A father who tirelessly searched for his missing daughter for 42 years tragically passed away just five days before her remains were found in a river.
Pamella Jackson was only 17 when she and her best friend Sherri Miller disappeared while driving to an end-of-school-year party in Vermillion, South Dakota, in 1971. For over four decades, investigators were left puzzled over the girls’ whereabouts until September 23, 2013, when a fisherman passing Brule Creek noticed two tires and the underside of an old car peeking above the water. Sadly, Pam’s father Oscar Jackson had died just five days earlier on September 18, having spent almost every day of the last 40 years searching for his daughter.
Oscar had scoured riverbeds, creeks, and woods around Vermillion for any sign of Pam, but the reality was that Pam and Sherri’s remains, along with their 1960 Studebaker, were found just 100 yards from where they had been celebrating on that fateful night in May 1971. They never made it to their destination; instead, their ailing car careened into Brule Creek in a road accident, taking their lives with it.
