Editing The Finders (movement) (section)

== Later history ==
After the allegations were dropped the group took a lower profile.<ref name="Melton2009" /><ref name="PrometheusBooks2002" /> In 1996, Pettie appeared in court to declare that he did not know the location of a briefcase containing about $2 million worth of the Finders' land [[Deed of gift|deeds of gift]]. He said it was kept by other members of the group.<ref name="Culp960209" /> Former members of the group claimed that the group had been dissolved and that the assets were held by Pettie; he denied this.<ref name="Culp960209" />

As of 1999, the group still existed.<ref name="Miller2002" /> Academic [[Timothy Miller]], as part of his investigation into 1960s counterculture communes, noted that "The Finders [...] seems to delight in not giving out information (or at least accurate information) about itself and is similarly veiled in mystery."<ref name="Miller2002" />

Pettie died on October 24, 2003.<ref name="Champion 2004 p. A5">{{cite news |last=Champion |first=Allison Brophy |date=August 23, 2004 |title=Foundation focused on theater restoration |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-progress-foundation-focused-on/128364169/ |newspaper=The Daily Progress |page=A5 |language=en-US |publication-place=Charlottesville |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |archive-date=July 17, 2023 |access-date=July 17, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230717033836/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-progress-foundation-focused-on/128364169/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2019, the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] released hundreds of documents related to The Finders, noting on the FBI Vault website that it was their most requested topic.<ref name="Schweers2019"/> 
The Finders have been described as an example of the [[Satanic panic]] in the United States, and some authors have described the conspiracy theories regarding the 1987 sexual abuse investigation as the origin of other conspiratorial beliefs regarding United States intelligence services complicity in child sexual abuse.<ref name="Theisen2019" /><ref name="Sword2023" />