FORT DRUM, N.Y. (July 1, 2025) -- The Chaos Divers, a search and recovery dive team, visited Fort Drum’s Remington Pond on July 1 to help an Onondaga County woman on a 26-year search to find her grandfather.
Jacob Grubbs and Lindsay Bussick, Chaos Divers owner and manager, respectively, were joined by Jennifer Wood, whose grandfather, Guy Pyke, went missing on April 2, 1999, along with his 1989 Chevy Blazer.
Wood submitted a request to Fort Drum officials for the Chaos Divers to search Remington Pond for the vehicle using a remote-controlled sonar boat they call the “Little Buddy.”
In the past two years, the Chaos Divers have searched nearby bodies of water around Onondaga Lake and Oneida Lake, going as far as Lake Champlain to cover areas that were familiar to Pyke.
Wood said that most of her grandfather’s family lived in Watertown and LaFargeville, and he spent many summers on the family farm. Her grandfather would fish on post with a cousin who was a Fort Drum civilian employee.
“The last place he was seen was at his cousin’s house on Route 11,” Wood said. “But they did spend a lot of time here, a group of them, fishing and whatever else they did.”
They think Pyke, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, might have become confused while driving to his cousin’s house and mistakenly went onto Fort Drum. Bussick said the park area didn’t have any fencing or barriers at the time that would have prevented Pyke from going into Remington Pond.
“We have found people with Alzheimer’s as far as an hour and half to two hours away from where they were last seen because they are experiencing so much confusion,” Bussick said. “But we know he was familiar with this area, and so we wanted to check this off the list and give Jennifer a little peace of mind.”
Wood said that she was very close with her grandparents, and that she quit her job to care for her grandmother before she died.
“I promised her I’d never give up looking for him,” she said. “And I won’t. Not until we lay him to rest in some way, shape or form.”
In the past four years, the Chaos Divers have recovered 20 missing persons and have assisted 130 families, according to Grubbs. Bussick said they are on the road 200 to 250 days a year working multiple cases at a time. The team documents their work at www.youtube.com/c/ChaosDivers.
“This is our third time searching for Guy, and there is this emotional attachment you have with the family, and you get to know the missing person through their eyes,” Bussick said. “So, it’s extremely heartbreaking in the fact I have to look at somebody and say I did or didn’t find their loved one. But as heartbreaking as the job can be, I can’t imagine doing anything else.”
During the two-hour search in Remington Pond, they were joined by representatives from Fort Drum Directorate of Emergency Services, Garrison Safety Office, Directorate of Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation, and the Office of the Staff Judge Advocate, among other agencies, who were available on site to provide assistance.
“It’s really uplifting to see this level of support and that there are people who are trying to find someone after all this time,” said Rob Derouin, Fort Drum supervisory conservation law enforcement officer.
Even though the Chaos Divers didn’t find anything in the water, Grubbs will review the data they recorded in Remington Pond to see if they might want a second look. Bussick said the work is far from over.
“We make a promise to every family that once we start searching for their loved one, we will come back to them again,” she said. “We live in Southern Illinois, and Pyke is not our only case, but we will always come back, expand our search, until the person is found or the family asks us to stop. The latter has never happened.”
Wood said she remains optimistic.
“I hope for the best, but I also don’t let myself get down,” she said. “Because even if we didn’t find anything today, we still know where he isn’t. So, it turns into a process of elimination, and we’ve done a lot of that so far.”
Wood said she was grateful that they were permitted to spend some time on post looking for her grandfather.
“I really appreciate everything that everyone here has done to make this happen,” Wood said. “It means a lot. Working with Jacob, Lindsey and her husband, I wouldn’t have the answers I have today without them.”
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