Helo & Sub<\/a> diving team, were notified of the Combs case two years ago by Sarah Scalia, a Flagler cold case detective. Utilizing side-scan sonar, Fleming and Schurtz spent the past couple of years searching in more than 300 bodies of water between Combs\u2019 house to the store where she worked, along with adjacent roadways and neighborhoods.\u00a0<\/p>\nAfter an exhaustive search, last October provided a small breakthrough. The divers found car parts, a spring and bumper, that matched Combs\u2019 1996 Dodge Neon in the Intracoastal Waterway. It was a small glimmer of hope that kept the veterans searching.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSince Oct. 29, we\u2019ve had one mantra,\u201d Fleming said. \u201cVern and I would look at each other and say, \u2018One bone, one bone.\u2019 We just need one bone for DNA. We need to prove that this is her, that she\u2019s in the vehicle.\u201d<\/p>\n
Combs\u2019 case drew the attention of both the Federal Bureau of Investigations Underwater Search and Evidence Response Team in Miami and the Jacksonville Evidence Response Team. On Feb. 3, National Missing Persons Day, both groups teamed with Fleming and Shurtz, along with Flagler County deputies, on a three-day mission to try to recover Combs\u2019 remains. Even if they found the vehicle, there was no guarantee any part of her body would still be in or near the car.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Entering the overturned, decomposed vehicle via a broken driver\u2019s side window, the divers dredged and sucked up mud and debris into buckets on shore.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t take long to find what they were searching for. Within hours, divers recovered a pelvic bone in the car.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAt that point in time, everybody knew that, yes, we are here and we are having a recovery, and we\u2019re going to be able to bring someone\u2019s loved one home,\u201d Shurtz said.<\/p>\n
Besides finding additional car parts, investigators discovered Combs\u2019 Florida driver\u2019s license, a size 7 shoe that matched her shoe size, bones with a metal plate intact from an ankle surgery, toys and a child\u2019s seat that Natasha Harper, Combs\u2019 daughter, said belong to her. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Shurtz said all organizations working together made the recovery possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody was determined to do all that they could to bring the remains of Mary Lou Combs home,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was one of the most impressive things I\u2019ve ever seen.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mired in murky saltwater and muck for 22 years, the Dodge Neon was terribly corroded, adding another challenge for divers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you touch the metal, it just disintegrated into paper, and we realized we were going to need a different tactic,\u201d Fleming said. \u201cNo one would have thought that car could have gone 180 feet upstream in the current. It\u2019s changed the way we look at cases; you have to go above and beyond the normal search pattern.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/rescue_divers_2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Veterans Ken Fleming and Vern Schutz volunteered their diving services to recover the remains of Mary Lou Combs. (Recon Dive Recovery)<\/p>\n
DNA Must Confirm It\u00a0<\/p>\n
While the boatload of physical evidence \u201cstrongly suggests\u201d the remains are Combs,\u2019 Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly said the county medical examiner\u2019s findings, along with DNA analysis, will make the final determination.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Based on evidence, Staly said it\u2019s possible Combs drove off the roadway by accident, plunging into the Intracoastal near the end of 18th Road, however the investigation is ongoing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While the findings are still not 100 percent concrete, the evidence provides some relief for Combs\u2019 family.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re forever grateful that we can finally say goodbye,\u201d Harper said at a press conference. \u201cThank you to everyone that has played a part in this blessing. May our mother rest in paradise.\u201d<\/p>\n
Support Needed\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Combs\u2019 investigation is the seventh cold case Fleming and Shurtz have helped close. While their volunteer work is unpaid, both see it as a mission to help grieving families while continuing their commitment to service.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cGrief is love sent without a destination,\u201d Fleming said. \u201cWe like to bring that home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Through community support and donations, Fleming and Shurtz can keep doing what they love, but with more families asking for help, funding is needed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are self-funded, we are broke,\u201d Fleming said. \u201cWe\u2019re doing this out of our own grocery money all the time. I\u2019ve got five families that want us to come to their jurisdictions right now. We have to fix our equipment before we can fuel up and go to the next one, so if they could support us, that would be incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been more than 22 years since Mary Lou Combs went missing in Flagler Beach, Florida, but thanks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176203,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-176202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/rescue_divers_3.jpg\")
<\/p>\n