BURLINGTON, N.C. (WGHP) — The body of a missing teen was found in the Haw River in Alamance County on Wednesday, according to the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office.
Officials were searching for 19-year-old Antwain McDaniel who hasn’t been seen since early Sunday morning.
Unidentified human remains were found around 4:20 p.m. near the Travis Creek Bridge at Durham Street Extension. Later on Wednesday night, officials said the body was identified as McDaniel.
According to the ACSO, McDaniel was in a vehicle with friends that crashed Sunday morning at Durham Street Extension and Routh Road in Alamance County. His friends told officials he got out of the car and went into the woods.
The sheriff’s office said that they believed the people in the car were breaking into cars in the area of Robinhood Drive, north of Elon.
At about 3:30 a.m. on Sunday, Alamance County deputies say they responded to a report of suspicious activity on the 3500 block of MacArthur Lane in Elon. Elon police were called in to help.
Elon police responded first to the scene and tried to stop a red Toyota Corolla matching the description of the suspect vehicle, but the vehicle did not pull over.
The car crashed and hit a ditch and a mailbox at the intersection of Routh Road and Durham Street Extension. Four people got out of the car and ran into a nearby wooded area near the Haw River.
It’s unclear who was driving.
Investigators found and arrested one suspect, Eddie Rogers, 18, of Greensboro, near the crash site. He is charged with six counts of felony breaking and entering a motor vehicle and received a $450,000 secured bond.
They were unable to find the three other suspects, identified as McDaniel and Ke’Monte Jikelin Crosby, 19, as well as an unidentified juvenile.
Crosby has been charged with six counts of felony breaking and entering a motor vehicle, and the juvenile faces a juvenile petition for breaking and entering a motor vehicle.
McDaniel has not been charged as investigators are focused on finding him, saying that they believe he is “possibly in distress” and do not believe he is a danger to anyone.
Angela McDaniel, his mother, spoke during the presser as well. She described the experience as “hell,” saying that she was struggling to know how to talk to his younger siblings and that she had already lost a son a year and a half ago.
She said she had spoken to him on Saturday and felt like something was wrong the next morning when he hadn’t checked in with her yet, and his friend asked him if she had heard from him. She said that his friends said that they got into the river after running from the police and they lost track of each other.
“I just want to be able to put my hands on my baby.”
Alamance County Emergency Management officials put a boat in the Haw River on Tuesday after using drones to attempt to find him on Sunday and Monday.
The search resumed Wednesday morning with investigators searching the banks of the river, and drones being used as well, but the dense woods and swift-moving river make the search difficult.
