Underwater recovery YouTube channel scours Hampton for clues in the Kazmerzak case

A frigid and grey October sky may not seem like a day to get in the water, but for Jared Leisek and Sam Ginn, there’s no time to waste.

Leisek and Ginn, who run the Adventures with Purpose YouTube channel, have dedicated their free time to search and recovery missions typically involving submerged vehicle.

The two found themselves in Hampton on Monday following the case of Ethan Kazmerzak, who disappeared early one September morning in 2013. This was the second time Leisek and Ginn had been in Hampton this month searching for clues at the site of a party where Kazmerzak was last seen. The first visit turned up no leads but a message through their YouTube channel, which currently has nearly 700,000 subscribers, informed them they had not been at the correct spot for the party. This time around, with a new location to search, they readied their boat and equipment to run sonar at a farm pond in a field off of 190th Street and Nettle Avenue.

This search yielded the location of a vehicle, however, no details were available at press time.

So what led Leisek and Ginn to Hampton a second time, after an initial unsuccessful search, to explore that had already been cleared by law enforcement?

Leisek said it stemmed simply from the desire to see for themselves and check off possible places where Kazmerzak could’ve gone that night.

“We have a portion of us that says, even though this pond has been searched two times, we have not searched this pond, same with Beed’s Lake,” he said. “Maybe he went to Iowa Falls that night and ended up down there, maybe we’re looking in the wrong direction.”

Leisek said there’s no such thing as an unsuccessful search for their team. Even if they don’t recover the individual for which they were looking, the ability to eliminate several locations as possibilities narrows the search and brings added attention to a case that may have been forgotten over the years.

“Us putting additional awareness shows the family that people are still thinking about it and to bring awareness for other people to get out there and start looking,” he said.

“Maybe it’s a puzzle with 60 pieces and we have 59,” added Ginn, “but someone else watching has the last one.”

Kazmerzak’s case especially appeals to Leisek and Ginn because of the impact his disappearance has had on the community. Posters remain up in area businesses and a $100,000 reward for information has been offered. With no answers, Leisek and Ginn aimed to bring closure to a community and a family that has long been in the dark.

“There’s just that constant reminder of pain for the family when they go into town but there’s also joy that the community has not yet forgotten,” Leisek said, adding that other similar cases they’ve investigated have been described to them by community members as an “open wound,” which is why they aim to go where not many people can access.

“That’s why our focus is on underwater vehicle recovery because we know with that, we have a shot, because a vehicle just does not go missing, it’s somewhere, and we try to find where the next location would be.”

Their visit to the Hampton area was part of a 31-stop tour they’ve made across the country this fall, helping with cases in Colorado, Missouri, Iowa, Alabama and everywhere in between. Prior to this adventure, Leisek and Ginn helped solve the 12-year long disappearance of Tim Robinson, an Oregon man who went missing in 2008 after leaving a suicide note behind. In December of 2019, the two also located the body of Nathan Ashby, a 22-year-old Missouri man who went missing five months earlier.

With the video of the discovery of Ashby’s location came five-plus million YouTube views and a host of other tips. From those tips, Leisek and Ginn developed their multi-month, multi-state trip.

With each pass through a river, a lake or a pond comes hundreds of thousands of views, a bevy of tips and additional pleas for certain locations. The views, in turn, help Adventures with Purpose fund their trips and equipment, but what those videos also do is inspire viewers. Leisek said he hopes that people see that anyone is capable of making a difference and answering at least one question that had previously not been addressed.

“We want to bring awareness and let people realize that they have the same abilities we have to identify, to go out and search this,” he said. “The only thing they may not have is underwater ability, but there may be something they see above and say they’ve identified something that might be associated with a missing persons case.”

The first video in their search for Ethan can be found at Adventures with Purpose’s YouTube page and the second is anticipated to be released sometime in the holiday season.