A nonprofit group's dedicated work led to an important discovery in a 23-year-old cold case.
Adventures With Purpose, a nonprofit whose members travel the country working on cold cases, contacted the Pope County Sheriff's Office on October 23, 2021, with a find. They shared that they located a car underwater in the Illinois Bayou.
The location was on the route between Samantha Jean Hopper's home and her destination, a concert in Little Rock, Arkansas. Samantha vanished somewhere along that route with her 2-year-old daughter, Courtney, on September 11, 1998. Samantha was nine months pregnant at the time of her disappearance.
The sheriff's office released a statement after recovering the remains of 22-month-old Courtney, Samantha, and her unborn child.
"Samantha was reported to have been traveling to drop her daughter, Courtney Holt, off before continuing on to a concert in Little Rock; however, Samantha, her daughter, and her blue Ford Tempo were never located," the statement noted of the case's history.
The car was submerged in 8 feet of water. Remains were sent to the Arkansas State Crime Lab in Little Rock for DNA testing.
"The Pope County Sheriff's Office would like to send our sincere condolences to the family of Samantha Hopper and Courtney Holt, and we are thankful to have been a small part of helping bring this 23-year-old case to closure," the statement continued.
The closure is for Samantha's surviving daughter, Dezarae. She wrote about the development in the case on a memorial page, where funds were being raised for a funeral. Over $10,000 was raised, reaching their goal.
"After being missing for over 23 years, with the assistance of AWP and Chaos dive teams we were able to find my mother who was 9 months pregnant and my 22 month old sister, Courtney," Dezarae shared.
"This has been such a relief to have found her and we want to provide them with a proper burial. If you're able to donate or even just pass this along it would be forever appreciated. Thank you."
Dezarae's husband, Richard Carpenter, also shared his thoughts in a Facebook post.
"My wife Dezarae has lived her whole life not knowing where her mother and sister were or what happened to them," he wrote.
"Since 1998 Samantha Hopper and baby Courtney have been missing, and this week they were finally found. Samantha was also 8 months pregnant at the time she went missing. My wife and our family are looking to do a service for all 3 of them. Thank you and God Bless ."
