Jake Ziegler and Ray Pierce

SHERRILLS FORD N.C. – Authorities, family and friends are still searching for two Sherrills Ford teenagers, missing since Saturday. The family has offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to their discovery.

Jake Ziegler, 18 and Ray Pierce, 17, left a party in Sherrills Ford around 1:30 to 1:45 am Saturday, headed for Myrtle Beach, according to friends who were at the party.

The Fairfield (S.C.) County Sheriffs office conducted an intensive search Wednesday along Interstate 77 between mile markers 45 and 48, according to Chief Deputy Keith Lewis. That would be the stretch of road where a last text from Pierce possibly originated, he said.

Joined by the S.C. Law Enforcement Division who conducted an aerial search by helicopter, searchers found nothing to indicate a crash has occurred.

A second area around Conway, S.C. is reportedly being searched by members of the family and volunteers, according to Lewis. The Horry County Sheriff’s Office in Conway could not be reached to confirm their possible involvement in the search for the teens.

During the early morning on Saturday, Caitlyn Deal, a friend of Pierce, said she exchanged text messages with Pierce. Pierce texted her that the two teens were headed for “the beach,” without identifying a beach. Ziegler was upset over a breakup with his girlfriend, and he and Pierce intended to drive to the coast and back, Deal said. Their plan was to return Saturday because Pierce had to work, she said.

The last text sent by Pierce was to Deal and time stamped 2:44 am. Deal had already gone to bed and didn’t see that text until the next morning. Investigators have pinpointed the cell tower the phone signal utilized is in Fairfield County, S.C. There has been no further activity from either boys’ cell phones.

The Catawba County Sheriff’s office issued a poster with the boys’ pictures and of the car they were driving, Ziegler’s green 2006 Pontiac G6, with N.C. license tag BBD8844.

Ziegler is 5 foot 11 and weighs 150 pounds. He was wearing gray cargo shorts and a royal blue T-shirt with white reverse writing. Ziegler also has a pierced left ear, and a tattoo on his right buttocks.

Pierce is approximately the same size as Ziegler, except stockier. He wore Timberland boots, a red and gray RVCA jacket, and jeans, according to Ziegler’s sister.

The family as well as law enforcement are looking for any information that will assist in finding the missing teenagers. Contact the Catawba County Sheriff’s Department with information at 828-465-8301, or Jackie Ziegler at 704-929-6296.

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Jake Ziegler(left)   and  Ray Pierce (right)

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Deputy: We believe missing Catawba Co. teens crashed in SC
By Chris Dyches

CATAWBA COUNTY, NC (WBTV) -
The search for two missing teens from Catawba County will begin again early Thursday morning, after Wednesday's search failed to provide answers.

Fairfield County Chief Deputy Keith Lewis says all the information investigators have gathered leave them to believe that 18-year-old Jake Ziegler and 17-year-old Ray Pierce crashed along Interstate 77.

The teens have been missing since early Saturday, when family members believe they were headed to the Myrtle Beach area.

"He would never do this to me. This is so uncharacteristic," said Jake's sister Jackie Ziegler.

Lewis believes the crash, if it happened, would have occurred along the interstate near mile marker 48. He says the search could be difficult because Ziegler and Pierce were driving in a green Pontiac.

This comes as the search for the two teens intensified on Wednesday morning.

The Fairfield County Sheriff's Office teamed up with SLED investigators to search along Interstate 77 with helicopters and ground crews.

Search teams are using four-wheelers and the Highway Patrol's helicopter.

Sue Ziegler, the mother of 18-year-old Jake Ziegler, says a team of volunteers also gathered at the public safety building on Main Street in Conway, South Carolina on Wednesday morning.

Ziegler said the family is urging people in the Charlotte area to volunteer in the search efforts.

Sue Ziegler also said the family is offering a $5,000 reward to anyone who can lead them to the missing teens.

Family members say they have reason to believe the missing teens may be in Conway but said they weren't releasing what information led them there.

"My son doesn't have much longer, if he's alive. I believe he is," said Zig Ziegler.

According to Catawba County Sheriff Coy Reid, multiple law enforcement agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, are now involved in the search.

A spokesman for the Fairfield County Sheriff's Office says that one of the boy's cell phones last picked up service along Interstate 77 between exits 45 and 48.

According to the cell phone company, the ping radius for the phone is around four miles. Investigators are searching a five-mile area.

A helicopter search Tuesday morning by the S.C. Law Enforcement Division found no sign of vehicle wreckage along the interstate in the county in previous searches earlier this week.


The last known contact with either of the teens was around 2:30 a.m. on Saturday when Jake sent a text that pinged off a cell phone tower near Rock Hill, SC.

Both families are worried.

"There is no activity on their cell phones, on their debit cards. We don't believe they don't have any cash with them. They have one Shell card for gas and they can use it for food," Jackie Ziegler said.

Jackie says it is unlike her younger brother, Jake to not contact her.

"I understand the statistics and I understand that but this is not my brother. And there's no chance in hell he would go this far without contacting me," Ziegler said.

Ziegler says they are looking for a 2006 Green Pontiac G-6 with NC plates BDD-8844.

Jake's father, Zig Ziegler, told WBTV that he has driven to Myrtle Beach and back looking for the car the teens were last seen in. Ziegler also says he rented two planes to fly the route from Denver to Myrtle Beach to search for the car.

Myrtle Beach Police Captain David Knipes said the city is a magnet for runaway teens and people looking for a hide-out.

But, he added, missing juveniles does not go unnoticed. Knipes said a special group of officers make up a juvenile department, specializing in locating missing persons.

"They'll take the flyers and literally canvas door to door and Ocean Boulevard, hand out the flyers to the different hotels and see if somebody might have seen these people to give them that extra little help," Knipes said.

"They're just an anonymous face. With Myrtle Beach having such a high transient population with people coming in for a weekend or a week at a time there's different faces all the time so they can just blend in a lot easier."

Jake Ziegler's family says that he was an avid user of Facebook and Twitter, but both online social media sites have been quiet since he started the trip.

Classmates and friends of the two teens have taken to social media in an effort to raise awareness of their disappearance.

They are tweeting photos and information and asking questions, using the hashtag #FindJakeandRay. Thousands of tweets have gone out asking for help to find them.

Again, the boys were last seen driving a 2006 Green Pontiac G-6 with NC plates BDD-8844.

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Jake's father, Zig, said he is grateful to everyone who is coming forward to offer help to his family.

"If anybody could help me. If anybody could even feel the pain I'm going through," Zig Ziegler said.

Zig explains that after the family reported their son as missing, two unsolicited psychics contacted the family to report they each felt the car the teens were in, a 2006 Green Pontiac G-6, would be found flipped upside down in a ditch in either the Conway or Socastee area. Upon receiving that voluntary information from the psychics, the family reached out to a third psychic, who reported the same scenario without being made aware of the previous calls.

"I believe he's in a ditch off to the side of the road at a bend. It's got some heavy brush covering, you're gonna have to look down there. But if anybody could please- my son doesn't have much longer if he's alive. I believe he is," Zig Ziegler said.

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Thanks for posting this Lisette, those poor boys and their parents! I so hope they're still alive when they are found. I can't imagine what those parents are going thru'!

Search continues for two missing teenagers

CATAWBA COUNTY, N.C. — Search crews concentrated their efforts on a secondary road off Interstate 77 on Thursday in the search for two missing teenagers.
Monica Caisson and more than a dozen volunteers from the CUE Center for Missing Persons worked their way through thick brush, hoping to find some sign of Jake Ziegler or Ray Pierce.
Deputies said a cell tower pinged one of their phones early Saturday morning, 40 miles north of Columbia. They have not been heard from since.
“Hopefully, we are still in the window that if they are out there and injured, we can find them, and that's why there is an urgency,” Caisson said.
For three days, sheriff deputies in Fairfield County have been searching a 20-mile stretch of the interstate.
Much of Pierce's family was there, including the uncle who he is named after. He doesn't believe the teenagers ever made it to the Carolina coast.
“Ray is here. Ray is somewhere here,” said his uncle, Ray Pierce. “We can't find him, and that's why everything is here.”
Investigators told Channel 9 they have checked surveillance video at every store along the interstate and have not seen the teenagers.
Other family members are following leads along the coast, but deputies said the evidence shows their last cell signal was in Fairfield County. That's why friends like Scotti Miller remain hopeful.
“I haven't really broken down yet,” Miller said. “I'm keeping myself strong and keeping hope. I know we are going to find them. Without a doubt, we will find them.”
Family members said even if they don't find anything Thursday, they will be back at it on Friday, searching a little farther south, closer to Columbia.

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Investigators: Surveillance video does not show missing teens

CATAWBA COUNTY, NC (WBTV) -
Investigators have reviewed surveillance tape from the Belk store in South Carolina where a clerk said she was sure she sold clothing to two missing teens from Catawba County.

Police confirmed Friday afternoon that the video from the store on North Kings Highway in Myrtle Beach did not show the missing teens.

Nearly 100 volunteers showed up in Conway to help with the search Thursday morning. It was the sixth day of search for Jake Ziegler, 18, and Ray Pierce, 17.

"My daughter goes to school with the boys and I know if it were her, I would definitely want everybody helping. So we figured this was more important than school today," said volunteer Susan Deviney.

Classmates at Bandys wore purple in their honor Thursday, and made posters and wrote messages on their cars so people would not give up hope of finding the two alive.

"It is scary and we're not sure how to react," said one student. Senior Hunter Laney said the goal of everyone is "To find them."

Crews are also combing an area between exists 41 and 49 on I-77 in Fairfield County. That is where the last cell phone tower ping originated. Wednesday, Fairfield County Chief Deputy Keith Lewis said all the information investigators have gathered leave them to believe the teens crashed along Interstate 77.

Bloodhounds and cadaver dogs are helping with the search in Fairfield County, but Jake's dad says he is still searching the Grand Strand-area. Several tips are still coming in, but so far, they haven't panned out.

"I went on a search last night around 11 o'clock into the area where somebody told me it was. It looked really promising. It was heavy brush. It took me 10 minutes to walk 15 feet throughout there...which would kind of stop a car," Zig Ziegler told local reporters.

WBTV learned Friday that the family has hired a private investigator to assist in the search.

The teens have been missing since early Saturday, when family members believe they were headed to the Myrtle Beach area.

"He would never do this to me. This is so uncharacteristic," said Jake's sister Jackie Ziegler.

Lewis believes the crash, if it happened, would have occurred along the interstate near mile marker 48. He says the search could be difficult because Ziegler and Pierce were driving in a green Pontiac.

Search crews looked along roadsides in Fairfield County, South Carolina looking for the teens again Thursday. Many fear the two were in an accident and are trapped in their car hoping someone will find them.

In Caldwell County, Amber Pennell knows exactly how that feels. In August of 2008 she lost control of her truck and wound up in a deep ravine just off of Highway 321. For five days search teams combed Caldwell County. It was just before dark on that fifth day that the back of her truck was spotted down the ravine, almost covered in Kudzu.

She suffered broken bones and dehydration but was alive. "Miracles do happen, I'm proof of it," she said on Thursday.

Pennell said her message to the families of the missing teen is not to give up hope and to keep looking. "If they had stopped looking for me I wouldn't be here." Pennell said the love of a family can sustain someone through a difficult time, such as what she experienced. "Knowing someone is looking for you, that's the only thing that keeps you alive."


Family members say they have reason to believe the missing teens may be in Conway but said they weren't releasing what information led them there.

"My son doesn't have much longer, if he's alive. I believe he is," said Zig Ziegler.

According to Catawba County Sheriff Coy Reid, multiple law enforcement agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, are now involved in the search.

A spokesman for the Fairfield County Sheriff's Office says that one of the boy's cell phones last picked up service along Interstate 77 between exits 45 and 48.

According to the cell phone company, the ping radius for the phone is around four miles. Investigators are searching a five-mile area.

A helicopter search Tuesday morning by the S.C. Law Enforcement Division found no sign of vehicle wreckage along the interstate in the county in previous searches earlier this week.

The last known contact with either of the teens was around 2:30 a.m. on Saturday when Jake sent a text that pinged off a cell phone tower near Rock Hill, SC.

Both families are worried.

"There is no activity on their cell phones, on their debit cards. We don't believe they don't have any cash with them. They have one Shell card for gas and they can use it for food," Jackie Ziegler said.

Jackie says it is unlike her younger brother, Jake to not contact her.

"I understand the statistics and I understand that but this is not my brother. And there's no chance in hell he would go this far without contacting me," Ziegler said.

Ziegler says they are looking for a 2006 Green Pontiac G-6 with NC plates BDD-8844.

Jake's father, Zig Ziegler, told WBTV that he has driven to Myrtle Beach and back looking for the car the teens were last seen in. Ziegler also says he rented two planes to fly the route from Denver to Myrtle Beach to search for the car.

Myrtle Beach Police Captain David Knipes said the city is a magnet for runaway teens and people looking for a hide-out.

But, he added, missing juveniles do not go unnoticed. Knipes said a special group of officers make up a juvenile department, specializing in locating missing persons.

"They'll take the flyers and literally canvas door to door and Ocean Boulevard, hand out the flyers to the different hotels and see if somebody might have seen these people to give them that extra little help," Knipes said.

"They're just an anonymous face. With Myrtle Beach having such a high transient population with people coming in for a weekend or a week at a time there's different faces all the time so they can just blend in a lot easier."

Jake Ziegler's family says that he was an avid user of Facebook and Twitter, but both online social media sites have been quiet since he started the trip.

Classmates and friends of the two teens have taken to social media in an effort to raise awareness of their disappearance.

They are tweeting photos and information and asking questions, using the hashtag #FindJakeandRay. Thousands of tweets have gone out asking for help to find them.

Again, the boys were last seen driving a 2006 Green Pontiac G-6 with NC plates BDD-8844.

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Search of NC teens missing in SC moves inland

The Associated Press
Posted: Saturday, Oct. 20, 2012

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MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. The search for two North Carolina teens who went missing more than a week ago on the way to the beach is now focused inland.

The Sun News of Myrtle Beach reported Saturday ( [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] that the search for 18-year-old Jake Ziegler and 17-year-old Ray Pierce is centered on the area near Interstate 77 in Fairfield County, where authorities say Ziegler used his cell phone to send a text message on Oct. 13 at about 2:45 a.m. Dozens of volunteers are combing an area near Blythewood, about 25 miles north of Columbia.

Friends said the two high school seniors from Sherrills Ford, N.C., were headed to Myrtle Beach, S.C., but there is no evidence they ever arrived. Neither their cell phones nor their debit cards have been used since.

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This case is just so sad. I keep googling it hoping to find that they're found and alive.

Investigators: Surveillance video does not show missing teens

Posted: Oct 15, 2012 5:54 AM CDT
Updated: Oct 19, 2012 5:44 PM CDT
By Chris Dyches - email

CATAWBA COUNTY, NC (WBTV) -
Investigators have reviewed surveillance tape from the Belk store in South Carolina where a clerk said she was sure she sold clothing to two missing teens from Catawba County.

Police confirmed Friday afternoon that the video from the store on North Kings Highway in Myrtle Beach did not show the missing teens.

Nearly 100 volunteers showed up in Conway to help with the search Thursday morning. It was the sixth day of search for Jake Ziegler, 18, and Ray Pierce, 17.

"My daughter goes to school with the boys and I know if it were her, I would definitely want everybody helping. So we figured this was more important than school today," said volunteer Susan Deviney.

Classmates at Bandys wore purple in their honor Thursday, and made posters and wrote messages on their cars so people would not give up hope of finding the two alive.

"It is scary and we're not sure how to react," said one student. Senior Hunter Laney said the goal of everyone is "To find them."

Crews are also combing an area between exits 41 and 49 on I-77 in Fairfield County. That is where the last cell phone tower ping originated. Wednesday, Fairfield County Chief Deputy Keith Lewis said all the information investigators have gathered leave them to believe the teens crashed along Interstate 77.

Bloodhounds and cadaver dogs are helping with the search in Fairfield County, but Jake's dad says he is still searching the Grand Strand-area. Several tips are still coming in, but so far, they haven't panned out.

"I went on a search last night around 11 o'clock into the area where somebody told me it was. It looked really promising. It was heavy brush. It took me 10 minutes to walk 15 feet throughout there...which would kind of stop a car," Zig Ziegler told local reporters.

WBTV learned Friday that the family has hired a private investigator to assist in the search.

The teens have been missing since early Saturday, when family members believe they were headed to the Myrtle Beach area.

"He would never do this to me. This is so uncharacteristic," said Jake's sister Jackie Ziegler.

Lewis believes the crash, if it happened, would have occurred along the interstate near mile marker 48. He says the search could be difficult because Ziegler and Pierce were driving in a green Pontiac.

Search crews looked along roadsides in Fairfield County, South Carolina looking for the teens again Thursday. Many fear the two were in an accident and are trapped in their car hoping someone will find them.

In Caldwell County, Amber Pennell knows exactly how that feels. In August of 2008 she lost control of her truck and wound up in a deep ravine just off of Highway 321. For five days search teams combed Caldwell County. It was just before dark on that fifth day that the back of her truck was spotted down the ravine, almost covered in Kudzu.

She suffered broken bones and dehydration but was alive. "Miracles do happen, I'm proof of it," she said on Thursday.

Pennell said her message to the families of the missing teen is not to give up hope and to keep looking. "If they had stopped looking for me I wouldn't be here." Pennell said the love of a family can sustain someone through a difficult time, such as what she experienced. "Knowing someone is looking for you, that's the only thing that keeps you alive."

The search intensified Wednesday morning, as the Fairfield County Sheriff's Office teamed up with SLED investigators to search along Interstate 77 with helicopters and ground crews.

Search teams used four-wheelers and the Highway Patrol's helicopter.

Sue Ziegler, the mother of 18-year-old Jake Ziegler, says a team of volunteers also gathered at the public safety building on Main Street in Conway, South Carolina on Wednesday morning.

Ziegler said the family is urging people in the Charlotte area to volunteer in the search efforts. She says the family is offering a $5,000 reward to anyone who can lead searchers to the teens.

Family members say they have reason to believe the missing teens may be in Conway but said they weren't releasing what information led them there.

"My son doesn't have much longer, if he's alive. I believe he is," said Zig Ziegler.

According to Catawba County Sheriff Coy Reid, multiple law enforcement agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, are now involved in the search.

A spokesman for the Fairfield County Sheriff's Office says that one of the boy's cell phones last picked up service along Interstate 77 between exits 45 and 48.

According to the cell phone company, the ping radius for the phone is around four miles. Investigators are searching a five-mile area.

A helicopter search Tuesday morning by the S.C. Law Enforcement Division found no sign of vehicle wreckage along the interstate in the county in previous searches earlier this week.

The last known contact with either of the teens was around 2:30 a.m. on Saturday when Jake sent a text that pinged off a cell phone tower near Rock Hill, SC.

Both families are worried.

"There is no activity on their cell phones, on their debit cards. We don't believe they don't have any cash with them. They have one Shell card for gas and they can use it for food," Jackie Ziegler said.

Jackie says it is unlike her younger brother, Jake to not contact her.

"I understand the statistics and I understand that but this is not my brother. And there's no chance in hell he would go this far without contacting me," Ziegler said.

Ziegler says they are looking for a 2006 Green Pontiac G-6 with NC plates BDD-8844.

Jake's father, Zig Ziegler, told WBTV that he has driven to Myrtle Beach and back looking for the car the teens were last seen in. Ziegler also says he rented two planes to fly the route from Denver to Myrtle Beach to search for the car.

Myrtle Beach Police Captain David Knipes said the city is a magnet for runaway teens and people looking for a hide-out.

But, he added, missing juveniles do not go unnoticed. Knipes said a special group of officers make up a juvenile department, specializing in locating missing persons.

"They'll take the flyers and literally canvas door to door and Ocean Boulevard, hand out the flyers to the different hotels and see if somebody might have seen these people to give them that extra little help," Knipes said.

"They're just an anonymous face. With Myrtle Beach having such a high transient population with people coming in for a weekend or a week at a time there's different faces all the time so they can just blend in a lot easier."

Jake Ziegler's family says that he was an avid user of Facebook and Twitter, but both online social media sites have been quiet since he started the trip.

Classmates and friends of the two teens have taken to social media in an effort to raise awareness of their disappearance.

They are tweeting photos and information and asking questions, using the hashtag #FindJakeandRay. Thousands of tweets have gone out asking for help to find them.

Again, the boys were last seen driving a 2006 Green Pontiac G-6 with NC plates BDD-8844.

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Posted: 9:21 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 21, 2012

Search for missing Catawba County teens continues

FAIRFIELD COUNTY, S.C. — The families of two missing Catawba County teens continued their search Sunday.
Eighteen-year-old Jake Ziegler and 17-year-old Ray Pierce told their families they were headed to Myrtle Beach a week ago and haven’t been heard from since.
Investigators told Eyewitness News that reports of the teens being spotted at a Myrtle Beach gas station and department store turned out to be false.

The families of the two boys said they had hoped the sightings were true and after hearing that they weren’t true, they promised not to give up.

“I want to curl up in a ball and stay in bed until this is over and we can’t. I can’t. I will not,” said Jackie, Jake’s sister.

Investigators said their cell phone signal was last detected Oct. 13 near mile marker 48 on Interstate 77 near Fairfield County.

In a press conference held in Blythewood, S.C., family members announced plans to refocus the search in that area.

“We’re scaled back our search efforts in the Myrtle Beach area, because we feel this is where we need to concentrate,” said Kevin Ryan a private investigator.
Nearly 60 volunteers searched old dirt paths near the Interstate Sunday.

Volunteers also focused on football fans at Bank of America Stadium handing out flyers and asking those who drove in from South Carolina to keep a look out for the 2006 Pontiac the teens were in.

The family is also asking people to take to Facebook and Twitter in hopes that someone who knows what happened will come forward

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interesting video at above link.

Private Investigator: Missing teens are not runaways

CATAWBA COUNTY, NC (WBTV) -
The families of Jake Ziegler, 18, and Ray Pierce, 17, have hired a private investigators to work with them and help find the missing teens.

"We just need that next piece to give us another direction," said Kevin Ryan. He does not believe the boys ran away or were abducted.

Ryan met with reporters Sunday in Blythewood, South Carolina, along with family members of Ziegler and Pierce. They chose that location because the last ping from a cell phone came from that area.

A search team canvassed areas near I-77 Sunday.

So far they say, there are no new leads.

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Search for Missing Teens About to Take a Turn

BLYTHEWOOD, S.C. - The days are ticking by and still, not a sign of 18-year-old Jake Ziegler or 17-year-old Ray Pierce. The boys, both from Sherrills Ford, NC, disappeared last Saturday. They were in Jake's green Pontiac G6, on their way to Myrtle Beach. Jake had apparently just broken up with a girlfriend.
Social media is burning up. The "Help Find Jake and Ray" Facebook page has more than 22,000 "likes." But with the attention comes theories and assumptions, to which Jackie Ziegler, Jake's sister, pays no mind. She says pointedly, "I don't assume anything. I go off of facts, my facts are cell phone tower pings, my facts are cell phone records."
The last communication from the boys was a text from Jake's phone. Jackie says it simply read"we're almost to the beach," but private investigator Kevin Ryan hopes other messages are more revealing. He says, "There's gonna be some investigation done where we're gonna take a look at their steps leading up to October 13th and the early morning hours."
While the PI digs into cell and bank records, family members still say the search crews are still vital. Ray Pierce's uncle, also named Ray Pierce, says "Boots on the ground is (sic) important in any type of mission."
Right now the search crews are focused along the highways in the Blythewood, South Carolina area. But the private investigator says that could change. "A different direction of investigation may happen based on what we find," he says.
The private investigator also says he's paying close attention to Facebook posts and tweets about the case.

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Thanks Lisette, this cased is so sad!!!!!

The facebook site (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Help-find-Jake-Ziegler-Ray-Pierce/389737817765201) has been moved to the below link. To follow, go to the site and hit SUBSCRIBE to receive updates.

The family wants to thank all the wonderful people who have supported and respected this page. They are very grateful for all the prayers, food, volunteers, information & suggestions. They hate we are having to shut this down, but all the commenting is hindering their investigation & as you can understand the most important thing is to bring the boys home. GOD BLESS YOU ALL & GOD SPEED.

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Catawba teens' families search for worst as they pray for the best

SHERRILLS FORD Just before 2:45 a.m. on Oct. 13, Catawba County teenager Ray Pierce sent a text message to his girlfriend. “We’re almost at the beach.”

That was the last time anyone heard from Pierce, 17, or his friend Jake Ziegler, 18.

Now, after 10 days of frantic searching, families of the missing teens are exhausted and are turning to law enforcement and a private investigator to bring their sons home.

Fearing that the teens might be injured in a wreck hidden off the road – or worse – the families, friends and volunteers have driven thousands of miles, back and forth, between Sherrills Ford and Myrtle Beach. They’ve rented a helicopter to fly overhead and search for any signs of the green Pontiac G6. They’ve handed out missing-persons fliers outside Bank of America Stadium to fans arriving for Sunday’s Panthers-Cowboys game.

“We’ll do what we need to do and go where we need to go,” said Jake’s mom, Sue Ziegler, in an interview Monday. “Jake has been stubborn since the day he was born. He’s not going to let this get him down. He’s going to pull through whatever this is and he’s going to come home.”

Monica Caison, founder of the Wilmington-based CUE Center for Missing Persons, said both families have contacted her organization to help find the teens. But every day that they’re missing lowers the chance they’ll be found alive, she said.

Caison said she informed the families on Sunday that chances were already slim that the teens are still alive.

“But I also shared with them that I had once rescued a woman who was missing for 11 days,” she said. “There are miracle cases.”

Caison also said she understood the families’ need to organize their own search efforts, in addition to law enforcement’s.

“Some families go the extra route because they don’t feel like things are being done quick enough so they jump in and take it on themselves,” she said. “There are a lot of people that don’t want to sit back and wait for a phone call.”

‘Testing his freedom’

Ziegler, 18, and Pierce, 17, were last seen about 1:30 a.m. Oct. 13, when they left a party in Catawba County. The Bandys High School seniors told friends they were driving to Myrtle Beach and would return home in time for Pierce to be at his job Saturday afternoon at Denver restaurant.

Authorities say Pierce sent his last text message from his phone about 2:45 a.m. A signal from his cell phone bounced off a cell tower in Rock Hill around 2:48 a.m.

Authorities say they believe the signal was sent from I-77, somewhere between mile markers 44 and 47 in Fairfield County. The teens’ cellphones and debit cards have not been used since.

Zig Ziegler recalled in an interview Monday how excited his son was to take the road trip. The friends had decided earlier in the evening to drive down in Jake’s newly bought car to see the sunrise in Myrtle Beach, his father said.

“He was test-driving his freedom,” said Zig Ziegler. “He wanted that little touch of freedom.”

Beginning to panic

By the afternoon of Oct. 13, Ray Pierce had not showed up for work and his family filed a missing persons report with the Catawba County Sheriff’s Department.

As the afternoon wore on without any word from the teens, Ziegler’s family began to panic.

“Jake is very good. If he’s not planning to come home, he always texts,” said Zig Ziegler. “It was absolutely out of the norm not to hear from him.”

By Sunday, Zig Ziegler was driving down to Myrtle Beach to search for his son with a family friend. The trip took seven hours as they stopped often at places where Jake’s car might have run off the road. They also scoured maps, plotted coordinates and tried to figure out how to access Jake’s cellphone records.

“It doesn’t matter if the police have it. I couldn’t sit here for two minutes knowing that that car could be somewhere,” said Zig Ziegler. “If I could do anything to find that car, I would.”

Zig Ziegler said he and his friend got excited in Myrtle Beach when they found a green Pontiac with a nearly identical license plate to Jake’s. They blocked the car so it couldn’t move, he said.

But it wasn’t Jake’s car.

“We had some tremendous highs … but we also had tremendous lows when they didn’t pan out,” Ziegler said. “You try to stay positive but it’s been really rough.”

On the first day of searching, a friend began posting updates on his Twitter and Facebook page. By Monday, the Twitter hashtag findjakeandray was trending.

Within days, someone who was not connected with the two families had started a Facebook page to help spread the word. As of Monday evening, that page had nearly 23,000 likes.

Army of volunteers

Jake’s father returned to Sherrills Ford for less than a day before he headed back to South Carolina to set up a command center in a conference room at the Sleep Inn in Conway, about 15 miles inland from Myrtle Beach.

More than 20 volunteers who had been following the case on Facebook also showed up to help. Over the course of a couple of days, that group grew to the hundreds. Jake’s sister Jackie Ziegler, 22, became the de facto leader of the group.

For a couple of days last week, Jackie Ziegler led efforts by mapping out search routes, assigning volunteers and gathering data at the end of the day to see if there were any leads.

“She was the captain of the ship,” said Zig Ziegler. “She had some tough days where something would remind her of her brother and she’d be broken down. But five minutes later, she was back to organizing volunteers and tracking routes.”

During that time, the Zieglers also rented a helicopter for two days and rode in an airplane to search the area.

After days of searching and an estimated 5,000 total logged search miles, Zig Ziegler said he decided to close up the command center.

“We looked at the maps, and we knew that we had done as much as we could there,” said Zig Ziegler.

Search and rescue pros

On Sunday, family members announced they’d hired a private investigator to help with the search.

Kevin Ryan was introduced by family members during a news conference in Blythewood, S.C., a suburb north of Columbia.

“We just need that next piece, to give us another direction,” Ryan said during the news conference.

Ryan said he plans to continue following leads that come in until the two teens are found. He is also looking at financial records and cellphone records and interviewing people who know the two teens.

“It’s something that has to be done in a methodical way. You don’t want to miss something,” Ryan said.

Catawba County Sheriff Coy Reid said his agency is also pursuing any leads, although he added that those have tapered off in recent days.

Officials with the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office have said they think the two young men were involved in a wreck on I-77 in that area.

Authorities say the search is complicated by the green color of the 2006 Pontiac G6, which has the N.C. license plate BDD-8844. They say it will be difficult to find the car in the tangled brush and trees that line the interstate highways.

On Monday, the mothers of the missing teens said that the search has emotionally drained them.

“I’ve gone through every single emotion that there is. Right now, I’m at the point where I’m just numb,” said Wendy Pierce.

But they resolved to not give up until their sons come home.

They also stressed that anyone with information should come forward.

They added that there is a $5,000 reward for anyone providing information that leads them to finding their sons. STAFF WRITER STEVE LYTTLE AND STAFF RESEARCHER MARIA DAVID CONTRIBUTED.

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Awaiting evidence of Sherrills Ford teens.Private investigator to retrace boys’ steps

By: Skip Marsden | Hickory Daily Record
Published: October 23, 2012

“It feels like a waiting game,” said Jackie Ziegler, sister of missing Jake Ziegler. The teenager and his friend, Ray Pierce, have been missing since October 13, when the two began a drive to the beach and back. Nothing has been uncovered regarding their whereabouts except a last text sent at 2:44 am on that Saturday.

Kevin Ryan, friend of the family and private investigator, will be retracing the actions of the two teens going back to that Saturday and beyond. “I’ll look at what they were doing all the way back to two weeks prior to their disappearance, looking for anything that stands apart,” he said.

Ryan will return to Philadelphia and continue to run his investigation from there. “I’ll come back if anything breaks.” As time passes it gets harder and harder, he said. “We want to bring these boys home.”

Searches have concentrated on the vicinity of the cell tower the last text traveled through.

Volunteer searchers have been asked by authorities not to show up. “Unqualified searchers may hinder the gathering of evidence, or even hurt themselves,” said Ziegler. “We can’t have that.”

The family has also dismantled a Facebook page originally posted to update friends and people following the case. Ziegler said a variety of issues caused law enforcement to request the Facebook page be taken down.

Several South Carolina law enforcement organizations, including county sheriffs and police offices, the SBI, SLED and CUE Center for Missing Persons continue the search efforts, but have turned up no new leads. Ziegler expressed gratitude over the efforts. “They are actively searching,” she said.

Ziegler, 18 and Pierce, 17, left Sherrills Ford early morning October 13 on a down-and-back road trip to the beach, according to friends of the teens. A last text was sent from them around 2:44 am that Saturday, and traveled through a cell tower in Fairfield (SC) County near I-77. Much of the search has concentrated in that area.

Searchers are looking for Ziegler’s green 2006 Pontiac G6, with N.C. license tag BBD8844.

Ziegler is 6 feet tall and weighs 145 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes. He has a pierced left ear, and a tattoo on his right buttocks. Pierce is 6 feet tall and 160 pounds with dark brown hair and brown eyes.

The family has offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to finding the missing teens.

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I have looked at the map and I don't see why the boys texted that they were "almost at the beach" when they were near the exit on I-77 where they are searching...It is about 150 miles from Blythewood, SC to Myrtle Beach...An almost 3 hour drive. And why would they go I-77 to I-20 to get to Myrtle Beach? That is a LONG way around to get there. There are many alternative shorter ways to go that would mean getting off the interstate. No telling where they got off to cut across to the beach. They need to search on other roads..Highways 21 and 97 out of Rock Hill cross several lakes and go through swampy areas. I am afraid that the car is hidden by water at some point. 21 runs roughly parallel to 77 for quite a distance...so I would think that the cell phone ping could have come from that road just as well as from 77. Sad that the car or phones weren't equipped with GPS.

Lisette I was wondering about the location Vs distance to the beach, thanks for answering that question. I sure hope maybe those boys did make it somewhere to party and are afraid to come home. From the description of the car it sounds like it would be well hidden in brush. Horrible situation.

raine, I added more to my comment while you were posting. A little more about the location....

Thanks Lisette. I so hope those boys aren't under water! I hadn't thought of that not knowing the area. Would the cell ping at all if under water? Good reason not to have a green car when living in heavily brushed areas but who would ever think of this unless they had experience with something like this happening. I still pray for those boys to have gone partying and now are too afraid to call home. But it sure doesn't sound like it.

Eighteen-year-old Jake Ziegler and his 17-year-old friend Ray Pierce have been missing since the 13th of October after the two had attended a party at Myrtle Beach (I did not think they ever made it to Myrtle Beach!?). The last time anyone had heard from the two was when Jake texted his girlfriend after 2:00 a.m., that morning. It's been nearly two weeks and the two missing teens have not been seen or heard from since -- nor has there been any activity on their mobile phones or social networking accounts.
Did Jake Ziegler and Ray Pierce meet some kind of foul play the night they were last seen? Investigators have been searching relentlessly the entire time of the teens' disappearance, so it's really safe to say anything could have happened to them. They could have run off the road while driving, only to be concealed by vegetation. They could have been carjacked by criminals and taken to who-knows-where. There are just so many possibilities in the disappearance of these two young men.

So far, several rural roads have been searched by investigators to no result, and hope is dwindling in this case having a positive outcome. Will Jake and Ray be found safely?
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Search for teens moves east of I-77 in S.C.
CUE searchers combing ravines

By: By Skip Marsden | Hickory Daily Record
Published: October 24, 2012

Efforts to find missing teens Jake Ziegler and Ray Pierce continued in South Carolina on Wednesday as sreas east of I-77 are now being searched.

In addition to law enforcement from North and South Carolina searching the two states is a trained group of searchers providing services through CUE Center for Missing Persons, a nonprofit organization that provides free aid in search-and-rescue efforts around the nation.

The Pierce family contacted CUE for help in searching for the two teens, according to Monica Caison, Director of CUE.

“We have search dogs, an ATV, and six good, strong searchers,” said Caison. “We are concentrating on off roads to the east of I-77,” she said. According to Caison, the terrain is filled with ravines. “Some 300 feet and more that we have to climb down to the bottom and begin our search back up the ravine, keeping alert that the car might be caught in a tree instead at the bottom of the ravine.”

The car is a dark green 2006 Pontiac, and not easy to spot due to the heavy vegetation, said Caison.

Caison’s CUE team is small in number, but able to work through terrain at a quicker and more thorough pace because of training and conditioning. “We can cover an area much more quickly than a larger group of volunteers who don’t know what to do or what to look for,” she explained.

CUE stands for Community United Effort Center for Missing Persons, and was founded in Wilmington in 1994 by Caison. She had been exposed to families of missing persons “at least three times before she was 25,” according to her online bio.

The organization recruits people interested in helping CUE as volunteers, or who want to train to become what Caison called professional searchers. This group goes through a variety of training and depending on the level of search and rescue, people can attain certification.

Free services CUE provides includes search and recovery, victim support, investigative, and awareness resources; K9 search teams, divers, 4-wheelers, ATV and more, according to the CUE website.

Ziegler, 18 and Pierce, 17, from Sherrills Ford left early in the morning of Oct.13 on a down-and-back road trip to the beach, according to friends of the teens. A last text was sent from them around 2:44 am that Saturday, and passed through a cell tower in Fairfield (SC) County near I-77.

Searchers are looking for Ziegler’s green 2006 Pontiac G6, with N.C. license tag BBD8844.

Ziegler is 6 feet tall and weighs 145 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes. He has a pierced left ear, and a tattoo on his right buttocks. Pierce is 6 feet tall and 160 pounds with dark brown hair and brown eyes.

The family has offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to finding the missing teens.

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I can't believe how long it's taking to find them..or their car. I don't understand. What am I missing here?? Just like Britannee Drexel. Nada!!

Missing teens Jake Ziegler and Ray Pierce have been missing now for two weeks, and there doesn't appear to be any positive investigative updates in their case. The two were last seen at a party after a ballgame, but were believed to be heading to Myrtle Beach. However, it doesn't seem that they ever arrived, and they haven't been seen since.

As stated in this earlier Gather News article, the last contact that was had with either of these two missing young men was a text sent from Ray Pierce to his girlfriend. There has been no activity since then, so naturally their loved ones are extremely worried.

With it now being officially two weeks since their disappearance, the statistical likelihood of finding either one of them is significantly smaller than the early days of this case. It's a well known fact that the first 48 to 72 hours of a missing persons case are the most vital. Fourteen days of two teens being missing with absolutely no contact with loved ones is indicative of a possibility that there may not be a happy ending in this search.

The search for Jake Ziegler and his friend is continuing on this 14th day of their disappearance, but no reports have shared any positive updates. No items of interest have been reported lately, so that is even worse news in the search for these two young men. Hopefully this trend doesn't last long and evidence comes to light so their loved ones can have some closure and relief.
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His teenage son is missing, but tells others: 'Tell your parents the truth'

By: LAWRENCE MARSDEN | Hickory Daily Record
Published: October 28, 2012

DENVER N.C. – Joe Pierce has this to say to teenagers everywhere: tell your parents the truth. Pierce, father of missing Sherrills Ford teen Ray Pierce, last spoke to his son around 1 am on Oct. 13. That was when the teen called to ask permission to spend the night at Jake Ziegler’s.

“He asked, ‘Can I sleep over at Jake’s – he just broke up with his girlfriend.’ And I know Jake’s parents and I know Jake and I said ‘Ok.’ To me that was a lie, and we had these issues about lying and that bothered me. You know, he called up and I gave him permission to sleep over at Jake’s.”

Pierce had no idea his son had lied to him at the time, nor that there was any problem until he received a call the next morning from Hank Spenello who wondered where Ray was. Spenello is one of the managers of the Sagebrush restaurant in Denver where young Pierce had worked for about a year. He was scheduled to come in at 11:45 am, said Spenello.

“I called his dad and asked him if he knew where Ray was. His dad said no, he’d find out.”

Events of that early Saturday morning began to take shape as the Pierce family and the Ziegler family started asking questions.

They found out the boys had gone to a party in Sherrills Ford. They heard the boys had asked several people at the party to join them going down to the coast and back. They knew that Jake and his girlfriend had argued at the Bandys football game that Friday night, and had broken up later.

They thought the boys had little cash. Ziegler’s bank account was down to three dollars, so his father deposited 50. But there was no activity on either teen’s bank card, nor any activity on either cell phone, after 2:44 am that Saturday. That was the time stamp of the last text sent from Pierce’s phone. And they knew which cell tower that text passed through.

In addition, Joe Pierce knew his son had lied about staying over at Jake’s house.

Pierce, 52, is retired from the New York/New Jersey Port Authority where he worked years as a policeman. He was there within blocks of the Twin Towers on 9/11. He is no stranger to tough situations. “This isn’t about me,” he said. “It’s about Ray.”

Two of his three daughters are still at home. Michelle Pierce is a student at Catawba Valley Community College. Kimberly is a freshman at Bandys where her brother and Jake are seniors. They are keeping Joe Pierce together.

“They are my real crutches,” he said of his daughters, as he rested a broken foot on a chair. He broke the foot escorting family members to their rooms in his house. They had come to Denver to help out.

“A lot of Ray’s friends have reached out to us,” said Michelle. “One girl told me that she wanted to hang out with me more because it’s like I’m a part of Ray and she misses him a lot.”

“We’re getting support from friends and neighbors – Ray’s friends and my friends. Support from CUE and the South Carolina police. You know, they’re doing a good job, too,” said Michelle.

Pierce has nothing but praise for the various teams of law enforcement in South Carolina, and for the CUE Center for Missing Persons.

“The manpower, the hours – and I’m quite aware of what needs to be done – I let them do what they gotta do. I’m totally confident everything they’re doing is above and beyond,” he said.

When asked about leads that have proved to be false through Facebook, Pierce reacts with some irritation in his face. “That’s what kind of like throws everything off. These wild things take resources away from the professionals. Everything has to be looked into. It is what it is,” he said.

It’s about finding Ray and Jake, said Pierce again.

“Even our little cousins – you know, small as in like six and seven – they’ve been trying to find Ray through Google Maps – and you know the satellite pictures? Everybody’s really trying to help in their own little way – trying to the extent of what they think could help,” said Kimberly.

Asked once more what people could do, Kimberly Pierce replied to teens everywhere: “If someone asks you at 1 am to go drive down to the beach – or some other wild idea – tell them not to do it. Please.”

Joe Pierce said: “Tell the truth."

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They are saying that due to the horrible weather, they are going to have to delay searching.

Posted: Oct 28, 2012 7:11 PM CDT
Updated: Oct 28, 2012 11:01 PM CDT
By Sharon Smith - bio | email

KERSHAW COUNTY, SC (WBTV) -
The bodies of two missing North Carolina teens have been found in a submerged car in the Wateree River near Interstate 20, according to the coroner.

"It does appear these are the two boys they're looking for," said Kershaw County Coroner Johnny Fellers.

Catawba County Sheriff Coy Reid said the tag matches the car being driven by two missing teenagers from his area.

A Facebook page dedicated to finding the missing teens also said the bodies found inside the car were the missing teens.

""We are sadden to say that the bodies of Jake Ziegler 18, & Ray Pierce have been found approximately an hour ago," the page posted at 8"35 p.m. on Sunday night. "Search crews along the Wateree River found the bumper of the car off of I20 East near the 96 mile marker."

The site say the bumper had the license plate from the car as well and appeared to be a single car accident.

Troopers believe the car went off the left side of the road narrowly missing a guardrail, down a steep embankment and came to a stop in the river. Our Raycom News Partner on the scene says there are tire tracks leading from I-20 down the embankment. Investigators plan to be back at the scene Monday.

According to the family spokesman, it appeared to be a very nasty wreck.

The boys were found by volunteer searchers from the Community United Effort (CUE) Center for Missing Persons out of Wilmington, NC. CUE volunteers alerted authorities to a vehicle upside down in the river around 4:20 Sunday afternoon.

The teens families filed a report with the CUE Center on October 14, the day after the teens first went missing.

The director of the CUE Center says the organization worked with local law enforcement agencies and searched for two weeks straight, from Charlotte area down to Myrtle Beach.

Investigators say the boys left a party October 13th and told friends they were driving to the beach. A text sent by one of the boys showed a map to the beach and a highlighted route that would've taken them right by the spot their car was discovered.

Investigators say the last sign of the boys came from a ping off one of their cell phones that night along I-77 in South Carolina. Crews have searched up and down the interstate and in Myrtle Beach.

The friends attended Bandys High School. Their families have spoken consistently with WBTV about their search efforts. They said they always had hope, but prepared for the worst.

Hundreds of volunteers and members of law enforcement have helped in the search effort.

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Coroner: Missing teens' bodies found in car in Wateree River

Posted: Oct 28, 2012 5:39 PM CDT
Updated: Oct 28, 2012 7:57 PM CDT
By Renee Standera - email

KERSHAW COUNTY, SC (WIS) -
The bodies of two missing North Carolina teens have been found in a submerged car in the Wateree River near Interstate 20, according to the coroner.

"It does appear these are the two boys they're looking for," said Kershaw County Coroner Johnny Fellers.

Jake Ziegler, 18, and Ray Pierce, 17, both of Catawba County, NC had been missing for over two weeks.

Investigators say the boys left a party October 13th and told friends they were driving to the beach.

State, local and county officials rushed to the scene after a searcher with the CUE Center for Missing Persons alerted authorities to a vehicle upside down in the river Sunday afternoon.

The vehicle was found near the 96 mile marker, which is an exit for Camden. It appears the car went into the median and then went down a steep embankment into the river.

The last sign of the boys came from a ping off one of their cell phones that night along I-77 in South Carolina. Crews searched up and down the interstate and in Myrtle Beach.

The friends attended Bandys High School. Their families have said they had hope the boys would be found alive, but prepared for the worst.

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We are sadden to say that the bodies of Jake Ziegler 18, & Ray Pierce have been found approximately an hour ago. Search crews along the Wateree River found the bumper of the car off of I20 East near the 96 mile marker. According to Kershaw County Sheriff Jim Matthews, the bumper had the license plate from the car as well. It seems to be a single car accident. There is no proof that another vehicle was involved. There are no other details at this time and you all will be updated as soon as we can. We could not update you at that time due to out of town family being contacted.

For everyone who wants to send prayers to the family, please send a private message on here and when Sue Ziegler has time she will view them. We just ask for everyone to please give them a little breathing room at this moment. Please continue to pray for them, for this will be the hardest thing they will go through in their life. We also want to thank all of you wonderful Prayer Warriors to help them along the way. Again, when we know more, we will let you know. Thank you & God Bless.
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Glad they were found so thier familys can have closer. I think the not knowing would be horrible. RIP Jake and Ray

SC student dies in wreck in search for NC teens

CAMDEN, S.C. — A Winthrop University student has been killed in a wreck as traffic backed up on Interstate 20 in Kershaw County while authorities searched for two missing North Carolina teens.
Coroner Johnny Fellers says 21-year-old Morgan LeAnne Hughes of Conway died in the wreck Sunday night when the car she was in was rear-ended as traffic backed up during the search.
Authorities found the bodies of 8-year-old Jake Ziegler and 17-year-old Ray Pierce of Catawba County in a car in the water under a bridge over the Wateree River. The teens had been missing since Oct. 13.
Video from around the world

Two other Winthrop students were hurt in the wreck.
A teen from New Jersey was driving the vehicle that hit them. He was taken to a Columbia hospital. No charges have been filed.

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Teens' Parents: Donate to Other Missing Persons Instead of Flowers

After a tragic ending to the search for Jake Ziegler and Ray Pierce, the families are asking you to give back to other search organizations instead of sending flowers.

In a Facebook post from the page dedicated to finding the two boys, the families posted the following request:

The Ziegler & Pierce family is asking that in lieu of sending flowers to the families, please make a donation to: CUE Center for Missing Persons. CUE played a major role in the search for Jake & Ray & one of their search members found the vehicle. CUE will be able to use the donations for finding the next missing person. You can either make a donation online at the below website or mail it in. Their address in on their website on the mid right side. In regards to the funeral arrangements, they are incomplete at this time. We want to thank all you wonderful people for the kind words & prayers & we wish you all many, many blessings.


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CUE is a great organization...

Funeral plans announced for Catawba teens who died in wreck

The families of two Catawba County teens who died after driving off a bridge on a trip to Myrtle Beach have planned joint memorial services this Saturday in Mooresville.

Jake Ziegler, 18, and Ray Pierce, 17, seniors at Bandys High School in Catawba County, left a party in the early hours of Oct. 13. They told friends they were going to take Ziegler’s 2006 Pontiac G6 to Myrtle Beach, about four hours away, to watch the sunrise.

When they didn’t return, authorities and families began searching – retracing the teens’ path to the beach, handing out fliers at the Carolina Panthers game, even renting a helicopter to search for the green car.

The car and the boys’ bodies were discovered in marshy water off Interstate 20, just east of Columbia.

A Memorial service for the teens will be held at 2 p.m. on Saturday, November 3 at Cavin-Cook Funeral Home Chapel in Mooresville. The family will receive visitors following the service.

Pierce’s family is also holding a funeral Mass at noon on Friday, at Holy Spirit Catholic Church.

In lieu of flowers, the teens’ families encourage people to make memorials to Community United Effort (C.U.E.) Center for Missing Persons, which assisted in the two-week search for the Ziegler and Ray. The center’s mailing address is: P.O. Box 12714, Wilmington, North Carolina 28405.

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Nagging feeling led missing teens’ searcher back to bridge

Finding the vanished has become Monica Caison’s mission


Something about the bridges haunted Monica Caison.

Her search teams had spent two weeks looking for a car with two teens from Catawba County who had vanished on a trip to Myrtle Beach. An intense search along I-77 had yielded nothing, and on Sunday they were in their third day of scouring the fringes of I-20 between Columbia and Florence.

They had climbed the roadway banks already, hacking through jungle-dense vegetation in places, without finding a clue.

“There was something about it,” Caison said Monday. “I just didn’t feel good. I said, ‘Let’s go back in and get a second look.’ ”

Caison and her volunteer team of 15 decided on a new approach: They would check the bridges from the interstate’s medians rather than the sides.

Buck Creek bridge, 20 miles east of Columbia, was the first. At the base of the span, out of sight of motorists, they found a car bumper. A searcher kicked it over. Still attached was what authorities in two states were hunting – N.C. license plate BBD-8844. Just beyond it was the still, dark water of Buck Creek that had swallowed the car.

“I don’t see how these people found that wreck,” said Jim Matthews, sheriff of Kershaw County. “They are to be commended.”

Aimed for sunrise

Jake Ziegler, 18, and Ray Pierce, 17, seniors at Bandys High School in Catawba County, left a party in the early hours of Oct. 13. They told friends they were going to take Ziegler’s 2006 Pontiac G6 to Myrtle Beach, about four hours away, to catch the sunrise.

When they failed to return, authorities began a search by ground and air.

Among those helping was the Wilmington-based CUE Center for Missing Persons. CUE, which stands for Community United Effort, was started in 1994 by Monica Caison. She was looking to get involved in charity work and decided to focus on people who were missing.

Today, her organization has 10,000 trained volunteers across the nation and continues to grow. They have helped more than 9,000 families to date.

Caison, 49, a mother of five and grandmother of three, runs the organization from Wilmington. She has worked with police across the country in missing-person cases, augmenting their forces with her professionally trained volunteers.

She often goes on searches herself, and has been instrumental in helping find people. She draws no salary from the non-profit organization.

“I was one of 11 children,” Caison said. “My parents were very strict and organized. Everyone in the family was involved in charity work. It was instilled in us when we were young. Life’s true meaning is trying to help others.”

Solved friend’s case

Caison grew up in St. Petersburg, Fla., and has had first-hand experience with missing persons.

A childhood friend, 20-year-old Melinda Harder, disappeared in July 1980. CUE does a road trip annually to draw attention to missing-persons cases, and in 2008, it went to St. Pete. Posters were put up around town showing pictures of Harder with an age-progression portrait.

A police investigator saw the poster at a convenience store while stopping for coffee. She looks like a Jane Doe from an earlier case she knew, thought the investigator.

DNA proved her right. Harder’s remains had been found in a rolled-up carpet in 1989, but no one knew who she was.

Through Caison’s efforts, Harder’s body was identified. Her killer has never been found.

Searching for teens

CUE entered the search for Ziegler and Pierce at the beginning.

Trained search-team members came from as far away as Florida and Virginia. They took time off from work, or helped out on weekends. Rotating volunteers every few days, Caison had a team of about 15 on the case at all times.

Volunteers come from many walks of life. Some are searching for their own missing family members, others are in public service or retired from the military, police or fire agencies. Some have lost family to homicide and find it therapeutic to help others.

Caison’s troops started along I-77 and worked south. They checked for skid marks or tire tracks leading away from the highway. They drove along the edge of woods lining the road. When they didn’t have a clear view into the woodland, they would stop and hike in, up to a half-mile, looking for the car.

On Friday, they began looking on I-20 East with the same routine: Look for anything out of place, any disturbance that might hint at a wayward car.

By midday Sunday, they’d finished their canvass of the interstate, but the bridges were still nagging Caison.

Only trace at edge

Buck’s Creek was the first bridge they rechecked. Caison dropped a team of four off to walk down the grassy median. As they approached the water, they saw some debris, then the bumper.

Sheriff Matthews said the car apparently came out of a curve and into the median, threading a narrow pocket between guard posts on either side of the road. A slight incline at the top of the embankment sent the car airborne. It cleared a fence and some trees at the bottom of the slope and disappeared into Buck’s Creek.

Ziegler’s parents, who were driving a nearby highway to look for clues, soon arrived. Caison comforted them but kept them away from the crash site.

Matthews said he walked the scene Sunday and was amazed Caison’s team had located the car containing the teens’ bodies. There were no skid marks on the road, no sign that anything had happened there.

“If the bumper had stayed on the car,” he said, “I don’t know when those boys would have been found.”

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