REDMOND — Jared Leisek, a former residential developer in Redmond, decided three years ago to reconnect with his passion for scuba diving and use his underwater skills to remove debris from the Deschutes River.

Leisek cleared thousands of pounds of trash from the water in one year and then started to find unusual items, such as guns and vehicles. In 2019 he even found an urn filled with ashes that was accidentally dropped in the river seven years earlier.

He filmed his findings and posted them on the YouTube channel Adventures with Purpose with the help of his wife and two daughters. Eventually, Leisek gained an audience that has now reached more than 1 million subscribers.

People started asking him to travel the country to help recover sunken vehicles and bodies. To date, Leisek estimates he’s recovered seven bodies and found more than 100 vehicles.

His effort to help the environment morphed into a national effort to solve cold cases of missing people and vehicles.

“It’s a trajectory I never thought would have taken me here when I started getting in the water,” Leisek said.

Leisek, 45, travels for a month or two at a time with his family and a few volunteers to do water recoveries. He’s been to Kansas, Iowa and as far east as New Jersey.

The scuba diving recoveries have become a full-time job for Leisek who relies on donations, volunteers and income from his YouTube channel.

Last month, Leisek and his crew were able to assist law enforcement officials in Portland and recover the body of 57-year-old Antonio Amaro-Lopez, who died after driving his car off the Glenn Jackson Bridge in a winter storm.

Leisek said he finds submerged vehicles using two sonar systems and three different screens while floating slowly at 1 to 2 mph in a small boat.

“I have my little inflatable boat that I have decked out with sonar to be able to pinpoint a vehicle,” Leisek said. “Antonio was inside (his car) and they were able to bring Antonio home that night.”

Leisek said recoveries involving bodies are humbling and he becomes emotionally invested with the families of the deceased. He is honored to be the person to bring a resolution.

“It comes down to being able to do something that others cannot and to give answers to families who would never receive those answers,” Leisek said.

Sarah Clark, an owner of Central Oregon Diving in Bend, said her company helped Leisek start diving locally three years ago. The company offered Leisek air and gear at a discount as he kept finding trash in the Deschutes River, Clark said.

“We’ve been there supporting him with whatever we could do to further his environmental impact,” Clark said.

Clark is amazed Leisek went from picking up soda cans to recovering cars and solving cold cases. She is impressed with how Leisek connects with the people he helps and shows compassion with every search in the water.

“He would do anything for anybody,” Clark said. “He’s made that his mission.”

Leisek admits finding the bodies takes an emotional toll on him. He also feels a burden by not being able to help every family in need who reaches out through his YouTube channel.

“The burden is we have hundreds of people who reach out, who are now looking to us,” Leisek said. “It’s me having to tell these families no.”

Despite the difficulties, Leisek has no plans to stop searching in the rivers and lakes in Central Oregon and across the country.

“The entire thing is a very humbling experience,” he said. “We honor that and don’t take that lightly.”