Buried Update: Texas State Highway Search

The northeast Texas mother-of-three disappeared along with her vehicle in early 1991. Until early last year, when a volunteer group called Adventures With Purpose used sonar to locate her car in Lake Tawakoni. They found human remains last October. Parker’s children announced in late May that authorities matched the remains to family D-N-A. Now the Hunt County Sheriff’s Office is closing its missing person case. It says the University of North Texas Health Science Center for Human Identification in Fort Worth sent investigators a report confirming the remains were those of Parker. Adventures With Purpose founder Jared Leisek says his group is grateful to Sheriff Terry Jones for trusting them to recover Parker’s car and remains.And an obituary published this week describes Parker as a “strong-willed, free-spirited woman who enjoyed spending time on the lake and night driving with her kiddos.” They plan to hold a private service next week in Wills Point.

Early last year, divers pulled wreckage from a 1980 Buick Skylark out of Lake Tawakoni. They returned last fall and discovered human remains under the debris. Those remains have now been matched to Carey Mae Parker — a young northeast Texas mother-of-three who went missing along with her Buick in 1991. Parker’s daughter Brandy Hathcock confirmed yesterday (Tuesday) that investigators used D-N-A to identify the remains, presumed to be Parker’s. “She’s coming home!” Hathcock wrote in a Facebook post. Her siblings made similar announcements. The Hunt County Sheriff’s Office didn’t immediately return calls overnight. In October, its officers coordinated with a private dive group to retrieve the remains — which included bones — from the Waco Bay area of the lake. The successful volunteer effort came months after a Texas D-P-S team abandoned searches after just one day.

The Oregon-based group Adventures With Purpose located parts of Carey Mae Parker’s car during its first search at Lake Tawakoni in February.  On Friday, the group might have found remains of Carey Mae Parker herself.  Founder Jared Leisek confirmed late Friday that his team found human remains in a debris pile from Parker’s car near a causeway on the lake’s Waco Bay.  The dive group located Parker’s 1980 Buick Skylark in February and brought parts of it to the surface. Later searches by Department of Public Safety divers were unsuccessful, and Leisek’s group agreed to return this fall with different equipment.  According to a Parker’s sister, Patricia Gager, in a Facebook post, the divers retrieved a pelvis bone. Parker fractured her pelvis in an accident years before she went missing in 1991. That injury may prove useful in identifying any possible remains.  The Hunt County sheriff’s office didn’t immediately return calls late Friday.  But Leisek and Parker’s family say they’ll all be back tomorrow to finish the search.  For KETR News, I’m George Hale in Bloomington, Indiana.   

It was around this time of year in 1991 when Carey Mae Parker seemed to disappear without a trace from southern Hunt County. Until three weeks ago — when a private search group located Parker’s car upside down in a bay north of her family’s home. Authorities lifted most of the 1980 Buick Skylark out of the water later the same day.  This week, forensic divers from the Texas Department of Public Safety and others returned to Waco Bay to search for more submerged evidence. After marking spots Monday along the White Point Causeway on FM 751, they descended into Lake Tawakoni yesterday (Tuesday) morning — hoping to finally locate and bring Parker’s remains above water.  The Hunt Co. Sheriff’s Office didn’t respond to calls and emails about the search. But Sheriff Terry Jones told members of Parker’s family at the lake that investigators had NOT located human remains and were NOT planning to resume operations today (Wednesday).  For KETR News, I’m George Hale in Bloomington, Indiana. 

From a Hunt County Sheriff's Office press release dated February 5, 2021:"On February 4, 2021 at approximately 5:43 pm, the Hunt County Sheriff’s Office Dispatch received a call from a search and recovery team advising they had located a vehicle in Lake Tawakoni near the causeway on FM 751. Hunt County Sheriff Terry Jones responded with patrol units and the Criminal Investigation Division to learn the search and recovery team were on the lake using sonar equipment when they discovered a vehicle in the lake. The search and recovery team, who was there with family members, advised investigators that the vehicle they had located was similar to a vehicle involved in a Hunt County missing person case, which the search and recovery team was familiar with. FM 751 was closed for a period of time as the vehicle was recovered from the water. Once the vehicle was recovered, it was confirmed the vehicle matched the description of a Hunt County missing person case. Investigators believe that the vehicle recovered from Lake Tawakoni is the vehicle belonging to Carey Mae Parker, who has been missing since in 1991."

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On Thursday, Feb. 21, 1991, a Quinlan police officer arrested Carey Mae Parker on a warrant for traffic offenses. Here's what happened next.

Law enforcement officials in the Lake Tawakoni area had a reputation for corruption and criminality -- much of it deserved -- throughout the 1990s. Police officers in south Hunt County say they're still picking up the pieces.

In the latest search for Carey Mae Parker, sheriff's deputies use ground-penetrating radar and cadaver dogs to scan properties in northeast Texas.

Sgt. Jeff Haines of the Hunt Co. Sheriff’s Office said searchers used cadaver dogs and ground penetrating radar on three adjacent properties as part of the investigation into Parker's 1991 disappearance from the area of Quinlan, TX. Haines declined to elaborate on any results of the day's efforts before notifying Parker's family about the searches. But the detective did confirm the search areas included properties that belonged in the past to the family of Cody Songer, a man Parker dated before going missing in 1991.