Question: Who found the original tapes?

I'm assuming probably just the cops or something since they knew Heather, Josh and Mike were missing (Heather and James' family probably called the cops and told them they were worried so the cops went down and found the tapes during their search)

Curse of the Blair Witch states that an anthropology class from the local university went out to do a dig in the woods. At the foundation of the Parr house (which was burned down after his execution) one of the students heard a strange rustling sound so they checked it out and found the backpack containing all the tapes, film reels, Heather's diary, etc. According to the professor, none of the stones or dirt underneath the foundation was disturbed. He said that it was like it had "materialized there" and that it would be difficult even for a forensic expert to get the footage in there without disturbing anything.