A devoted father, who searched for his missing daughter almost every day for 42 years, tragically died five days before her remains were found in a river.
Pamella Jackson was 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 more than four decades, investigators puzzled over what happened to the two teens.
Then, on September 23, 2013, a fisherman passing Brule Creek noticed two tires and the underside of an old car peeking above the water — but it was 120 hours too late for Pam's father Oscar Jackson.
He had died five days earlier on September 18. For the last 40 years of his life, Oscar searched almost daily for Pam—scouring riverbeds, creeks, and woods around Vermillion for any sign of her.
But the reality was that Sherri and Pam'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 reached their destination; instead, a road accident sent their ailing car careening into Brule Creek, taking their lives with it.
Lou Raguse, an award-winning journalist, has revisited this story of tragedy and shambolic police investigation in his new book Vanished In Vermillion: The Real Story of South Dakota’s Most Infamous Cold Case.
For the book, Raguse spoke at length with the families of the two girls, and Pam's surviving relatives told him of their mixed emotions about Oscar dying five days before Pam's fate was confirmed.
"They had very mixed feelings," said Raguse.
"[Oscar] devoted so much of his life to looking for her and spent so many hours searching ditches and even rivers.”
"So, knowing how much time and energy he put in, searching in the wrong spots. They think that if he had known that she had been that close this whole time, it might have just completely broken him."
He continued: "Pam's parents both lived very long lives and, I believe, even celebrated a 75th wedding anniversary together.”
"They lived a long life before Pam was born and a long one after she disappeared. They were very spiritual people and were able to lead happy lives again, in spite of all that had happened.
"So, it would've been much better to find out what happened to Pam right away. But had he found out in older age, Pam's family believes it would have ruined him."
After years of investigations and a very puzzling case, The deaths of Sherri and Pam were ruled accidental. Any suspicion of foul play or evidence of drugs or alcohol was absent.
One of the car's tires was damaged, and investigators think a blowout may have caused it as the girls crossed a bridge over the creek.
When their remains were identified as Sherri and Pam in April, their families released a four-word statement: "Our Journey Is Done."
