Thanks to aviation archeologist G. Pat Macha, Pete Merlin and Tony Moore obtained some photographs of the P-61C crash site from retired Northrop photographer Roy Wolford. They also found a Sheriff's Aero Detail report about the accident that gave a little bit of information about the site location.

On 10 August 1997, Romano and Michelline Urbat joined Pete and Tony on a search for the crash site. Finding the general area was easy. Using landmarks in the old photos, they narrowed their search area to about a square quarter mile. One important feature, a windmill was apparently gone. This made the search more difficult. The team split into groups of two to cover a wider area.

A local resident, passing on a nearby road, stopped to see what was going on. After seeing the photos, he told Pete and Tony where the windmill used to be. Now able to accurately align the photos, they soon found an area littered with burned and shattered aircraft debris.

One of the first items they found was a piece of aluminum with a tag that read: RADIO CALL 38322. There was no question that this was the P-61C crash site.

A thorough search of the area revealed pieces with Northrop inspection stamps and P-61 part numbers. External components were painted black. There were numerous components from the cockpit instrument panel. Tony even found a piece of the camera that Roy Wolford had been forced to leave behind when he bailed out.