Members from Adventures with Purpose have quit following child rape allegations against their co-founder.
If you’re not aware, Adventures with Purpose is an Oregon-based search and rescue dive team founded in 2019 by Jared Leisek (pictured in the main image above) and Sam Ginn (not pictured). According to their YouTube about page, they are “dedicated to helping families of missing loved ones,” recently gaining national attention following their discovery of missing teen Kiely Rodni’s body back in August. However, the team — or more specifically, co-founder Leisek — has made headlines again after being accused of a 1992 child rape.
Related: AWP Finds Body Of Man Missing For Nearly 20 Years
The shocking news came to light last Saturday, with details claiming the female victim was a relative of Leisek’s, between the ages of nine and ten — seven years younger than Leisek at the time of the assaults, according to the U.S. Sun, who acquired the criminal complaint. Court documents revealed Leisek allegedly raped the young girl two times in her bedroom at their family member’s home in Utah over 30 years ago. The criminal charges were officially filed last Friday in Sanpete County Court in Utah. Now, members from the AWP team are speaking out.
Volunteer diver Doug Bishop (pictured in the top left inset) initially addressed the situation in a Tuesday YouTube video, explaining:
“What happened 30 years ago has come to light and it’s been affecting everybody involved with this… There’s a lot of legal things that have to play out… I’m just as heartbroken.”
Now, two more members have spoken out, revealing they will be stepping away from AWP altogether. Josh Cantu (pictured in the top right inset), who worked behind-the-scenes for the team since last year, revealed a vid of his own that same day:
“I have officially resigned from being part of the search team, which I don’t need to mention — it’s pretty obvious — that I have been a part of in the past. I will live my life with integrity and morale and knowing that I did the right thing, which I hope you guys can support.”
He added:
“There’s some things that have been brought to the light that the team and I were not aware of, and not aware of until very, very recently, and we’re not okay with it and it has created this avalanche of momentum, which it should have when it needed to against certain things that allegedly happened with someone we trusted.”
See the lengthy video (below):
Videographer Carson McMaster (pictured in the bottom right inset) later explained in a Wednesday video:
“I would like everyone to know I am no longer a part of adventures with purpose. I have left the company because of personal reasons for moral obligations.”
Related: Casey Anthony Gives First Interview In More Than A Decade
He continued:
“This is pretty much all I have to say amongst the subject matter. As far as everything I have learned this past year, it has been a pleasure working with really amazing people, but sometimes things just have to come to an end.”
Carson added:
“Thank you for your support, we will see what happens in the future.”
See (below):
All the members revealed they were not allowed to talk specifics about the allegations. We imagine more information is likely to come soon. Such a sad revelation for a team that did so much good work. We hope justice will be served. Let us know your thoughts on the matter in the comments (below).
[Images via Adventures with Purpose/Instagram, Doug Bishop, Josh Cantu, & Carson McMaster/YouTube]
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