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Non-profit group traveling the country with mission to help solve cold cases

In only 18 months "Adventures With Purpose" has already helped deliver answers to 20 families.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Earlier this week, we introduced you to "Adventures With Purpose."

They're the non-profit that helped find the possible car and remains of a mother and a daughter who had been missing in Russellville for more than two decades. 

The group has spent the last two days in Little Rock trying to help solve other cold cases. 

Douglas Bishop, a diver with "Adventures With Purpose," said the group started out by focusing on environmental cleanup and in the past 18 months they've turned their focus to finding family's lost loved ones.

"The level of gratitude that we get from a family once they get answers after never having any, there's no true words that can quite express what it's like for them and us to be able to do that," he said.

On the surface, Bishop may just look like another diver gearing up.

"We don't take a day off. Every day we're in a different town, different state, searching," he said.

Beyond the wetsuit and air tank on his back, Bishop is going into the waters with a deeper mission.

"No matter what we're doing, when we wake up that morning and we begin a case, there's solutions on the other end potentially," he said.

Bishop is part of a team of four that travels the country working on cold cases. 

Just this week they helped find the possible car and remains of Samantha Hopper and her daughter of Russellville, who had been missing for 23 years. 

Their fast growing following on YouTube has allowed them to help deliver answers to 20 families in just the past year-and-a-half, according to Bishop.

"The viewers and our subscribers, followers, all started reaching out to us about their loved ones that were missing, their friends that were missing, and then we started to compile cases to work," he said.

By combining the facts of the case and using advanced sonar systems, Bishop said the team is able to identify cars, which is how they know where to dive.

"Once we do that, then we know exactly what we're working with. Identification is made and then in the right scenarios, we reach out to law enforcement and turn it over to them," he said.

Sometimes finding the vehicles and human remains in less than an hour. 

Throughout their current 45-day road trip, the group has given closure to 11 families and is currently helping try to solve cases here in Little Rock.

But, according to Bishop, the number has continued to grow over the days.

"We came here with 1 case, and coming here through an undisclosed source, we were then made aware of 5 more," he said.

By Friday afternoon the team was working on a total of 8 cold cases in the capital city and Bishop said they decided to extend their trip throughout the weekend to hopefully give more families some answers. 

"It's never closure, you know, you never get over losing someone you love, but knowing is something special and being able to give that to a family member is very powerful," he said.

You can donate to "Adventures With Purpose" here.

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