiting, and her little boy couldn’t stop talking about the presents.

But Carey never showed up.

That night, her family called hospitals, police, friends — anyone who might have seen her blue 1981 Buick Skylark. Days turned into weeks, weeks into decades. Carey’s children grew up without their mother. Her sister, Trish Gauger, never stopped searching, even when no one else seemed to care.

And then, almost 30 years later, strangers on YouTube would do what no one else had done: they would find Carey’s car — still underwater, still waiting to tell her story.

The Vanishing

Carey Parker was last seen leaving her job at a local café in Quinlan on March 17, 1991. She was cheerful, chatting with co-workers about her son’s upcoming sixth birthday. She promised she’d be home early.

But when she didn’t return, her family knew something was wrong. Trish remembers calling around town, searching highways, and driving around the small Texas lakes that surrounded their hometown. “I just kept thinking — maybe her car broke down. Maybe she needed help,” she said.

But as hours turned into days, the reality sank in: Carey was gone.

The Forgotten Case

Shockingly, Carey’s disappearance wasn’t even officially logged as a missing person case until 2010 — nineteen years later. For nearly two decades, her file was mislabeled as a “welfare check.” That bureaucratic oversight left her family feeling abandoned.

“I’ve been angry most of my life,” Trish admitted. “Because no one looked for her. Nobody cared.”

Rumors swirled in the small Texas community — maybe she ran away, maybe she met with foul play — but without evidence, the case faded from public memory.

Still, every March, Trish would drive by Lake Tawakoni, the vast reservoir near Quinlan, staring out at the still water. “I always felt like she was out there somewhere,” she said.

The Divers Arrive

In 2021, a volunteer diving team called Adventures With Purpose — known for solving decades-old missing person cases — came across Carey’s story. Led by Jared Leisek and Sam Ginn, the group had made headlines for finding submerged cars connected to cold cases across the U.S.

When they read about Carey, something about the timeline — a missing car, a nearby lake, no closure — made them pack up their sonar gear and head to Hunt County, Texas.

They met Trish at the water’s edge.
“She’s been missing for thirty years,” Jared said quietly on camera. “And today, we’re gonna bring her home.”

The Search

The divers began at Hawk Cove, near the dam — a deep section of Lake Tawakoni. Using side-scan sonar, they combed the lake floor. Hours passed. The water was dark, visibility near zero.

Then, something unusual appeared on their sonar screen — a rectangular shape, metallic, resting upside down 50 feet below the surface.

“Hold up,” Jared said. “That’s a car.”

The team dropped a marker buoy and sent down a camera drone. The image that flickered back through the murky water froze everyone in place: a blue car, old, corroded, upside down — but unmistakable.

When they surfaced, the emotion hit.
“This is it,” Jared said, voice trembling. “We found Carey’s car.”

The Smurf Toy

As divers examined the wreckage, one small object caught their eye — a tiny Smurf figurine, wedged inside the door panel.

Trish’s son — Carey’s now-grown child — broke down when he saw it.
“I loved Smurfs as a kid,” he said softly. “My mom bought me those toys. She even had Smurf bedsheets for me. That… that’s mine.”

It was a heartbreaking, tangible link between mother and child — lost in the lake for three decades, now returned.

The Confirmation

Working with Hunt County authorities, the divers raised what was left of the 1981 Buick Skylark from the lake. It came apart during recovery, decades of corrosion finally giving way. But the license plate, 1269, still matched Carey’s missing vehicle record.

“It matches,” the officer said quietly.
Trish wept. “We found her. We finally found her.”

The discovery of Carey Mae Parker’s car didn’t just solve a mystery — it restored faith in persistence, in strangers who care, and in the power of never giving up.

For thirty years, Carey’s family had lived with silence. Now, the silence had broken. “It’s not the ending we wanted,” Trish said, “but at least we can bring her home.”

Local police confirmed that forensic teams would process the site to gather any remaining evidence. While Carey’s remains were never conclusively identified in the initial recovery, investigators now had the physical proof needed to close the case.

The divers, exhausted but emotional, filmed one final message at the lake:

“Carey’s story reminds us why we do this,” Jared said. “Because every family deserves answers. Every person deserves to be found.”

The sun dipped below the Texas horizon as the tow trucks pulled away, the blue car gleaming faintly under floodlights — a time capsule from 1991, a mother’s final drive, a family’s long-awaited closure.

And for Trish, standing at the edge of the water where she had prayed for decades, there was finally peace.

“I can stop searching,” she whispered. “I found her.”

In 1991, 23-year-old mother Carey Mae Parker vanished in Quinlan, Texas, while driving to her son’s birthday party. Her car and body remained missing for 30 years. In 2021, YouTube divers from Adventures With Purpose discovered her blue Buick Skylark submerged in Lake Tawakoni, bringing long-awaited closure to her family and solving one of Texas’s oldest cold cases.