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E270: The Martin Family
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On December 7, 1958, the Martin family of Portland, Oregon—Kenneth, Barbara, and their three daughters—set off for a Sunday drive to gather Christmas greenery. They were never seen alive again. What began as a cheerful holiday tradition ended in one of the most baffling disappearances in Oregon history. Was it a tragic accident on the winding roads of the Columbia River Gorge? Or was something far more sinister at play—something involving suspicious sightings, ex-convicts, and a stolen gun? Decades later, new discoveries raise even more questions. What really happened to the Martins—and why did the river keep their secrets for so long?
For additional information about this case, make sure to read J.B. Fisher’s book Echo of Distant Water, available HERE.
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Transcript
Childhood Summer Memories
00:00:00
Speaker
Summertime as a child brings back so many memories. I think of lemonade stands, likely something I saw on shows like Punky Brewster, which I always thought were going to make me rich.
00:00:11
Speaker
I think of going to yard sales with my granny where I would buy comic books and someone else's old toys that were new treasures to me. I think of sitting on the porch eating slices of watermelon with the juice dripping down my chin.
00:00:24
Speaker
I think of my grandma making milkshakes to store in a thermos until we were done playing at the playground near the town lake. I think of family reunions and going out to my Aunt Shorty's farm to visit on lazy afternoons.
The Martin Family's Community Spirit
00:00:37
Speaker
The family at the center of our case this week, it seems, had a lot of memories like my own, even though theirs were made decades earlier. They were the kind of family you'd hope would live next door, the kind that handed out popsicles in summer to neighborhood kids since they had the only icebox in the neighborhood.
00:00:54
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They took those same kids for rides in their car, equipped with aftermarket seatbelts after all, and taught them how to ride their bikes.
The Disappearance of the Martin Family
00:01:02
Speaker
They hosted neighborhood talent shows and built and painted large wooden candy canes to pass out to neighbors at Christmas so they could all put them in their yards, earning their road the festive nickname Candy Lane.
00:01:16
Speaker
The father dressed up as a convincing Santa. They were a family full of festive cheer and goodwill. They sounded like the most typical 1950s family one can imagine, and not one you'd expect to see filling the headlines because they went missing.
00:01:34
Speaker
But that's exactly what happened. This is the case of the Martin family.
00:02:13
Speaker
Welcome to Coffee and Cases, where we like our coffee hot and our cases cold.
Hosts and Mission Introduction
00:02:18
Speaker
My name is Allison Williams. And my name is Maggie Dameron. We will be telling stories each week in the hopes that someone out there with any information concerning the cases will take those tips to law enforcement so justice and closure can be brought to these families.
00:02:32
Speaker
With each case, we encourage you to continue in the conversation on our Facebook page, Coffee in Cases Podcast, because, as we all know, conversation helps to keep the missing person in the public consciousness, helping keep their memories alive.
00:02:45
Speaker
So sit back, sip your coffee, and listen to what's brewing this week. Before I begin this episode, I want to give a huge thanks to reporter Ann Sullivan of The Oregonian, who brought this case back to the spotlight in the 1980s, and to author J.B. Fisher and his book, Echo of Distant Water, from which nearly all of my research came.
00:03:08
Speaker
He tirelessly gathered detective notes, interviewed family, combed newspapers, read archives, and put all of it together into the narrative that you will partially hear in this episode.
00:03:20
Speaker
Should you like to learn even more about this case, I highly recommend that you check out his book. It will be linked in our show notes. And with that, let's begin.
The Martin Family Before the Disappearance
00:03:33
Speaker
December 7th, 1958 dawned warmer than usual in Portland, Oregon. At the Martin home, affectionately called Martin Manor, as their custom signs dated, the signs of Christmas joy were everywhere.
00:03:48
Speaker
Kenneth Martin, age 54, had draped his Santa Claus costume over a chair from the party he and his wife Barbara, age 48, had attended the night before. The fireplace crackled with nutshells and candy wrappers, evidence of an enjoyed Christmas fruit gift basket.
00:04:05
Speaker
Their daughters, Barbie, age 14, Virginia, age 13, and Susan, called Susie, age 11, lounged with comics and books, content. They were gearing up for Christmas, had made plans to put out their wooden candy cane that day, and to go in search of the perfect greenery to decorate their home for the upcoming holiday.
00:04:26
Speaker
They loved this time of year. But someone was missing that day, Donald Martin, the couple's eldest child, age 28, who was stationed at Fort Schuyler in New York as a Navy corpsman.
00:04:40
Speaker
David was a more complicated figure in the family structure, bright, reserved, and fiercely independent. His relationship with his parents had grown strained over time. After he had made the move out east, he wasn't the best at calling home to keep in touch either. And I personally can't say anything because I am horrible about this also.
00:05:01
Speaker
Things were a little tense between Donald and his parents, and beneath that tension were some family secrets. Secrets that would come to matter in unexpected and troubling ways very soon.
00:05:17
Speaker
That morning of December 7th, the girls' cousins, the Evans family, stopped by around 10.30 and visited for a couple of hours. As was custom, as they were leaving, they invited the Martins for Sunday dinner.
00:05:29
Speaker
But Barbara Martin declined, explaining that they had other plans, a trip, quote, up the highway, end quote, to gather Christmas greenery. They were going to make wreaths.
00:05:41
Speaker
When pressed about supper again a few minutes later, Kenneth, Mr. Martin, only added cryptically, quote, we better stick to the plan, end quote. As I mentioned earlier, it was an unusually warm day for December with temperatures in the mid-50s.
00:05:57
Speaker
It seemed like the perfect opportunity to collect fresh evergreen foliage. And the Martin family loved such outings, often making trips to the Oregon coast or to the Cascades, always soaking in the beauty of the Pacific Northwest.
00:06:12
Speaker
By early afternoon on the 7th, after the Evanses had left, the Martin family loaded into their 1954 cream and red Ford station wagon. It was sometime between noon and 2 p.m.
00:06:25
Speaker
Barbara packed snacks and moved some frozen hamburger to the sink to thaw, just in case they made it home in time to make a late supper and didn't eat at a diner somewhere along the way.
00:06:37
Speaker
The girls scrambled into the back seat. They were seen leaving their driveway, smiling, waving to neighborhood friends, embarking on what should have been a brief but happy trip.
00:06:50
Speaker
But things were about to change drastically. Monday morning, the next day, December 8th, arrived with the usual weekday rush for most families in Portland.
00:07:01
Speaker
But something felt off for those who knew the Martins. At the offices of Eccles Electric, Kenneth Martin's absence caused immediate alarm. He was the kind of man who prided himself on punctuality, someone who believed that being early was being on time.
00:07:17
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So when 8 a.m. came and went without a sign of Kenneth Martin, his boss, the owner of the company, Taylor Eccles, began to worry. He made a few calls.
00:07:28
Speaker
Nothing. No answer at the Martin home. No word from Kenneth. A seed of unease began to take root, especially since Kenneth had an important 8 a.m. meeting that he had now not shown up for either.
00:07:43
Speaker
Meanwhile, at the local schools, the Martin girls were also marked absent. Barbie, Virginia, and Susie had never been ones to skip. Teachers knew them as bright, dependable, eager to learn.
00:07:56
Speaker
Their absence was reported, but without a note or call from Barbara Martin, concerns slowly escalated into dread. Barbara always called the schools to let them know if they were going to take an extended weekend trip or if the girls were ill.
00:08:09
Speaker
Something was wrong. By that evening, Edward Lenz, a close friend of the Martins, could no longer ignore his anxiety, especially after he heard from Taylor Eccles that Kenneth had missed an important meeting.
00:08:23
Speaker
Around 9.30 p.m. on December 8th, he made the call that would change everything. He reported the Martin family missing. Officers responded quickly, driving out to 1715 Northeast 57th Avenue to check the home.
00:08:38
Speaker
They arrived around 11 p.m. What they found only deepened the mystery. The house was quiet, too quiet, but there was no sign of forced entry, no broken windows, no overturned furniture.
00:08:50
Speaker
Everything was in its place and the doors were locked. Luckily, law enforcement were able to contact Kenneth Martin's sister, Charlotte Dorsey, who lived just a short distance away, and she was able to unlock the home with her house key.
00:09:04
Speaker
She and her husband, along with the local police, entered the Martin home around 11.05 p.m.
00:09:10
Speaker
Inside, the home looked as though the family had just stepped out for a short errand. A package of ground beef sat in the kitchen, a puddle of pink liquid around it now beginning to spoil.
00:09:21
Speaker
Dishes still drying on the rack glistened in the kitchen light. In the living room, comics lay open on the couch. The Santa suit still lay draped on a chair, and remnants of nut shells and candy wrappers were still lying in the fireplace.
00:09:35
Speaker
Nothing was packed. There were no suitcases, no overnight bags. Barbara hadn't left instructions for anyone. There were no signs of distress, no goodbye notes, no evidence of a planned extended departure.
00:09:47
Speaker
And there were also no signs of foul play, only silence. It became it increasingly clear whatever had happened that prevented the family from returning home, it wasn't planned.
00:10:00
Speaker
The Martins had expected to return that night. They had intended to cook dinner, to finish their comics. But something had interrupted those plans. Police initiated a formal missing persons investigation immediately.
00:10:16
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Patrols drove through neighborhoods and officers retraced what little was known of the family's intended route. But at this early stage, it was like chasing shadows. The Martins had vanished and at this point, there was nothing, no leads, no sightings, no vehicle to anchor the investigation.
00:10:34
Speaker
And so in the days that followed, a terrifying question began to echo across the city. How does an and entire family just disappear? At first, authorities searched Larch Mountain, where family believed the Martins often went for Christmas greenery.
00:10:51
Speaker
It seemed the most logical place, but days passed and no sign of the car or its passengers were found. Around this time, police were getting calls, ah but this was about an abandoned vehicle just east of Cascade Locks near Trotters Point.
00:11:07
Speaker
Tons of people actually called about the car because it was noticeable, with its fancy hubcaps, a tank full of gas, aftermarket fenders, and keys left in the ignition.
00:11:19
Speaker
But it wasn't the Martin's car. It was 1951 white Chevrolet sedan. The car would remain there until December 18th, when it was finally towed. And when it was, it would yield even more clues, possibly connected to the Martin family's disappearance.
00:11:38
Speaker
By Tuesday morning, December 9th, the headlines of the Oregonian read, Mountain Searched for Family. Only about a mile and a half up Larch Mountain was a place called Martin's Acreage, where one could buy Christmas trees.
00:11:52
Speaker
Witnesses there stated that they saw a woman and three daughters that they believed to be the Martins. The girls had ferns that they had gathered. But had they gone to this mountain and gotten both ferns and even perhaps a tree, that would have achieved the purpose of the trip and meant that they then should have driven back home.
00:12:10
Speaker
But the next potential sighting of the Martins was in the opposite direction, due east instead of due west back toward their home in Portland. Had they headed home at this point, they likely would have gotten home around 3.45 4
00:12:27
Speaker
Larch Mountain was a 45-minute drive from their home, and Mr. Martin, we know, disliked driving in the dark. Since they didn't make it home, where had they gone, and why had they traveled east?
00:12:43
Speaker
Charlotte Dorsey, Ken's sister, continued to check the mail while her family was initially missing and being searched for. And on December 23rd, she saw an envelope with a credit card bill inside.
00:12:57
Speaker
The charge was from Dean's Chevron service station in Cascade Locks, 40 miles east of Portland. Mr. Martin had bought five gallons of gas on Sunday, December seventh
00:13:12
Speaker
On December 18th, the abandoned sedan was finally towed and investigated. It was tied to an ex-con named Lester Kenneth Price, who had, quote-unquote, borrowed the car to come back to Hood River to visit his wife and child.
00:13:28
Speaker
Based on other reports, he had returned, along with his friend, another ex-con named Roy Light. Then came another tip at the end of December 1958. Clara York, a waitress at the Paradise Snack Bar in Hood River, 20 miles further east from Cascade Locks, clearly remembered serving a family of five matching the Martins' descriptions that same afternoon of December 7th, sometime around 4.15 4.30 p.m.
00:14:01
Speaker
She remembered that the girls had burgers and fries, that Mr. Martin had insisted that they drink milk instead of the soda that they had wanted. Clara remembered it vividly because the restaurant had been nearly empty, just the Martins, and two strange men seated a few booths away.
00:14:22
Speaker
Those men left right around the same time as the Martins, headed in the same direction. She recalled them driving west as they would have done had the Martins been heading back to Portland.
00:14:36
Speaker
If these two men were the ex-cons linked to the abandoned car, now you see why the car could be connected to the Martins' disappearance.
00:14:48
Speaker
The story that the abandoned car could be linked was run in the media on December 28, 1958. In an article from December 29, 1958, in the Oregonian, the reporter interviewed the one surviving family member, Don, who had been in New York at the time.
00:15:07
Speaker
He told the reporter, quote, I'm convinced they're all dead. They led good lives, father, mother, and my three sisters. What else can I say? End quote.
00:15:18
Speaker
Now, I don't know about you, but that comment seems a little strange, especially so early in the investigation. i get that we're now about three weeks from their disappearance.
00:15:34
Speaker
but I feel like family tend to hold out hope longer than anyone else in a lot of cases. It could be the case that Don is just realistic or pessimistic, but we'll come back to him later.
00:15:49
Speaker
This next piece of information was submitted directly to the FBI. Kelsey and Doris Knudsen were out for a sightseeing drive on December 7th when they noticed a light-colored station wagon heading west toward Portland from around the area of the Paradise Snack Bar at around 4.30 p.m.
00:16:08
Speaker
They mentioned that the station wagon was traveling at a very fast speed. About 20 minutes later, they passed an area near Cascade Locks called Trotter's Point, where they saw the station wagon pulled over to the side of the road, and the two people in the front seat were sitting very close together.
00:16:28
Speaker
Remember, this location of Trotter's Point is also where the abandoned sedan had been reported by so many on December eighth Not long after the couple saw the station wagon matching the descriptions of the Martins' car pulled over to the side, a car with very bright headlights pulled up right behind them as they drove.
00:16:49
Speaker
And even though the Knutzen's repeatedly signaled for this car to pass, they wouldn't. Eventually the car did and sped off ahead of them into the night.
00:17:00
Speaker
It was just a few more minutes later when the Knutsans arrived at Cascade Lock and saw the station wagon again, the one matching the Martins, pulled over to the side of the road, this time under a bridge called the Bridge of the Gods.
00:17:15
Speaker
This had to be the car that had bright lighted them and then sped past. They reported that this time, there were two young men standing outside of the car, talking to the people inside of it.
00:17:28
Speaker
But Kelsey and Doris Knudsen continued west towards Portland, their destination, and didn't see the cars again afterward. Could those two individuals have been the two ex-cons, Lester Kenneth Price and Roy Light?
00:17:44
Speaker
And were those the exact same two men whom the waitress, Clara York, saw at the Paradise Snack Bar when the family she believed to be the Martins were there and who had left at roughly the same time headed in the same direction?
00:18:00
Speaker
Despite any indication that there could be a connection, local law enforcement quickly determined that what happened to the Martins, it was just likely a tragic accident.
00:18:10
Speaker
After all, we had Mr. Martin who disliked driving at night when it was hard to see. We also had in some of the higher elevations, still some slick sludge on the winding roads. Many of the roads lacked guardrails.
00:18:23
Speaker
So in the minds of local law enforcement, the Martins likely had a tragic accident where they went off road and into the river on their way home. But there were some individuals who weren't willing to close the case so quickly.
00:18:38
Speaker
Much of the law enforcement work, the effective work anyway, was beginning in 1959 led by one man, Walter Graven, who refused to give up his fight for law enforcement to recognize this case as potentially foul play and not an open and shut obvious accident.
00:18:58
Speaker
Any time, though, that he would try to express his opinion, local law enforcement shut him down. In addition to all of the details that I've already shared with you, in January 1959, a.38 caliber pistol was discovered not far from where the abandoned car had been found, under a rock at Cascade Locks.
00:19:19
Speaker
A man had seen something glimmering from underneath a rock and had discovered the gun. It was discovered with dried blood on it, and its butt appeared to have been used to bludgeon something as it was damaged.
00:19:33
Speaker
Only one bullet had been discharged with the casing still jammed in the chamber, which can happen during a struggle. When the police were made aware of the gun though, they unbelievably didn't process it for evidence.
00:19:47
Speaker
They didn't check the blood, they didn't swab for prints. Instead, they wrote down the serial number, then handed it back to the man who found it, finders keepers.
00:19:58
Speaker
Can you imagine all that potential evidence just gone? Surprisingly, even though we could have many more answers today had they taken the gun into evidence, the little that law enforcement did was enough to discover something crucial only a few months later, thanks to Detective Graven's work.
00:20:22
Speaker
What Graven didn't know yet was that police were also shutting down the opinions of another man named Donald Bain, who said he was friends with the Martins and who had never stopped looking for them.
00:20:35
Speaker
In February 1959, Bain noticed some tire tracks in the Dales near the Harvey Aluminum Plant. But this wouldn't have been an area the Martins would have willingly driven to. It was not on a direct path to their home.
00:20:48
Speaker
It was too far off the main road to have been an accident as a result of swerving off a road or hitting a patch of ice. And it was nowhere near a place to find Christmas greens. The tire tracks Bain frowned went right to the edge of a cliff.
00:21:03
Speaker
And leaning over, he saw cream colored paint that had scraped off on boulders by something on the way down. He tried to tell police immediately what he had found, but they refused to listen to him, saying in essence, nope, there aren't any Christmas trees here. They didn't come here. And those statements, it just shows how quick local law enforcement were to believe what happened to the Martins was a tragic accident and nothing else.
00:21:34
Speaker
Well, Bain kept going until he found Detective Graven, who also refused to ignore all of the signs that pointed to a potential murder as opposed to an accident.
00:21:49
Speaker
Graven pressed authorities to send divers to the waters below, but the Columbia River was treacherous. Strong currents, poor visibility, and frigid temperatures made every dive a risk.
00:22:02
Speaker
Eventually, a dive was approved but aborted mid-surge. It was simply too dangerous. As a result, Graven was told to stop investigating. He didn't.
00:22:22
Speaker
In one of his notes, he scribbled, quote, had to be planned by blank, no one else with motive, end quote. Even though Graven later scribbled out the name nearly completely so it was illegible, years later, technology was able to reveal the name he wrote under all the scribble.
00:22:44
Speaker
The name he originally wrote, it was not the name of one of the ex-cons. It was eldest child, Donald Martin. You see, Graven was doing his own research, his own investigation into Donald Martin.
00:23:02
Speaker
While Donald had been cooperative on the surface, he also hadn't returned home during any of the search for his family. So Graven decided to dive deep into Donald's history.
00:23:13
Speaker
What did he do before he headed out east? Graven went looking for answers at Meyer and Frank, where Dawn had held on-again, off-again employment. First as a stalker before he joined the Navy, then as a stalker again before he quit, and finally from April 1954 to September 1955 as both a stalker and as a window decorator.
00:23:37
Speaker
It was during this last stint that Donald was fired from the company for stealing over $2,000 worth of merchandise from the store. As to why he did it, he said it was because he was having trouble at home.
00:23:51
Speaker
He was under immense strain because his parents didn't approve of him being homosexual. After that theft and his family coming home to find Don in a compromising position with another man, they sent him away to a religious college in Connecticut, hoping he would go into ministry.
00:24:11
Speaker
Donald had admitted to the theft crime and his father, Kenneth, had paid back all the debt that wasn't covered by returned items. For example, thirty eight caliber handgun was never returned.
00:24:28
Speaker
Remember, that is the same caliber gun as the one the man found near Cascade Locks. The one never tested, but wiped clean and handed back to the man who found it.
00:24:39
Speaker
However, police had written down the serial number of the gun, and it matched the one that had been stolen from Meyer and Frank by Dawn, the gun that was never returned.
00:24:53
Speaker
But Graven didn't have jurisdiction, so he wasn't able to do anything with this information. If only they could find the Martin family, they would know whether a gun, this gun, had been involved.
00:25:08
Speaker
Graven knew that finding the car would be the key to solving the case. In the meantime, Graven decided it was high time to talk to Don. In that conversation, marked in Graven's notes on the case, he wrote that Don told him he didn't like guns, but that his friend and co-worker at the time of the theft, Wayne, did.
00:25:29
Speaker
Wayne was also tangentially linked an acquaintance of one of the two ex-cons, Lester Kenneth Price. This network of connections, though admittedly loose, raised a lot more questions than answers.
00:25:47
Speaker
Then on May 3rd, 1959, a tugboat was placing anchors for a drilling barge when one of the anchors struck something hard, something the size of a car.
00:26:00
Speaker
But as it struck it, this object shifted and the anchor came loose. The workers on the boat saw something come to the surface, something that looked like a pile of clothes.
00:26:12
Speaker
Now we believe the anchor could have struck the Martins' car far below the surface, possibly breaking a window or opening the back hatch, allowing something else to break loose as well.
00:26:25
Speaker
What looked like a pile of clothes initially, upon closer inspection, was the body of a young girl. As soon as the sheriff's office responded and saw the clothing, they recognized it by the descriptions of what the youngest Martin girl, Susie, had been wearing.
00:26:42
Speaker
But she was too decomposed to properly identify her. So they called in Mr. and Mrs. Dorsey, but they too were unable to confirm that it was Susie. The face was bloated and decomposed, even though the body was preserved, likely because of the cold water temperature at the depths the car was believed to be lodged.
00:27:01
Speaker
The decomposition of her head, in contrast to the rest of her body, was likely from the fact that as her body surfaced, her head and part of her face had been exposed to the sun, quickly turning it black.
00:27:14
Speaker
The Martin family dentist was called in to use dental records to confirm that it was Susie. A day later, on May 4th, 1959, 25 miles away, another body was discovered at around 11.15 a.m.
00:27:31
Speaker
Even though initial reports stated that it was Barbie's body that had been found, the family dentist was again called in, this time to confirm that this was the body of middle daughter, Virginia.
00:27:43
Speaker
Autopsies performed on both of the bodies showed burgers and fries in the girls' stomachs and showed that they had eaten within two hours of their death. Now, law enforcement were ready to believe Clara York's report of seeing the Martin family at the Paradise Snack Bar in Hood River, 20 miles east of Cascade Locks.
00:28:02
Speaker
The autopsies also reported the cause of death as drowning and noted, for the most part, no signs of foul play. I say for the most part because at least one officer recalled seeing a hole in the side of each of the girl's heads consistent with a gunshot wound or with a fracture to the skull, perhaps from the butt of a gun, though this could have been a trick of the eye because of the blackness and decomposition and was not mentioned in the official autopsy report.
00:28:37
Speaker
Had this truly been an accident where the family had skidded off the road into the dangerous waters below? Had the family tried unsuccessfully to exit the vehicle?
00:28:50
Speaker
Interestingly, what was also in the autopsy report, according to one of my sources, was that traces of metal, including aluminum, were recovered from Susan's clothing, which was intriguing given the proximity of an aluminum smelting plant to where Bain had found the tire tracks.
00:29:09
Speaker
though that would place the family near where those tire tracks were found, in a place that would mean the car was taken there purposefully, and not be an easily explainable site for the accident theory.
00:29:24
Speaker
After the discovery of the two bodies, more dives were conducted to search for Kenneth, Barbara, Barbie, and the car. However, after a diver nearly drowned from being pinned against a boulder in the strong lower currents, the searches were again called off.
00:29:40
Speaker
With the bodies of Susan and Virginia found, attention returned to Donald Martin. He didn't come back to Oregon to aid in the search for his family. He said that his aunt had advised him not to return until he was ready and that there wasn't much he could do that wasn't already being done.
00:29:58
Speaker
However, Dawn also missed his sister's funeral, claiming mix-up in dates, despite his aunt encouraging him to return. Yes, she told quite a different story, not that she had told him to stay in New York, but that she had actually urged him to come home immediately.
00:30:20
Speaker
And we found out that Dawn did have the time to stop to visit friends in Seattle on the way to Oregon, according to Fisher's book. When Don finally did return, it was June 3rd, 1959, and it was only to settle his family's estate, becoming the sole beneficiary.
00:30:42
Speaker
Detective Walter Graven, who dedicated thousands of hours to the case, interrogated Donald, who surprisingly stated he believed that his family was dead as a result of foul play, even though he declared that he had no idea who would want to hurt his family.
00:30:59
Speaker
This assertion, coming from someone so removed from the investigation, likely struck Graven as highly suspicious, especially since nearly everyone else seemed to think that this was a tragic accident.
00:31:13
Speaker
Did Dawn know something?
00:31:17
Speaker
Police walked through the Martin house again, this time with Don present, to see if there were any details they didn't pick up on before. And Don pointed out that there were things missing from the home, namely his dad's income tax returns, a bank ledger book, and other financial documents.
00:31:38
Speaker
Curiously, law enforcement also found out around this time that the morning after the family disappeared on December 8th, a black taxi had pulled up outside the Martin home.
00:31:50
Speaker
Neighbors reported that it had been there for about an hour and that the driver had been out of view, slouched over in the seat. Who had the driver been?
00:32:01
Speaker
Who had he brought here? And why had they been there an hour? So let's discuss some of the theories related to what may have happened to the Martins.
00:32:14
Speaker
Theory number one, this could have been a tragic accident as many law enforcement were inclined to believe to be the case. We know Mr. Martin didn't like to drive at night because it was hard on his eyes.
00:32:25
Speaker
Maybe he thought he was following the road and had gone off road too far until it was too late. Perhaps he thought he could continue to drive until he saw a safe place to turn around and had driven off of a cliff instead.
00:32:39
Speaker
But if that's the case, What about the sighting of the two men in the restaurant? What about the Knutzen sighting of two men talking to people in a station wagon matching the descriptions of the Martins?
00:32:51
Speaker
And what about the gun tied to Dawn that was found in the vicinity? Theory number two is tied to Dawn. Adding to the unease as it related to oldest son, Dawn, Susan and Virginia's cremated remains were not collected by Dawn, but remained unclaimed for a decade until an unknown individual retrieved them on December 30th, 1969, the day after their paternal grandmother's death.
00:33:21
Speaker
Instead, after that trip to Portland in June 1959, Donald had moved to Hawaii, married a woman, had children, and allegedly never spoke of his parents nor sisters again until just before his death in 2004.
00:33:40
Speaker
We know he was sent away by his parents and that he was angry at not being accepted by them. And we have the matching serial number with a gun to the one he was linked to stealing from Meyer and Frank.
00:33:54
Speaker
All of these details raise many red flags, but is it enough? After all, even if he were angry with his parents, would he really kill his sisters too? Plus, we can verify that Don was still in New York when this tragedy happened to his family.
00:34:10
Speaker
It was 1958. There weren't burner phones or emails that could be sent had he planned something to happen to his family. There would be traces somewhere had he been involved.
00:34:22
Speaker
At least, I would think so. And if he were involved, why would he not push the theory that this was an accident so no further investigation would be required? Theory number three involves the ex-cons, Lester Kenneth Price and Roy Light.
00:34:38
Speaker
A police informant, Clifford Bennett, who owned a local brothel, said that the two ex-cons had actually stayed at his place from December 7th to December 10th, 1958. Recall that Graven was continually told to stop looking too deeply into the case and to just accept that it had been a tragic accident.
00:34:58
Speaker
All of this was coming from a police department that was deeply rooted in allegations of bribery and unsavory ties between members of that department all the way up to the state level and Clifford Bennett, the brothel owner who was buddies with Price and Light.
00:35:17
Speaker
If Price and Light were responsible, it would require an investigation into Bennett, given his connection. Could that be why the foul play theory was quickly dismissed out of fear of what that potential avenue of investigation would bring to Light?
00:35:34
Speaker
These two were potentially seen by the waitress at the Paradise snack bar and potentially seen as the same two men by the Knutzens standing outside of the Martin station wagon talking to the people inside.
00:35:48
Speaker
Also, Roy Light later went on to have a criminal record, including kidnapping a sheriff and possibly carjacking someone by hiding under a blanket in their car.
00:36:00
Speaker
Doing the same to the Martin family is the hypothetical opening scenario of Fisher's book, Echo of Distant Water. But to play devil's advocate, if that were the case, what are we to make of the gun being found with links to Don?
00:36:18
Speaker
Theory number four would explain that potential link and it's related to Wayne, the tie between Don and the ex-cons. Remember, Wayne had worked with Don at the time of the robbery and Don stated to Graven that it was Wayne who liked guns, not him.
00:36:37
Speaker
Kenneth had returned all of the stolen merchandise that Don had in his possession, and the gun was not part of it. Could someone else have had the gun and not Don?
00:36:51
Speaker
Could it have been Wayne, or could Wayne have sold it to this ex-con acquaintance? Graven, who had initially written, if you remember, had to be planned by name scribbled out, no one else with motive, had actually scribbled out Dawn's name, which implies that he no longer believed that he were responsible.
00:37:13
Speaker
Instead, underneath, Graven had written about someone else, Wayne. Per Fisher's book, on June 2nd, 1959, Graven wrote, quote, had to be a friend whom Ken Martin had found out about and was going to expose.
00:37:33
Speaker
Therefore, had to be a married man or one going to be married, end quote. Wayne told police that Don had, quote, introduced him to the gay lifestyle, end quote.
00:37:45
Speaker
Was Kenneth Martin potentially going to expose Wayne's sexuality? Graven believed Wayne to also be homosexual. Could that be a motive?
00:37:57
Speaker
But if so, and if Wayne knew the family like he said he did, saying that he was even invited to family barbecues, then even if he were mad at Ken Martin, could he really then have been okay with the deaths of the rest of the family members?
00:38:14
Speaker
How far would one go to keep a secret? Then there's the final theory, theory number five, which seemed to come out of nowhere for me in my research. And it all related to oldest daughter, Barbie, potentially being pregnant.
00:38:30
Speaker
Barbie Martin, age 14, had visited a new doctor in Vancouver, Washington, shortly before the trip. not their usual pediatrician.
00:38:42
Speaker
Why the change? Why take her out of state? Could this be why Mr. Martin was vague about sticking to ah plan? Could it explain why they had driven in the opposite direction that they should have done to drive home?
00:39:01
Speaker
Graven speculated that Barbie may have been pregnant. Perhaps this family trip was a cover to maybe even confront the father. Maybe that person was Wayne who had stayed with the Martins on several occasions, or maybe it was someone else who they were going to meet at the Paradise Snack Bar.
00:39:19
Speaker
Was that the true plan Ken had referred to when he told his brother-in-law we better stick to the plan? Again, to Play Devil's Advocate, if this is the case, why had Mrs. Martin laid out the hamburger meat?
00:39:33
Speaker
And why bring the entire family? If this were a confrontation, why put everyone at risk or let everyone hear it or see it?
00:39:43
Speaker
Unless the confrontation didn't go as planned. Unless someone panicked. If Wayne or a different potential father, if Barbie were indeed pregnant, didn't show, perhaps one of the men in the snack bar, likely the ex-cons, snuck out and hid in the Martins' car waiting for their return.
00:40:05
Speaker
Or maybe they were even hired to do so. Either way, it would explain the erratic driving observed by the Knutzen's had they been forced to drive at gunpoint.
00:40:18
Speaker
This theory suggests a desperate motive for someone, again, to keep a secret, as Graven believed the perpetrator was a, quote, married man or one about to be married, end quote.
00:40:31
Speaker
And we do know that Wayne got married and moved away not long after the disappearances. But none of these theories explain the black taxi and why it was at the Martin house for an hour the morning after they disappeared.
00:40:46
Speaker
None of them explain the missing items from the home. Might there be another theory out there that could explain those things? Perhaps Ken discovered something and was being paid off.
00:40:57
Speaker
Perhaps there are more answers to be uncovered. It would take 66 years for a new lead to emerge, one that would capture national attention and rekindle hope for closure.
00:41:09
Speaker
In late 2024, an independent search and recovery diver named Archer Mayo made a monumental discovery. Mayo, a self-proclaimed Occam's razor guy, that the easiest answer is probably the correct one, had long doubted the foul play theory that placed the Martins' car near the Dales.
00:41:26
Speaker
He believed instead that the truth lay closer to where the two girls had been found, near Cascade Locks. Mayo had spent years combing the Columbia River, driven by a personal obsession after hearing about the case during another search for a sunken research vessel.
00:41:42
Speaker
Using historical records and and construction images of the Cascade Locks Canal, Mayo found evidence of a depression, 20-foot deep, 90-foot long trench that had formed when the canal was built.
00:41:55
Speaker
He theorized that if the Martin family vehicle had gone into the river in that spot, the car would have been trapped in that long-forgotten pit. As a result of his own persistence, Mayo located what appeared to be the remains of a vehicle 50 feet below the surface.
00:42:11
Speaker
It was upside down, entombed in nearly seven feet of river debris. Though he actually located several vehicles, one of them he was able to identify as a 1954 Ford.
00:42:25
Speaker
Further measurements confirmed his hunch. It was a four-door cream and red Ford station wagon. In March 2025, recovery efforts began.
00:42:36
Speaker
Crews used a crane to lift parts of the vehicle from the water. Much of it was too damaged or buried to recover fully, but the chassis, among other partial parts, was successfully retrieved.
00:42:48
Speaker
Even a partial license plate was consistent with the Martins' car. Authorities have stated that they are 99% sure it is the Martin's car, yet no human remains were found inside.
00:43:01
Speaker
Where were Ken, Barbara, and Barbie? As you can imagine, the discovery shifted the conversation once more. For some, it was a validation that the original theory, a tragic accident, had been right all along.
00:43:16
Speaker
For others, it raised even more questions. If the car went into the water near Cascade Locks, what about the tire tracks found near the Dales? What about the paint chips on the rocks found there?
00:43:29
Speaker
And what about the gun? What about the suspicious black taxi spotted idling at the Martin home the morning after their disappearance? What about the missing financial records? As the Martins drove into the river by accident, how do we explain those anomalies?
00:43:46
Speaker
Detective Graven didn't live to see this moment. He died in 1988, long before sonar, drones, and divers could peer into the Columbia River's secrets. But his notes, his suspicions, his refusal to stop asking questions, those have endured.
00:44:03
Speaker
When alive, Graven had stated, quote, I want it understood that I am not now or at any time trying to make a murder out of an accident or vice versa. I'm just trying to do the best job that I am capable of, end quote.
00:44:18
Speaker
And that meant having an open mind to all possibilities. And perhaps because of Graven's relentless drive, the case stayed in the public eye long enough for someone like Archer Mayo to pick up the thread.
00:44:32
Speaker
What happened to the Martin family? Was it an accident? A random encounter with violent strangers? A dark secret come to light? Or something even more tragic?
00:44:42
Speaker
An intentional act by someone they knew? The truth lies somewhere. Somewhere in a space beneath decades of silence, in waterlogged evidence, and in half-buried memories.
00:44:56
Speaker
But truth doesn't fade. It waits. It echoes. And eventually, if we wait long enough, it surfaces. Again, please like and join our Facebook page, Coffee and Cases Podcast, to continue the conversation and see images related to this episode.
00:45:15
Speaker
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00:45:26
Speaker
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00:45:38
Speaker
Stay safe. We'll see you next week.