Treasure hunter finds amazing footage of man’s final moments before he slipped underwater and drowned

A treasure hunter calms two grieving parents after making an unexpected discovery.

In 2017, 22-year-old Richard Ragland drowned in a waterfall – just days before his 23rd birthday.

He had been with friends at Foster Falls State Park in Tennessee, USA, when the fateful incident occurred.

Richard Ragland died in 2017 at the age of 22. (WSB TV)

Richard’s mother, Robin McCrear, was left with questions surrounding her son’s untimely death and ended up not getting the answers she was looking for for some time.

In the months following Richard’s death, park rangers sent his mother a USB stick containing recordings of him, but Robin was devastated to learn that when the package was opened, it had apparently been stolen in transit.

“We miss him with all our hearts,” Robin told WSB-TV at the time.

“He was an amazing young man. Full of love, full of energy.”

Miraculously, YouTuber and treasure hunter Rich Aloha (real name Rich Abernathy) found his GoPro two years after Richard’s death.

Rich had been looking for the waterfall where Richard died and came across the camera.

He then interviewed the park rangers and they told him about Richard’s death in 2017.

In addition to the camera itself, Richard’s SD card containing footage of his final moments was also inside.

“I truly believe God led me to that GoPro because the only thing I saw was the end tip of the thumbscrew and everything else was just covered in dirt,” the YouTuber told WSB-TV in 2019.

Rich Aloha pictured with Richard Ragland’s mother and stepfather. (WSB TV)

When he saw the footage and realized it was Richard, he tried to contact Richard’s parents on his own.

Rich spent hours online until he finally came across Robin’s phone number and called her to say he wanted to return the camera and card to her.

As for what the footage contained, the grieving mother said it showed “rich, being rich and living life to the fullest”.

She continued that the efforts Rich made to contact them were “of great importance to us.”

Elsewhere, Rich added to the New York Times: “It means so much that I was able to bring them something completely invaluable and priceless.”

To date, Rich’s 2019 video of him discovering Richard’s GoPro has 71,000 views on YouTube.

In the clip’s comments section, Rich was widely praised for contacting Richard’s parents to give them the footage.

Topics: News, US News, YouTube