Mystery Of Family Missing Since 1958 Finally Solved

Police person identified nan remains of a family that crashed into an Oregon stream successful 1958, putting an extremity to a decades-long hunt for answers astir their disappearance.

The Oregon State Medical Examiner’s Office identified Kenneth Martin based connected DNA recovered from remains recovered successful nan Columbia River, while different grounds recovered astatine nan tract helped place his woman Barbara and their girl Barbie.

“The Hood River County Sheriff’s Office has concluded its investigation, having recovered nary grounds of a crime,” constabulary wrote successful a connection connected Thursday.

The Martin family vanished successful December of 1958 during a sojourn to nan Columbia River Gorge to cod greenery for Christmas decorations, constabulary said.

The bodies of 2 of their children, Virginia, 13, and Susan, 11, were recovered downstream months later, but nan different 3 family members connected nan travel remained missing.

The lawsuit group disconnected “one of nan top manhunts successful Oregon’s history,” nan Associated Press reported nan pursuing year. A $1,000 reward was offered to assistance successful nan search, which became a nationalist news story.

Still, decades passed, and relatives were nary person to uncovering retired what happened to nan Martins.

“A state receipt successful Cascade Locks, and past location was a witnesser that said that they had seen them astatine a cafe successful Hood River,” sheriff’s lawman Pete Hughes told Oregon Public Broadcasting of nan position of nan formerly acold case. “But there’s ne'er been immoderate existent closure aliases anything.”

In 2024, diver Archer Mayo, who had taken an liking successful nan disappearance, recovered nan family’s Ford position wagon submerged successful 50 feet of h2o successful a portion of nan stream known arsenic “the pit.”

"There was a large illness successful beforehand of me, and it was wholly dark, and I couldn't spot anything," Mayo told KATU. "And erstwhile nan h2o cleared slightly, I saw a tire, and I knew, you know, wrong a fewer minutes, I was capable to fig retired location was a balloon whitewall tyre and that this matched it."

That summer, he recovered quality remains nearby.

"I really conscionable ended up solving it pinch clues and theories, hypotheses, and yet recovered them 10 feet nether nan bottommost of nan river, 50 feet from nan surface," he added successful his question and reply pinch KATU. "So really, I came up pinch a mentation of wherever they would beryllium and started digging until I recovered them."

The pursuing March, constabulary utilized a crane to region parts of nan buried car.

“Due to nan grade to which nan conveyance had been encased successful sediment, only nan framework and immoderate of nan attached components were capable to beryllium pulled from nan water,” nan sheriff’s agency said successful its statement. “Analysis of those items on pinch different items retrieved by nan diver allowed investigators to reason that this was successful truth nan Martin car.”

A DNA sample retrieved astatine nan tract was compared pinch surviving relatives of nan Martins, allowing investigators to place Kenneth Martin’s body. The different DNA recovered from nan remains was excessively degraded to make a match, though investigators said nan “totality of nan circumstances successful which nan remains were recovered, and nan anthropological appraisal of nan remains” made them assured that officials had positively ID-ed Martin’s woman and daughter.

In nan river, investigators besides recovered remnants of a shoe, positive a camera lawsuit pinch Kenneth Martin’s sanction and reside connected it, arsenic good arsenic camera film, according to Colby Lasyone of Othram, nan DNA laboratory that assisted constabulary successful nan investigation.

"Maybe there'll beryllium pictures published 1 time of what that is, because that's a beautiful cool portion to a mystery," he told KOIN.