Jared Leisek, the founder of Adventures with Purpose, was arrested on January 5 for allegedly raping a child twice in 1992.
Leisek, 47, was booked into Sanpete County jail in Utah after being initially charged in November over the three-decade old crime. It is claimed the girl was a relative aged between nine and ten at the time, while he was seven years her senior.
A court hearing for the case had been scheduled for December but was canceled after YouTubers attempted to livestream the proceedings, which is against state law.
Adventures with Purpose is an Oregon-based volunteer diving search team founded in 2019 that has helped solve at least 23 missing person cases.
Jared Leisek, 47, the founder of Adventures with Purpose, was arrested in early January for the alleged rape of a relative 30 years ago
Adventures with Purpose is a volunteer team of divers that have assisted in at least 23 missing person cases since being founded in 2019
It is unclear if Leisek currently remains in police custody and there was no bail amount listed alongside his booking record.
The alleged rape occurred in 1992 in the victim’s bedroom at the house of a family member of Leisek’s in Utah.
Previous reports indicate that he has since told his alleged victim that he has ‘made peace’ with ‘all things bad’ in his life, ‘including this.’
In an email exchange with the purported victim during which he blamed his family’s history of fringe Mormonism, Leisek allegedly wrote, ‘I am so very sorry for the things that we cannot change.’
‘It is unfortunate that the Leisek and Juhasz lineage experienced the s**t that you, I and many of the other cousins were brought into,’ he continued, making reference to his and another larger family unit.
‘Like yourself, I was once a victim by multiple people both in and out of the family. It is unfortunate when families like ours experience molestation.
‘I have myself tried to apologize to you and to have an open conversation with you about it to answer any questions you may have,’ he allegedly wrote.
The email was signed ‘Jared’ and sent from an official Adventures with Purpose email address.
He added that he has previously attempted to apologize to this family member, ‘not to clear my own conscience, but to help you heal and help with any struggles you may have been having as many of us had to learn how to overcome and move forward.’
He then wrote that making a 46-year-old man ‘live with the mistakes’ of a child is ‘not realistic.’
‘Thank God we are not forever judged for our actions as youth, and I’m grateful that many of us cousins acknowledged and stopped those sins which happened to us and those sins we once committed as a result of grooming,’ he continued.
Notably, the dive team burst open the case of missing teenager Kiely Rodni, who disappeared on her way home from a party over the summer. The crew found her car and body submerged in water
Fans of the group, however, began to note Leisek’s absence from videos in the aftermath of the Rodni discovery and suspected something may be amiss
Adventures with Purpose is an Oregon-based volunteer diving search team that has helped solve at least 23 missing person cases since 2019, several involving children.
The group documents their efforts on their YouTube channel, which has 2.8million subscribers.
Most recently, the group found the body of missing teenager Kiely Rodni, 16, as well as her truck, submerged in water at the end of the summer.
The discovery broke open the missing persons case, which police previously believed may have been an abduction.
According to the group’s YouTube page, they are ‘dedicated to helping families of missing loved ones.’ However, in the wake of Leisek’s arrest, several members have announced their resignations via a series of video statements posted to YouTube.
Doug Bishop, one of the volunteer group’s divers, said that the alleged crime from 30 years ago coming to light has ‘been affecting everybody involved with this’.
Josh Cantu, a content and video editor for the organization, who also quit, said: ‘I will live my life with integrity and morale and knowing that I did the right thing, which I hope you guys can support’.
Leisek’s attorney, Randall Richards, filed in December a motion to dismiss the rape case – though the arguments were sealed.
In 2013, Utah removed its statute of limitations for serious sex crimes, but in some cases, it may be argued that charges for sex crimes committed before the statue of limitations was removed in 2013, should be dropped.
It is not known if this defense is what Leisek’s legal team tried to argue.
Adventures with Purpose: Oregon-based YouTuber who was an eco-warrior cleaning dirty lakes but has now solved 23 missing persons’ cases
Jared Leisek began Adventures with Purpose for fun, to hunt down objects and potentially return them to their owners
The Oregon-based group is a search and rescue dive team, specializing in finding missing people. Their website states they have solved 23 missing persons cases since 2019.
Jared Leisek, the founder, began the YouTube channel as a hobby, recording his adventures as he located cans of soda, cellphones and sunglasses while diving – something he saw as a chance to clean up the environment and find things that others had lost, with the hope of returning them. Leisek found his first submerged car, in Portland, Oregon, by accident. He was then contacted by a family in Warrenton, Missouri, and managed to find the car of Nate Ashby, 22, who vanished in July 2019.
Leisek then paired up with Doug Bishop, who owned a towing company, to start pulling vehicles from the water for environmental purposes. They also used sonar equipment, which Bishop said separates their work from that of law enforcement.
Doug Bishop (left) joined Leisek in his endeavors, and has led the search for Rodni
Bishop told Fox that many police departments may have sonar equipment but may not understand all the technicalities that go along with it. The 10-member group consists of divers and production crew, who film every search and rescue, posting videos on YouTube and other social media pages.
Their services are free for law enforcement and families. They now have 2.42 million subscribers on YouTube, and 1.3 million on Facebook: they are funded by donations, ads on social media, and merchandise sales.
Bishop (left) and Leisek (right) are seen with their equipment, readying for a dive
NOTABLE CASES:
Missouri, December 2019
Their first request was from the family of Nathaniel ‘Nate’ Ashby, who went missing in Warrenton, Missouri, in July 2019. The family found Leisek and Bishop on YouTube, and asked them to come and help. The group found Ashby’s Chevy Silverado in the Missouri River in December 2019.
Leisek told Missouri sheriffs it was probably the most difficult and dangerous operation he had conducted, due to the force of the Missouri River currents. He was also surprised at how quickly the conditions began to deteriorate while he was in the water: the river rose two feet during the nine-hour operation to remove the truck.
Oregon, May 2020
The group set out to recover a car from 80ft below the river in Portland. But they also came across another vehicle, a silver Mazda, which contained the remains of a man who had been missing for 12 years. Timothy Robinson, 56, disappeared in November 2008.
Arkansas, October 2021
The group were dispatched to Russellville, Arkansas, to investigate a tip about the possible remains of a woman who disappeared with her daughter 23 years previously. Samantha Hopper was traveling in her blue Ford Tempo in September 1998 to drop off her daughter, Courtney Holt, before heading to a concert in Little Rock. The car with the pair’s remains was found in eight feet of water in the Illinois Bayou, off of Pleasant View Road.
Texas, January 2022
The group was sent a message, informing them about a missing person case that they felt Adventures with Purpose could help with. Leisek got in touch with Bianca Torres, whose mother, Stephanie, disappeared in Waco in December 2017.
The group began searching near the East Boat Launch of the Brazos Valley, and found the missing 43-year-old. Relatives said she was depressed and suicidal, due to the pain from Fibromyalgia.
