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Jeremy Beau Sides, aka "Nug" from the YouTube channel Exploring with Nug,[2] is an American scuba diver and civilian crime investigator who investigates missing person cases and missing items. In 2021, he found the bodies of Erin Foster and Jeremy Bechtel, who had been missing for 21 years.
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Sides is from Acworth, Georgia.[2] He is married and a father of two children.[3]
Before diving full-time, Sides was a metal detectorist as a hobby, searching for American Civil War relics and other lost items around his hometown.[2]
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After high school, Sides worked for the United States Navy, in aviation hydraulics. Later he worked in the automotive industry.[2][3]
Diving
When Sides started a metal detectorist YouTube channel in 2016, friends at work gave him the nickname Nug, joking that he was looking for gold. It stuck, and he changed the name of his channel to Exploring with Nug as he started exploring more and doing less metal detecting.[2]
Sides chooses unsolved missing person cases via the Charley Project online missing persons database,[4] focusing on cases where drivers went missing near bodies of water.[5] [6]
Missing person cases
In October 2021, Sides assisted the Adventures with Purpose team while they found the truck owned by Thomas Thornton, a missing Vietnam War veteran from Tyler County, Texas. A body was found inside the truck, which police said was likely Thornton's.[7][5]
In November 2021, Sides found a car containing the body of Miriam Ruth Hemphill, who had been missing since July 2005.[8]
In December 2021, he found the car containing the bodies of two teenagers in the case of the disappearance of Erin Foster and Jeremy Bechtel.[9][5][10]
In January 2022, he and two other divers found the vehicle of murder victim Alan Livingston, who had been missing since 1983. The FBI removed the body with local police in October 2022.[11]
In February 2022, Sides assisted Adventures with Purpose while they found the car owned by Margaret Shupe Smith, who had been missing since April 2021.[12]
In December 2022, Sides and several other divers and dive teams found the vehicle of Jason Spencer who had been missing since November 2022.[13][14]
In April 2023, Recon Dive Recovery and Sunshine State Sonar found the vehicle of Robert Heikka who had been missing since 2020, Sides had searched for Heikka but had not located him. Sides made videos on YouTube crediting RDR & SSS for their work.[15][16] Later In April, Sunshine State Sonar and Recon Dive Recovery found the vehicle of Robert Helphrey who had been missing since 2006. Sides made YouTube videos crediting their finds as well as graciously hosting a GoFundMe fundraising campaign for his fellow Sonar Search Colleagues, raising just over $3500 to be split between the 2 Orgs.[17][18]
In October 2024, Sides found the submerged car of a woman named Shannon Taylor who was found dead floating in 2016 in a South Carolina River.[19]
| Case | Name | Age | Missing | Found | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thomas Thornton[20] | 72 | March 24, 2021 | October 24, 2021 | Toledo Bend Reservoir, Shelby County, Texas[21] |
| 2 | Miriam Ruth Hemphill | 84 | July 21, 2005 | November 10, 2021 | Melton Hill Lake, Oak Ridge, Tennessee |
| 3 | Erin Foster | 18 | April 3, 2000 | December 1, 2021 | Calfkiller River, Sparta, Tennessee |
| Jeremy Bechtel | 17 | ||||
| 4 | Alan Livingston | 25 | April 1983 | January 2022 | Coosa River, Gadsden, Alabama |
| 5 | Margaret "Jan" Shupe Smith | 59 | April 2, 2021 | February 2, 2022 | Lakeland, Florida |
| 6 | Jason Spencer | 49 | November 9, 2022 | December 5, 2022 | Cumberland River, Clarksville, Tennessee |
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