Researchers are trading in the Missouri woods to explore secrets in the Amazon rainforest.
ST. LOUIS — Forest Park is far from the Amazon rainforest, but that's where 5 On Your Side met research archaeologists Dr. Daniel Pierce and Chris Bodine.
While both call Springfield home working at Missouri State, they both have St. Louis roots. Dr. Pierce grew up near Arnold and Bodine lived in Tower Grove while he went to St. Louis University.
Together, Pierce and Bodine formed the Terra Incognita Research Institute. In their lab, they've identified clues to what may be hidden in the vines and canopy of the jungle.
"We've found some large manmade features like geometric designs," Pierce said, "evidence of a large-scale permanent settlement of a complex civilization that nobody knew was there."
Using LiDAR, the team has identified possible roads, buildings and trails.
"LiDAR is a sensor that you attach to an airplane or a drone and it shoots laser pulses towards the surface of the earth," explained Bodine. He says LiDAR can be used to make highly detailed maps, "with different codes and you can remove the trees or the leaves or the buildings and leave just the bare ground and it allows you to see what is underneath the trees."
Virtually peeling away the forest, Pierce and Bodine think they've found a lost city the Amazon. Now they have to prove it.
"Somewhere in the middle of the Amazon," Bodine outlined the expedition, "then up the river several hundred miles, then once we get up the river we're going to go into the jungle several more miles and try and confirm what we've seen through satellite imagery."
The goal and dream for Pierce is "to be the first to ever identify an entire culture that lived there."
Bodine says the mission goes beyond bragging rights: "For the native peoples in Brazil in particular and the Amazon, because of the rubber tappers and the illegal loggers, it's a way for them to prove they have sovereignty over the land, that they were there and they own it and that they own the rights to the land."
If proven, their discovery could also rewrite world history.
"The Amazon probably didn't exist in the form it exists today and it may have looked more like Missouri," theorized Bodine.
Pierce and Bodine are working with limited research dollars and have started a crowd funding campaign to complete their expedition.
Click here to donate.
A military judge sentenced Pvt. Deron Gordon to over six years in prison for sexually assaulting a college student.
JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. — A Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldier who sexually assaulted a college student in the barracks in 2024 was sentenced to more than six years in prison Friday.
A military judge sentenced Pvt. Deron Gordon, 20, to six years and three months in prison after he pleaded guilty to one specification each of sexual assault, abusive sexual contact and as a principal to indecent recording.
Gordon was previously charged with additional crimes, but those were dismissed as part of the plea agreement.
Gordon is one of four soldiers who were charged in in connection to the sexual assault of a college student, who is now a commissioned Army officer, in October 2024.
When Gordon pleaded guilty, he said that he and another soldier followed the college student into a bedroom after she had been drinking with them. He said she was unstable walking into the room and when they went inside she was on the bed and not responsive.
Gordon said he and the other soldier each proceeded to have sex with her and they filmed each other sexually assaulting her on Snapchat.
As part of his sentencing, Gordon will be reduced in rank to E-1 and dishonorably discharged from the Army.
Gordon will serve the remainder of his sentencing at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Once he is released, Gordon must register as a sex offender.
The three other soldiers who were charged in the incident are at different points in the legal process, and their cases are being treated separately.
If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673. Additional resources are available on the Washington State Department of Health's website.
KING 5’s Conner Board contributed to this report.
