SC woman's purse turns up in Lake Hartwell after vanishing 25 years ago

April Bolt says she left her purse in her husband's boat at a dock along Lake Hartwell back in 1992 as the pair went to eat dinner with her parents. While they were away, she said someone took her purse.

Bolt said she was upset at the discovery mostly because there were pictures in her purse of her son that were one of a kind.

"I was devastated, I was crying," Bolt said. "I knew it was Going to be a lot of work trying to cancel all my credit cards and license. The main thing was my little boy was 15 months old and all his pictures were in there."

It wasn't until 25 years later, in 2017, a family friend of hers was fishing and reeled in an unusually heavy prize - Bolt's purse! Bolt says Ben Meyers and an 11-year-old family member were fishing on the dock when the child reeled in what they thought was a fish.

"I get my net and he gets it to the top of the water, all of a sudden I see it's a purse," Myers explained. "I said 'man you ain't caught no fish, you caught a treasure!'"

Myers opened the purse and recognized Bolt's name and was able to return the purse to her.

Bolt said, aside from the cash, almost everything else was intact, including credit cards to stores that no longer exist and the her son's baby photos. Though they had significant water damage she said she is thrilled to have them back.