Two missing North Carolina teens found dead in South Carolina river

Kershaw County, SC, United States (4E) – The bodies discovered in a car that was pulled from South Carolina’s Wateree River last Sunday have been identified as the two North Carolina teens who disappeared two weeks ago.

Authorities reported that 18-year-old Jake Ziegler and 19-year-old Ray Pierce’s bodies have been found in a submerged car that has been hauled from the river near Interstate 20 in Kershaw County Sunday afternoon.

The South Carolina Kershaw County coroner confirmed the Catawba County teens’ identification Monday.

Volunteers from the Community United Effort Center for Missing Persons out of Wilmington, North Carolina, which has been working with the local authorities and has searched two weeks straight from Charlotte area down to Myrtle Beach, alerted authorities after they found a car in the river around 4:20 Sunday afternoon.

Police believe the vehicle went off the left side of the road, down a steep embankment before landing upside down in the river. Investigators plan to examine the scene of the accident.

According to officials, the teens’ disappearance was reported October 14, a day after they were last seen. Friends of the boys were told that they were planning to go to Myrtle Beach.

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