Latest / PNW Haunts & Homicides / The Martin Family: Secrets of the Columbia River Gorge | 1958
Transcript
- 0:00Ken played Santa Claus every year for neighborhood children who approached with awe in their eyes
- 0:07to collect the homemade candy cane decorations that the family made to share with their neighbors.
- 0:13Why is this the most fucking wholesome thing I've ever heard?
- 0:17I know, it's pretty precious.
- 0:20The family wasn't only known for their small acts of kindness during the winter season, though.
- 0:25They were also well known to organize summer events as well.
- 0:29They held Christmas in their heart all year.
- 0:32Hi, Cassie.
- 0:41Hi, Caitlyn.
- 0:42Hi, creepy people.
- 0:44Hello!
- 0:45Hello!
- 0:46This is PNW Haunts and Homicides, where we chat about true crime, the paranormal, and all things spooky in the Pacific Northwest.
- 0:56And that would be the PNW.
- 0:59If you're nasty.
- 1:02If you're nasty.
- 1:04I feel like my voice got really gross at the end of nasty.
- 1:08Oh, God.
- 1:10So anyway, about those tarot readings.
- 1:13Yeah.
- 1:14We usually do those at the end of every episode for a little deeper insight into our topic.
- 1:22And you might notice that technically Christmas or the holidays, whatever is over.
- 1:29But we are coming to you from the past where it is not over yet.
- 1:33It hasn't even begun yet.
- 1:35So we're still celebrating.
- 1:37And because we don't get to be together, I feel like we deserve that.
- 1:40Yeah.
- 1:41And we will not be taking questions.
- 1:45Yeah.
- 1:46So if you see our color scheme and if you're watching the video.
- 1:51I decided to wear my cozy hood and didn't take it off.
- 1:55So I look kind of weird.
- 1:57But that's fine.
- 1:58Yeah.
- 1:59I'm going to keep on trucking.
- 2:01Let's do it.
- 2:02I'm ready.
- 2:03All right.
- 2:04You are not ready.
- 2:05I promise.
- 2:06Yeah.
- 2:07To start us off, I'll quote true crime author, JB Fisher, a PNW local with a doctorate in English Renaissance literature.
- 2:17From the prestigious Reed College, also PNW based.
- 2:22In 1958 to 1959, Ish, this was a huge news story.
- 2:31For almost a year, it received nearly daily coverage in the Oregonian and the Oregon Journal.
- 2:38But in a haunting parallel to the case itself, this case hasn't time become a truly baffling mystery.
- 2:46Oh, mysterious.
- 2:49Yeah.
- 2:50I got to get in the habit of saying end quote because that last sentence, that was mine.
- 2:55Oh, yeah, you do.
- 2:56I do the same thing.
- 2:57Yeah.
- 2:58I forget.
- 2:59They're just saying you'll know our voices.
- 3:01You'll know when the quote's ending and where our voice begins.
- 3:04Yeah.
- 3:05Or maybe you all think that I talk like a doctorate, you know, English Renaissance literature guy.
- 3:15I mean, sometimes.
- 3:16I was like, Cassie's going to say yes.
- 3:23And I feel like I was setting you up to say no, but here we are.
- 3:27No.
- 3:28Oh.
- 3:29End sign.
- 3:31Kenneth Ken Martin was born September 10th, 1904.
- 3:37I don't know that anyone was actually in the habit of addressing him by his military rank.
- 3:42Like, just casually at this point.
- 3:45What was his rank?
- 3:47It's end sign.
- 3:48Oh, okay.
- 3:49I was like, I, you said the word and it sounded familiar and then, okay.
- 3:54I see.
- 3:55Yeah.
- 3:56But I did see some source material that mentioned it or that referred to him that way.
- 4:01So I don't know.
- 4:03Maybe just given the situation, it's a sign of difference or respect.
- 4:10His wife Barbara Alene Cable was born in February of 1910, sometime in February.
- 4:20Oh, okay.
- 4:22The 14 because you're wearing like a heart shirt.
- 4:25Oh, yeah.
- 4:26There you go.
- 4:27I was going for Christmas vibes, but maybe that was, you know, for bay abs.
- 4:32You literally, you pulled up, you have this red and green on your bread and green behind you.
- 4:39And all I see is the heart.
- 4:41And I'm like, oh, you're valentine today.
- 4:44You're like, bitch, I'm Christmas.
- 4:46What do you mean?
- 4:49I am Christmas.
- 4:51But it all connects.
- 4:53Yeah, it does.
- 4:54Oh, and hold on.
- 4:56What?
- 4:57I didn't even put that together.
- 4:59I have the skeleton heart hands mug that I'm drinking out of.
- 5:04It's pink.
- 5:05And it has talking hands.
- 5:06We're both hearts and we're both Christmas.
- 5:08How did we do that?
- 5:09I don't know.
- 5:10That's funny.
- 5:11And we're not, I think we've shown time and time again that we're far too frazzled to really plan out any of these things.
- 5:20No, totally not.
- 5:22That's funny.
- 5:24The pair were married on November 28th of 1929.
- 5:29Mir weeks after the Great Crash in October that same year.
- 5:33So that was the start of the Great Depression.
- 5:36Okay, I was like, what kind of pressure are we talking about?
- 5:39Stocks, steamboat, incident, or...
- 5:42No, this is...
- 5:44Yeah, it's, I mean, the most infamous market disaster, I think, of the modern era, I would say.
- 5:54Damn.
- 5:55A pretty crazy...
- 5:57I mean, the Great Depression, just like, you know, if most of us were alive at this point, which hopefully if you're listening, you were.
- 6:05The 2008 market recession.
- 6:10How it sort of like, in some respects, there are aspects of it that started here in the United States, but it really became sort of a global financial crisis.
- 6:22It's like that scale.
- 6:24Okay.
- 6:25It hardly seems like a harbinger of joy.
- 6:27And yet, the couple went on to have four children.
- 6:30Four?
- 6:32In this academy?
- 6:34Well, I mean, it wasn't this economy.
- 6:37That economy?
- 6:40Yeah, I mean, either way, not great.
- 6:45The Martin family lived in a two-story tutor-style home in Portland.
- 6:50By all accounts, they were well-liked by neighbors and incredibly kind people who were active in the local community.
- 6:58So, I know I told you this wasn't strictly speaking a Christmas case, but there are a couple of things that make it feel a little bit more Christmassy than I let on.
- 7:13Oh, okay.
- 7:15I'm not mad about it.
- 7:17Okay, good.
- 7:19The street on which the Martins lived was often referred to as "candy lane" during the Christmas season.
- 7:26Candy lane!
- 7:28Candy lane!
- 7:29I want to go there.
- 7:31Yeah.
- 7:32This was apparently due in no small part to the family's love of the holiday season, as well as spreading Christmas cheer to their neighbors.
- 7:42Ken played Santa Claus every year for neighborhood children who approached with awe in their eyes to collect the homemade candy cane decorations that the family made to share with their neighbors.
- 7:55Why is this the most fucking wholesome thing I've ever heard?
- 7:59I know. It's pretty precious.
- 8:01The family wasn't only known for their small acts of kindness during the winter season, though.
- 8:07They were also well-known to organize summer events, as well.
- 8:11They held Christmas in their heart all year.
- 8:14I'm just saying, Christmas in July.
- 8:17Yeah!
- 8:18Ken worked at Eccles, a lecture-com service company.
- 8:23He supervised the repair department and had an apparently impeccable attendance record.
- 8:29He supervised the repair department and had an apparently impeccable attendance record.
- 8:35His failure to show up to work on December 8th was, quote, "Unprecedented."
- 8:41End quote.
- 8:42Oh!
- 8:43That's because he's afraid of being on the naughty list, so that's a huge deal.
- 8:48Exactly.
- 8:49Exactly. We can only assume.
- 8:51Ken reportedly had an important meeting at work that day, so it was particularly unusual for someone so fastidious and punctual just to...
- 9:02That's show up.
- 9:04I'm worried.
- 9:05Yeah. I feel like I would be too.
- 9:07If someone just doesn't show up to work, that's concerning.
- 9:11Yeah, because you know those people.
- 9:13Like, there's people who just don't show up to work and like, you know who they are.
- 9:16Yeah.
- 9:17Yeah.
- 9:18And they usually don't stick around that long.
- 9:20Yeah. No.
- 9:21You know the difference.
- 9:23The Martin family had money in the bank with no readily-apparent troubles, financial or otherwise,
- 9:29as far as the casual observer was concerned.
- 9:32The family home was valued at $15,000, and I found in some source material that there was an additional $15,000 in cash and other valuables.
- 9:45Other valuables, I would be curious to know what all that entails.
- 9:51Yeah.
- 9:52Just given the dollar value of a particular item that's going to come up later.
- 9:58Oh.
- 9:59Okay.
- 10:00Secret secrets.
- 10:01Yeah.
- 10:02Also, would like to point out that is significantly more than the sum total of my current estate decades later.
- 10:11I've never even seen that amount of money in my entire life.
- 10:15I mean, I have.
- 10:17I've prepared that amount of money for like other people at a bank.
- 10:21But on December 7th, 1958, the weather in Portland was marked by patchy fog.
- 10:27That burned off as the day warmed to the mid-50s.
- 10:30Sounds legit.
- 10:31I know.
- 10:32I literally, in my notes, it sounds like nearly perfect weather for that time of year, for particularly that day's itinerary for the Martin family.
- 10:43The Martin family plan to travel out towards the large mountain area, about 30 miles east of Portland, to find a Christmas tree, and some other greens to make reeds.
- 10:55Oh.
- 10:57I know.
- 10:58Pretty wholesome.
- 11:00Earlier in the day, some of their extended family had been over, which was not unusual.
- 11:05It sounds like they were very not just community, but also very family oriented.
- 11:11And they did have a pretty good size group of kind of extended family and like close family friends that lived, you know, within a relatively short distance from their home.
- 11:24It was at about 10.30 a.m. that Mr. and Mrs. Robert D Evans, cousins of the Martin's visited the Martin family home with their two children in the child of another relative, Marcy Welch.
- 11:40Sounds like a party.
- 11:42Yeah.
- 11:43Cousin party?
- 11:45Yeah.
- 11:46It's a party with a bunch of seven-year-olds.
- 11:48Yeah. I met like, I was thinking more of like from the point of view of the seven-year-old, like sleep over with all the cousins.
- 11:55Yeah.
- 11:56Yeah.
- 11:57This was on their way to a later Sunday dinner at the Welch family home, though the Martin's would decline the invitation extended to them.
- 12:06Ken had told the relatives that morning that their venture out on East Highway 84 would take up the majority of their day and they just likely wouldn't be able to make it for dinner later.
- 12:19That makes sense.
- 12:20Yeah.
- 12:21Right. I think.
- 12:22Yeah. It does.
- 12:23It's definitely going to make more sense.
- 12:25We have some information about the timeline that though there's sort of some discrepancies and things that's like, "Hmm, that's interesting."
- 12:34Hmm.
- 12:35It was around 1.30 to 2 p.m. that neighbors were called seeing the Martin's leaving in the family sedan.
- 12:43Their neighbor Ella Chin, who lived just down the street, thought it closer to the ladder of the two.
- 12:48So she said, "I think that they definitely left closer to 2 o'clock."
- 12:53While Frank Womack, who had been outside washing his car, believed it was closer to 1.30.
- 13:00I don't know who's like, "If you're outside washing your car, are you looking at the clock?"
- 13:06That was my exact thought.
- 13:09And then my next sentence.
- 13:11And since this case is from the 1950s, I'm surprised that the source material I found doesn't just say they left at 1.30 before a female neighbor clearly became hysterical.
- 13:21Right.
- 13:22That is so true though.
- 13:25A man said this, so we're going to assume it's fact.
- 13:30Back then, I don't know if your watch would be waterproof.
- 13:33You wouldn't want to be wearing it and washing the car.
- 13:36I don't know.
- 13:37Right.
- 13:38No, I think that's such a good point.
- 13:39I don't know how he knew exactly what time it was.
- 13:42And I feel like she was probably, you know, in the kitchen.
- 13:48That's what I was going to say.
- 13:50If she wasn't in the kitchen, she was probably close enough by that, you know, she may have just glanced at the clock.
- 13:57People also had clocks on their walls.
- 14:00So being indoors, I don't know, I'm going out on a limb and say, "It makes more sense to me."
- 14:07There are some other details, like I said, that I think probably line up a little bit more closely with them having left at about 1.30.
- 14:16I don't know that a half hour is making that much of a difference.
- 14:21Yeah.
- 14:22It was an odd time of day to begin a journey into a wooded area, though, because it's like this time of year.
- 14:30Oh, yeah, because it gets dark out like four.
- 14:33The grandson of the detective who worked the case for Multnomah County even knew Kenneth didn't like to drive when it was dark outside.
- 14:43It's gork outside.
- 14:46Gork outside.
- 14:47You can't drive in a garca.
- 14:50Well, he didn't like to.
- 14:52I don't even relate to that.
- 14:54Seriously.
- 14:55It sucks.
- 14:56The older you get, the better the reason has to be for you to leave your house.
- 15:01Yeah.
- 15:02Leaving this late in the day and taking the length of their drive into account, there wasn't much daylight left for their foraging plans.
- 15:10Because remember, they're trying to cut down a Christmas tree.
- 15:13They're supposed to be gathering greens to put together a bunch of reeds.
- 15:17Yeah.
- 15:18Huh.
- 15:19And, you know, they're headed out kind of towards like cascade locks, essentially like Hood River.
- 15:25So, I mean, even from Portland, that's still a little bit of a drive.
- 15:30Yeah.
- 15:31I don't know.
- 15:32Just seems odd.
- 15:33It sort of gives me pause about some of the later theories.
- 15:38I don't know.
- 15:39Well, I'm worried about the theories.
- 15:41I don't like groups setting up here.
- 15:43I'm getting uncomfortable.
- 15:45None of it's great.
- 15:46I need to hug my blankie.
- 15:48Yeah, I would.
- 15:50In any case, the Martins reportedly left their home in the family vehicle, afford country sedan.
- 15:56It was white or cream according to some source material and red.
- 16:02I'm going to pull up the photo folder that I have for the case.
- 16:07Okay, so I texted it to you.
- 16:09Oh, cute.
- 16:10I love old cars.
- 16:12Also, this looks like rust and not red.
- 16:14Yeah.
- 16:15Yeah.
- 16:16No, I will be finding some more true to life.
- 16:19Oh, okay.
- 16:20But like pretend like it was like a newer version is that what you're saying.
- 16:24Yeah.
- 16:25So, it's freaking cute.
- 16:26Oh, no, it's cute.
- 16:27It kind of reminds me like a little bit of like cars that you see in like old timey like movies.
- 16:34Yeah.
- 16:35Like movies like, um, oh God.
- 16:38I think like Christmas vacate or yeah.
- 16:41Yeah.
- 16:42Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 16:43Is that okay?
- 16:44That sounds right.
- 16:45Yeah.
- 16:46And I can just like picture a Christmas tree on top of this car too.
- 16:49Yes.
- 16:50Like just like that kind of car.
- 16:51A thousand percent.
- 16:53It was literally the most 1950s car imaginable, I think.
- 16:59I picture this at the drive in.
- 17:01It's got the tree strap to the roof.
- 17:03Like you said.
- 17:04Somebody's coming out delivering like malts and burgers and fries in roller skates.
- 17:10Oh my God, I want a malt from a roller skated person immediately.
- 17:14I don't know.
- 17:15I'm going to Sonic.
- 17:16Oh, wait, do they do roller skates there?
- 17:19Wait, I have to do some.
- 17:21Do they?
- 17:22I feel like they do.
- 17:24I don't know.
- 17:25I could be wrong.
- 17:26You guys, do they do roller skates?
- 17:28Do they?
- 17:29Am I like, was that like a fever dream I had?
- 17:32I don't know.
- 17:33Somebody please tell us.
- 17:34I'm too afraid to Google it and find out that she's like really losing it.
- 17:39But I want comments.
- 17:42I want interaction.
- 17:43Give it.
- 17:44Loaded into the car.
- 17:46We're both Ken and Barbara as well as Barbara aka Barbie.
- 17:51I was going to say.
- 17:5314.
- 17:54Who was a freshman at Grant High School at the time.
- 17:58Virginia, 13, and Susan, 11.
- 18:03You may recall that I previously said the Martins had four children.
- 18:08Their 28 year old son, Donald, was stationed in New York with the Navy.
- 18:18Quite a bit older than his Sibs.
- 18:21Yeah.
- 18:22I was like, what explains this insane age gap?
- 18:27And then immediately they had a bajillion.
- 18:31You know what I mean?
- 18:33Sounds like a high school accident.
- 18:36And then later on, I don't know, I could be wrong.
- 18:39But that's what it sounds like to me.
- 18:41I mean, sure.
- 18:43But this is a married couple essentially before birth control was sort of widely used.
- 18:52Oh.
- 18:53I just feel like it's kind of like Pringles.
- 18:57It's sort of usually like a one-chip-hop.
- 18:59You don't stop.
- 19:00I mean, some people have difficulties or whatever.
- 19:03I guess.
- 19:04I don't know.
- 19:05But then once they broke the seal again, it was it was on.
- 19:09It's interesting.
- 19:10Yeah.
- 19:11It said that the family had lunch at a diner located in Hood River.
- 19:16Clara York, a waitress at the Paradise Snack Bar in Hood River, said she waited on the
- 19:22family between four and four thirty.
- 19:26However, she later modified her story slightly, clarifying that she believed they had come in
- 19:33closer to around two p.m.
- 19:36So if they had come in at two, they definitely would have needed to leave the house at one thirty.
- 19:45Okay.
- 19:46I see what you're saying.
- 19:47Yeah.
- 19:48Nevertheless, her original story in timeline may have been more plausible because she remembered
- 19:53turning the flood lights on in the parking lot just after they left as dusk fell.
- 20:00So why would she change her story?
- 20:03Well, I think, you know, sometimes I witness testimony is always kind of tricky.
- 20:09And especially when you're asking someone to give you, you know, a precise timeline, I
- 20:14would assume, you know, particularly as a waitress or really like anyone who's like in their
- 20:21work environment, you know, you can look up at the clock and all of a sudden realize,
- 20:26holy shit, it's lunchtime, you know what I mean?
- 20:30And yeah, if you're busy, you just have a lesser awareness.
- 20:36I don't know.
- 20:37I do.
- 20:38I think it's odd, but it's not, it's not even close to the weirdest thing.
- 20:44The family also stopped for gas at the Cascade Box Service Station.
- 20:49The reports differed as to when they arrived and who waited on them because of course,
- 20:56why wouldn't it?
- 20:58In fact, this receipt, a receipt for gas they purchased like 30 minutes out of town arrived
- 21:08in the Martin mailbox roughly two weeks after this particular date.
- 21:14So apparently gas stations used to mail people receipts?
- 21:20Interesting.
- 21:21Yeah.
- 21:22Okay.
- 21:23It indicated that five gallons of gas had been purchased that day.
- 21:28Martin's signature on the receipt was authenticated by handwriting experts at the time.
- 21:34So presumably they actually did get gas there.
- 21:39That feels verifiable.
- 21:40It doesn't really tell us a lot because-
- 21:42Does it have a timestamp?
- 21:44No.
- 21:45Not that I'm aware of.
- 21:47God dang it.
- 21:49Receipts nowadays have timestamps.
- 21:52They sure do.
- 21:53Yeah.
- 21:54Oh.
- 21:55Oh.
- 21:56Honestly, just the marvel that is anyone going to the effort of mailing a receipt.
- 22:04Yeah.
- 22:05Wow.
- 22:06It's interesting.
- 22:07It was a different time.
- 22:09Yeah.
- 22:10That's like just so like leave it to beaver.
- 22:13You know what I mean?
- 22:16Kelsey and Doris Newtson claimed to have seen what looked like the Martin station wagon
- 22:21around dusk parked under the bridge of the gods in cascade locks.
- 22:27Two men were standing next to the vehicle and speaking to the passengers inside.
- 22:32This was most likely the last reported sighting of the Martin family.
- 22:37Oh no.
- 22:38Yeah, not great.
- 22:42It was roughly 9.30pm the following day, December 8th, that Ken's boss Edward Lunds called the police
- 22:50concerned about the family's whereabouts after Ken never reported to work that day.
- 22:55That attendance record, I'm telling you.
- 22:58Comes in handy.
- 23:00If you come- I mean if you go missing, sadly, hopefully you don't.
- 23:05It would also be established by Charlotte Dorsey, a second grade teacher and also Ken's sister
- 23:11that the Martin children had not attended school that day.
- 23:16The police would accompany Charlotte to the family home for an old-timey wellness check.
- 23:21Is this on the 8th?
- 23:23Yes.
- 23:24Okay.
- 23:25Look at you, superstar.
- 23:27Just trying to get the timeline down.
- 23:30Yeah.
- 23:31I know.
- 23:32She's like, I'm a salsa.
- 23:34In the Martin family's ranch-style home, there was a thawed me on the counter, dishes in the
- 23:40sink, a load of wash in the machine, and they'd even left the heater on downstairs.
- 23:48Oh.
- 23:50It seemed that the Martin's had planned to return, but where were they now?
- 23:55I know.
- 23:56I mean, everyone that talked to them that day, and well, I should say the day prior, everyone
- 24:03that talked to them the day presumably that they disappeared said, I mean, based on their
- 24:09plans, obviously they were headed home that evening.
- 24:13Yeah, they were going to get a train coming back, right?
- 24:16Like, yeah.
- 24:17Yeah.
- 24:18Yeah, because then you got to get that thing in water.
- 24:21Yeah.
- 24:22You got to shake all the spiders out, water it, and decorate the bitch.
- 24:26Yeah.
- 24:27Got to get that star on top.
- 24:30And exhaustive search and investigation were undertaken in an attempt to discover the
- 24:36Martin families whereabouts.
- 24:39Some 6,000 circulars were distributed by law enforcement nationwide.
- 24:46A circular?
- 24:48Yeah, it's basically like a flyer?
- 24:51Yes.
- 24:53So sometimes they were included like in your newspaper, things like that.
- 25:00Okay.
- 25:01So there's like a missing person's alert type of thing.
- 25:06Yes.
- 25:07Yeah.
- 25:08Essentially that's what we're talking about.
- 25:09They were distributed in kind of, I think, a variety of ways at this point in history, but
- 25:14yes, that's the ultimate takeaway.
- 25:16They were circulated.
- 25:18A $1,000 cash reward was raised for tips in the case, $900 from friends and family, and
- 25:27another 100 that was donated by a motor safety club.
- 25:32Oh, I know.
- 25:34Even the clubs in the 1950s were just, it's very wholesome.
- 25:40Just days after Christmas on December 29, a woman phoned authorities with the tip that
- 25:45the family was, quote, "In water by a totem pole."
- 25:53End quote.
- 25:54In water?
- 25:56Mm-hmm.
- 25:57By a totem pole?
- 25:59Mm-hmm.
- 26:00Okay.
- 26:02Mm-hmm.
- 26:03Though reportedly she could not say where exactly, which tracks because I don't know where
- 26:10that would be.
- 26:11Yeah.
- 26:12It could be a hole in water.
- 26:13It could be anywhere and nowhere.
- 26:17But eventually, it seemed like the trail hit Gong cold despite the best efforts of detective
- 26:22Walter Graven, which I'm going to be honest, nothing against him, because actually I think
- 26:30he's a good dude, and he did probably as good a job as anybody might have.
- 26:37But I don't want the detective that's involved with my case to be named Graven.
- 26:45Oh.
- 26:46Sounds great.
- 26:47Yeah, great.
- 26:48You know what I mean?
- 26:49Little bit grave.
- 26:50It's a little too on the nose.
- 26:52But honestly, he's great as far as I know.
- 26:55Oh.
- 26:56He was a man from the 1950s.
- 26:58So, you know.
- 26:59Was the person who called and said it was in water by a totem pole?
- 27:03Were they like a psychic?
- 27:05Girl?
- 27:06Yeah.
- 27:07Oh, okay.
- 27:08Did you say that?
- 27:09And I just like missed it?
- 27:11No.
- 27:12Okay.
- 27:13No.
- 27:14We're not really going to come back to that because they could never really substantiate anything
- 27:20that this person said.
- 27:22It just sounds like a psychic would say that.
- 27:24Like, I don't know where, but I'm seeing water in a totem pole.
- 27:29No.
- 27:30A thousand percent.
- 27:31Your instincts are totally on.
- 27:33I mean, because I believe that report came in on the telephone, it's like, who knows who
- 27:42that person was or like anybody can call themselves a psychic, right?
- 27:47But, yes.
- 27:48It's one of those like kind of creepy cold case.
- 27:54Really?
- 27:55I mean, just generally true crime case things that like comes back so frequently.
- 28:00Why are there so many psychics that want to give information to the police?
- 28:06I guess if you legitimately think you have information, even if it sounds wild, I mean,
- 28:14what's the harm, I guess?
- 28:16Do a certain degree, but I don't.
- 28:18But you don't want them like wasting all their time and resources on.
- 28:23Yeah.
- 28:24I don't know, maybe bring it to like a private search team or something and see if they would
- 28:30like to take it on.
- 28:32I mean, I don't really know the options, but there's got to be something better than just
- 28:37like, I don't know, wasting the time of police.
- 28:42Well, and here's the thing.
- 28:45In this case, we have enough information to know that the disappearance was taken seriously
- 28:53really from the beginning.
- 28:55And there's more information than I anticipated, like a lot more.
- 29:02Wow.
- 29:03Unfortunately, a lot of it is, I think broadly speaking, you'd say, well, sure that looks
- 29:11this way or that, but it's very circumstantial.
- 29:18Through the course of the investigation, it would come to light that just a day after their
- 29:23disappearance, a stolen white Chevrolet was found east of the Cascade locks.
- 29:29The vehicle was registered in California where it had been stolen by two ex-convex, who
- 29:36conveniently were at this time they were escaped.
- 29:42They had a scop aid.
- 29:44Holy shit.
- 29:45They were apprehended the day after the Martin family disappearance.
- 29:50So they caught them?
- 29:51Mm-hmm.
- 29:52That's what apprehended me.
- 29:54Yeah.
- 29:55But it's like, oh, interesting.
- 29:58So an abandoned vehicle, two ex-cons from California in the same area at the same time.
- 30:08I don't know.
- 30:10Didn't someone see the family's vehicle, like two guys talking to them?
- 30:15Sure did.
- 30:16I'm glad you brought that up.
- 30:17Oh, I'm really paying attention today.
- 30:22It's going to, there's, okay.
- 30:25Later, it would be revealed that the owner of the diner that the Martin family had reportedly
- 30:31stopped at for lunch knew one of the escapees.
- 30:35The one that changed her story?
- 30:38The owner.
- 30:39Oh, okay, okay.
- 30:40Not the waitress.
- 30:41That, okay.
- 30:42I see.
- 30:43Oh.
- 30:44Still?
- 30:45Yeah, I mean, either way, it's like there's more than one person that puts them there in
- 30:52that diner, which is really important because of what I'm about to say next.
- 30:58He stated that while on the lamb, the two men had been there that day at the diner as well,
- 31:04and even left the establishment around the same time as the family.
- 31:09Oh, it's so juicy.
- 31:12Oh, girl.
- 31:14You don't even know.
- 31:15You don't even know.
- 31:17I'm waiting to know.
- 31:19I know.
- 31:21Something else odd happened within a short time after the family's disappearance in the
- 31:26area.
- 31:27A bloody 38-cult commander, Han-Gun, was recovered in the very same area where the vehicle
- 31:38had been discovered abandoned.
- 31:40You know the one that was stolen by the two ex-cons?
- 31:43Right.
- 31:44Okay, okay.
- 31:45A bloody gun means like they were close.
- 31:49I assume.
- 31:51I don't know.
- 31:53Oh, I think you may be on to something.
- 31:58When it was discovered in the bushes, it was covered in dried blood.
- 32:03The man and his wife, who had found it, turned it into the local police, but it was ultimately
- 32:09just returned to him.
- 32:11By the person who found it?
- 32:12Yeah.
- 32:13He turned it into the police and the police were like, we're all done with this.
- 32:17So you can have a back.
- 32:21That doesn't seem like the right thing to be doing with a bloody gun, but someone found.
- 32:28Okay.
- 32:29Well, here's the thing.
- 32:32My understanding is that he turned it into the local police, which would have been like
- 32:37Hood River, different jurisdiction from PPB, the Portland police.
- 32:44When Detective Walter Graven of the Multnomah County Police learned of the gun, he wanted
- 32:52to explore that avenue in his investigation because, do I?
- 32:57But of course, he couldn't because it had been found outside his jurisdiction in Portland
- 33:02Oregon, within Multnomah County, and had reportedly, again, like I said, already been returned
- 33:09to the Good Samaritan that turned it in before he would ever get the chance.
- 33:15I just feel like common sense.
- 33:21It's a bloody thing that can murder people and you're not going to just keep it in evidence
- 33:28just in Kate.
- 33:30I mean, at that point, they just did not have the same scientific capabilities.
- 33:37I know.
- 33:38I know.
- 33:39I know.
- 33:40It's a bloody murder weapon because it has blood on it.
- 33:44It literally has blood on it.
- 33:46Yeah.
- 33:47It literally has blood on it.
- 33:48Like, if it was just a gun, okay, maybe.
- 33:50But like, even then, maybe don't give guns to people who just find them.
- 33:55Yeah.
- 33:56I mean, finders keepers.
- 33:58Let's not play finders keepers with guns, okay, guns.
- 34:05I really don't think we should.
- 34:08And so a case quickly turning cold continued to grow even colder with time.
- 34:14There were a number of reported potential sightings of the Martin family vehicle from along
- 34:20the I-5 corridor in Oregon to Burlington, Iowa and Billings, Montana.
- 34:28But the whereabouts of the Martin family remained unknown.
- 34:35In the new year, some potential new developments in the case gave hope to an increasingly cold
- 34:41investigation.
- 34:43In May 1959, following a tentative tip that arrived dating back to February, a river drilling
- 34:53rig hooked something heavy and metal on its anchor.
- 34:59No!
- 35:02But unfortunately, came loose before broaching the surface.
- 35:08Evidence emerged just a few short days later suggesting that the Martin family car
- 35:13had plunged off a cliff into the Columbia River near the Dalles.
- 35:20No!
- 35:21In the water!
- 35:24Yeah, okay, I'm gonna keep going.
- 35:27It was still early May of 1959 when that evidence, the bodies of the two youngest Martin girls
- 35:35were discovered.
- 35:38Susan's body was found in the Columbia Slow near Camus, Washington, followed by Virginia's
- 35:45body near the Bonneville Dam spillway, not far from the Cascade Locks.
- 35:52Despite these long overdue discoveries, the car was never discovered.
- 35:57Never recovered.
- 35:58Holy shit, dude!
- 36:01Though some believe it was in fact the Martin vehicle that was briefly dislodged from the
- 36:06river by the drilling rig that loosed the two girls that were subsequently discovered,
- 36:12which I have to say makes a lot of sense to me.
- 36:15It does, like the timing of everything.
- 36:21Susan's body was taken to the Clark County morgue in Vancouver and in both cases the cause
- 36:27of death was listed as drowning.
- 36:31Supports the theory of the car, unless they were shot first?
- 36:36Well, but it says cause of death is drowning.
- 36:40So they were not decomposed too much to where they could figure out the cause of death?
- 36:48I think despite whatever decomposition there may have been, it's cold enough in the months
- 36:58leading up to May.
- 37:02And I think if the decomposition is not too advanced, it stands to reason I think for me.
- 37:13And I'm by no means an expert, but I would think that water in the lungs, that would be
- 37:22something that might be preserved for a little bit longer, especially like I said, those
- 37:29are colder months of the year, particularly out towards Hood River.
- 37:34Yeah.
- 37:35I was just thinking of like the bloody gun that was found.
- 37:39Right.
- 37:40I don't know.
- 37:41I don't know what I would prefer to like be shot or drown.
- 37:48Yeah.
- 37:53I think it seems clear that probably I don't think that there was a choice.
- 38:04So of course not.
- 38:05But I hope what they say about death by drowning is true because I've always heard from various
- 38:16sources and different things that I've read over the years that that is supposed to
- 38:21be one of the more peaceful ways to die.
- 38:25Yeah, I was just thinking I don't want people to suffer.
- 38:29So whatever the least amount of suffering is.
- 38:34Yeah.
- 38:35I don't know.
- 38:36It's hard to imagine because of course being slowly suffocated is not good, but I've
- 38:44always heard that once you reach a certain point and the oxygen deprivation, it's a certain
- 38:52level that there's sort of a euphoria that kind of floods your system.
- 39:00God, I would hope that there's something in place in your body to help protect your
- 39:05mind at the end.
- 39:07Right.
- 39:08Yeah.
- 39:09This is a dark conversation.
- 39:10Sorry.
- 39:11Yeah.
- 39:12That one.
- 39:13It's not about to get better necessarily.
- 39:18Susan was identified based on her clothing as well as her dental records.
- 39:25Dr. A.E.
- 39:26Waterman, the Martin family is dentist stated, all fillings in this girl's mouth match
- 39:33Susan's.
- 39:34Susan had been wearing red and white petal pushers and a blue quilted coat.
- 39:40Stop it.
- 39:41Yeah.
- 39:42Also more red and white.
- 39:46That's interesting.
- 39:47Yeah.
- 39:48But like this primary color scheme I like that she's got going on.
- 39:53Yeah.
- 39:54Blue and blue.
- 39:55Mm-hmm.
- 39:56Dr. Charles Larson, a pathologist from Tacoma was summoned to perform her autopsy.
- 40:04Eventually, the underwater searches were called off when it diver very nearly perished
- 40:10in the efforts to discover the fate of the Martin family.
- 40:14Ooh.
- 40:15That's so scary.
- 40:17Yeah.
- 40:18I mean, it's, I think, a very risky endeavor.
- 40:22I think, I mean, very much to this day you are taking your life in your own hands when you
- 40:32go diving.
- 40:33And I mean, not to put anybody at a heightened sense of alarm.
- 40:38But it is a risky thing to do.
- 40:41And of course, there are people that are like trained experts, but it makes sense that at
- 40:46that point they would decide, you know, does the benefit outweigh the potential harm.
- 40:53Right.
- 40:54Yeah, you don't want to lose anyone else as much as you want to know what happened, but
- 40:57you kind of at this point already have an answer.
- 41:01So like why do you need to keep looking if it's so risky?
- 41:07I mean, there are three remaining family members that have never been found along with the vehicle.
- 41:13So I can understand why they continued, but I do think that, you know, if you can't do
- 41:19it safely, you can do, yeah, it's a tough call.
- 41:26I wouldn't want to be the one that makes that call.
- 41:29I will say that.
- 41:30No.
- 41:31Still, not all was lost as it turns out though police work was at times tedious and thankless,
- 41:40Detective Walter Graven was quite dedicated.
- 41:42However, his efforts would continually be met by frustration after devastating frustration,
- 41:49further freezing the case with time.
- 41:53Detective Walter Graven is said to have never abandoned the case.
- 41:59Following his personal effects, a notebook full of his notes pertaining to the case was preserved
- 42:06stowed away in this case.
- 42:08One excerpt indicated he might have suspected he was on the right track with a particular
- 42:13suspect in the case.
- 42:17Stating about the Martin family's disappearance and presumed demise that it has to be planned
- 42:24by, but unfortunately, the name was blacked out.
- 42:29If it was a name, redacted.
- 42:32So it's impossible to read.
- 42:34And after he died in 1988, his suspicions went with him to the grave.
- 42:41Why was it blacked out?
- 42:43Uh, uh, did he do it?
- 42:45Did someone else come through and look through his stuff and redact it?
- 42:49It's hard to say.
- 42:50I would assume he did it.
- 42:52Yeah, I would assume too, because like why wouldn't they just like burn it or whatever,
- 42:56but.
- 42:57Well, and it's stowed away inside a suitcase, you know, this is like a movie.
- 43:03Oh, totally.
- 43:04I mean, it really is.
- 43:07Though notably, his ambition to solve the case lived on as his grandson regaled local news
- 43:13media with some stories that he had shared over the years.
- 43:17So this is a case that literally stayed with him until he had grandchildren.
- 43:25Yeah.
- 43:26And then he like passed the dedication on to his grandchildren.
- 43:29Yeah.
- 43:30Or at least one of them.
- 43:31I mean, it was certainly something that stuck with them.
- 43:35I don't believe that his grandson entered, you know, the law enforcement field, but.
- 43:41Oh, yeah.
- 43:42Like the stories.
- 43:43Yeah.
- 43:44But it's, it's had an impact on him.
- 43:47And I'm thinking we may have a little Patreon mini-saud that sort of touches on some
- 43:54more modern aspects of the case.
- 43:57Okay.
- 43:58Yeah.
- 43:59But there was still one remaining member of the Martin family.
- 44:04And as is the case in any murder investigation, the detective had to explore every possible
- 44:10suspect and lead to try to determine what happened.
- 44:14Oh, this is where Donald suddenly becomes a far more intriguing character in our story.
- 44:22I kind of forgot about Donald until you just said that.
- 44:25Yeah.
- 44:26Of course, he'd been far away from his family at the time of the disappearance.
- 44:31He's, it was a verifiable fact.
- 44:35I mean, at the time he was enlisted in the Navy and he was stationed in New York State at
- 44:40Fort Skylar.
- 44:42Couldn't really get a whole lot further away unless he went international.
- 44:47Right.
- 44:48Okay.
- 44:49Besides, surely he wouldn't have had any involvement in the disappearance of his entire family, right?
- 44:57I would hope not.
- 44:59Yeah.
- 45:00I mean, why would he wish harm on any of the people that he'd grown up with?
- 45:06I don't know.
- 45:07I could think of reasons, but I don't want to say.
- 45:11Now, it's entirely possible that he didn't have any ill will towards his own family.
- 45:19I feel like that would be kind of the default setting.
- 45:23Hopefully.
- 45:24Right.
- 45:25After all, he was never arrested in connection with a crime related to his family's disappearance.
- 45:34Though that's not to say that he had never committed a crime.
- 45:38I knew you were going to say that.
- 45:40In fact, he'd stolen thousands from his previous employer, Meyer and Frank, about five years
- 45:48prior.
- 45:49Is that why they're out of business now?
- 45:53It is not.
- 45:56Not related.
- 45:57But I mean, it's not a good sign for the future.
- 46:02No.
- 46:03I mean, it certainly didn't help.
- 46:06That's awful.
- 46:07Yeah.
- 46:08At the time, he blamed it on problems at home.
- 46:13And though he wasn't arrested, it seems the store may have been repaid by the family in
- 46:20order to avoid entanglement with legal system.
- 46:24Okay.
- 46:26Interesting.
- 46:27So at home, you mean his family family or like his girlfriend at home?
- 46:32Yes.
- 46:33Okay.
- 46:34Because this is when he was still living with the family.
- 46:37Okay.
- 46:38Yeah.
- 46:39A five-year-old theft hardly equates to motive for family annihilation.
- 46:46But of course, there are more details that have resulted in a few raised eyebrows in the
- 46:52years that followed.
- 46:54It wasn't until June 3rd, 1959 that Donald returned to Oregon.
- 47:01His family went missing in December.
- 47:04That is six months.
- 47:06Okay.
- 47:08So you think he would return sooner?
- 47:10Yeah.
- 47:11And it's going to come up.
- 47:12I'm only saying that just because I want to make sure that like, because like, I can tell
- 47:18I'm like, you've been like on the edge of your seat and stuff, but like some of the dates
- 47:22and like other details.
- 47:23I'm like, I just want to make sure that's like.
- 47:26Thank you.
- 47:27Because in the back of my mind, I was stuck on like an ADHD thing.
- 47:30And I was thinking how like Oregon ducks and he's Donald.
- 47:35Donald?
- 47:36And I was like trying so hard to pay attention to what you were saying.
- 47:42I feel like I was pick up on it.
- 47:44Well, I was like, okay, she didn't react to the June 3rd thing.
- 47:48And I was like, I feel like maybe the dates aren't fresh enough.
- 47:52So I was like, okay, I'm going to say it.
- 47:53And we can totally like cut that whole bit out or whatever.
- 47:56I don't know.
- 47:57But I was like, it fits a fit.
- 48:01If it fits, it sits.
- 48:03Yeah.
- 48:04No, I also think I needed a second to like process.
- 48:06Yeah, the dates to see it.
- 48:08Like yeah, okay, yeah, he should have been there sooner because his whole family disappeared.
- 48:13I mean, you could make the argument.
- 48:15He's enlisted in the military and like they don't get to come and go as they please.
- 48:20But historically, if there's a death in the family, you kind of get a pass for that.
- 48:29Yeah.
- 48:30And unless he was stuck on a boat or something, but Navy, it was Navy out on the boat.
- 48:34Yeah, that's the Navy.
- 48:35He was that board skiler.
- 48:37He wasn't on a boat.
- 48:38Okay.
- 48:39Okay.
- 48:40Actively that I'm aware of.
- 48:41I see.
- 48:42He reportedly claimed that he didn't return home sooner because his aunt Charlotte told
- 48:48him at the time of the disappearance that there was nothing more that he could do back home
- 48:53by leaving his military post.
- 48:56Which sounds reasonable.
- 48:58Yeah.
- 48:59And his aunt denied having made this statement or discouraging his immediate return.
- 49:04Okay.
- 49:05So he said she said.
- 49:07Yeah.
- 49:08And I'm sorry, but she's like a second grade school teacher.
- 49:11So why would she lie?
- 49:13Uh, on it, she doesn't have any reason to lie.
- 49:17Yeah.
- 49:18My voice got really high there because she wouldn't lie.
- 49:25Maybe this was a miscommunication of some sort, though when Donald did make his way back
- 49:31to Oregon, he didn't attend the funeral held for his family due to a scheduling misunderstanding.
- 49:41Well, what else are you doing?
- 49:45Uh, dude.
- 49:47Yeah.
- 49:48I mean, that's the first of many questions that I have.
- 49:52Yeah.
- 49:53That's weird.
- 49:54I mean, I don't know.
- 49:56Everyone grieves different.
- 49:58Maybe he just couldn't handle it.
- 50:00And so he was like, okay, well, like I have this other thing.
- 50:03I said, like really important.
- 50:05I got to do that instead.
- 50:06I got to go do that.
- 50:08So I don't know.
- 50:09Maybe it's one of those things where, yeah, some people just like can't, some people just
- 50:14can't handle it.
- 50:16I don't know.
- 50:18It's happened recently in my family where someone didn't come to a funeral.
- 50:22So.
- 50:23And it's tough, but I would say, I mean, my God, this is the entirety of your immediate family.
- 50:31Yeah.
- 50:32Again, like you said, everybody grieves differently.
- 50:35And I've seen on a very personal level, like the, a number of the wide variety of iterations
- 50:46of what grief looks like.
- 50:50But that seems bizarre.
- 50:53Yeah.
- 50:54That seems bizarre.
- 50:58While he was there, he did plan to settle his inheritance due to the presumption that the
- 51:03rest of his family was dead.
- 51:06Donald had noticed there were missing financial documents as he'd gone through the home and
- 51:13family's belongings while he was there.
- 51:18So it takes seven long years to get through probate.
- 51:24As required by law, there was a seven year waiting period to establish the presumption
- 51:29of death of the parents.
- 51:32Once that period had come and gone, there was a $14,000 life insurance policy to settle.
- 51:39Is that because they didn't find their bodies?
- 51:42Right.
- 51:43Wow.
- 51:44Okay.
- 51:45Interesting.
- 51:46Yeah.
- 51:47And remember, I had said early on that the home was valued at approximately $15,000 and
- 51:55there was $15,000 in cash and/or other valuables.
- 52:02That's why I think it's so interesting thinking about, okay, well, what were the other valuables?
- 52:08Obviously, not the car.
- 52:10Never remembered.
- 52:11Right.
- 52:12Yeah.
- 52:13How much cash did they have?
- 52:23I don't know.
- 52:24So you're saying like it sounds like that stuff is missing or well, no, what I'm saying is
- 52:30presumably if there was a lot of cash on hand, there's a house that obviously has a significant
- 52:38monetary value and then additionally down the line, once the probate process is all negotiated,
- 52:49there's also a $14,000 life insurance policy.
- 52:52I see.
- 52:53Okay.
- 52:54I mean, I didn't do the math or an inflation calculator, but I have to imagine that roughly
- 53:01$45,000 from 1959.
- 53:06Right.
- 53:07Yeah, that's a lot.
- 53:10It's a lot.
- 53:11So that's a good little payout for the one surviving member of the family.
- 53:16Correct.
- 53:18But was it true that something was a miss in the Martin family home?
- 53:23He's saying there's documents and specifically potentially financial documents that have gone
- 53:33missing.
- 53:36And in the year since the disappearance, a neighbor had come forward to authorities to
- 53:41provide additional information in the case.
- 53:44A black taxi had pulled into the driveway of the Martin family home on the morning after
- 53:50the disappearance.
- 53:52However, the main investigator did not get this information until six months later.
- 54:00The information only seemed relevant to the neighbor in hindsight as they became aware
- 54:04of the Martin family's disappearance.
- 54:07Because otherwise, why is that something that you would, I mean, give more than a second
- 54:12thought to?
- 54:13Right.
- 54:14That would be like, if you'd notice every Uber.
- 54:19Yeah.
- 54:20Obviously, taxis coming in and out of your neighborhood were probably far less frequent
- 54:26than that.
- 54:27Especially like a black taxi.
- 54:30I don't know.
- 54:31Yeah.
- 54:32That seems like a fancy taxi.
- 54:34Yeah, I'm not sure if that was a different point in history.
- 54:40Taxis have had a different aesthetic.
- 54:44I don't know if that was a regional thing or like to a town car, ordering a town car or
- 54:52whatever.
- 54:53Kind of.
- 54:54Yeah.
- 54:55I agree.
- 54:56It was interesting.
- 54:57I didn't dig super deep on that.
- 54:59But if it was true, it lent credence to Donald suspicions that perhaps someone had been in
- 55:07the home and even removed important financial information or other documents.
- 55:13So how does he know that they're missing?
- 55:17Like how does he know about them?
- 55:18That was kind of my first question.
- 55:21Hard to say.
- 55:22What kind of documents?
- 55:25Yeah.
- 55:26If you know they're missing, you know what they are.
- 55:27What are they?
- 55:28Right.
- 55:29What are they?
- 55:30Exactly.
- 55:31Yeah.
- 55:32I feel like more than anything, this just really opens a lot more follow up questions.
- 55:37As the sole surviving member of the immediate Martin family, Donald did stand to benefit financially
- 55:43from the family's estate and remaining assets.
- 55:48His sister's bodies that had been recovered were quickly cremated after their remains were
- 55:53discovered.
- 55:54Okay.
- 55:55That doesn't seem like the right thing to do.
- 55:59Yeah.
- 56:00I mean, at different points in history and depending on sort of the era and the circumstances
- 56:07of potential crime, I feel like there are certain lengths of time that you would expect
- 56:13that bond enforcement would sort of hold over.
- 56:21And they would say, you know, no, we're not going to allow you.
- 56:25If you want to have your loved one cremated, that's fine.
- 56:31We're not here to tell you what to do in that regard.
- 56:36But you are going to have to wait a certain length of time before we will allow that because
- 56:42if there's evidence or sort of a suspicion of a crime, like we have to be able to gather
- 56:50all of that evidence and solved.
- 56:53Right.
- 56:54Of course, you know, autopsies were performed, but and quickly is relative, quickly in the
- 57:021950s versus quickly now.
- 57:06I don't know precisely what that time window looked like, but it was flagged.
- 57:12It was flagged, you know, by people that were familiar with the story and in a lot of the
- 57:18reporting, probably because at least in part due to the fact that they were held in their
- 57:26urns at the mausoleum for 10 years, which I'm given to understand means that Donald never
- 57:33claimed them.
- 57:35So he like, he had to say the okay for them to get cremated, right?
- 57:40Right.
- 57:41So that he was like, okay, cremate them and then didn't pick them up.
- 57:45So obviously he didn't really care.
- 57:47I don't know.
- 57:48And he's in the military, right?
- 57:50I guess.
- 57:51I guess that could account for a certain amount of some of these things, but they were held
- 57:57by the facility in their urns for 10 years.
- 58:04That's a lot of years.
- 58:07You're not too busy for 10 years just to at least pick up a phone call and say, hey, can
- 58:14you FedEx me my dead relative?
- 58:16Ma'am.
- 58:19This only came to light when his grandmother passed away just a few days after Christmas in 1969
- 58:26as her funeral and other arrangements were being made.
- 58:31It was then decided that all three would be buried and interred together.
- 58:36No.
- 58:38And this is another thing that gets a little bit weird.
- 58:42It sort of goes back to that what you were saying about, you know, people grieve in different
- 58:50ways.
- 58:52He reportedly never shared the details of what had happened to his family when he started
- 58:58a family of his own across the country.
- 59:01He continued to live outside the state of Oregon and married his wife Helen at age 36.
- 59:08They went on to raise a family of their own.
- 59:13Donald was said to initially have been alienated from the family by his parents disapproval.
- 59:19As Evan said that whether he came out to them or they merely suspected it, they believed
- 59:25he was gay.
- 59:27Oh, interesting.
- 59:30Donald had reportedly been sent to a religious school in Connecticut where they attempted
- 59:35to convert him.
- 59:37Oh, that's rough, dude.
- 59:40Yeah.
- 59:42Is it possible that his family might have done such a thing?
- 59:47I mean, it seems like there is evidence or some sort of, you know, statements made by people
- 59:54that knew the family that indicate yes, that's what happened.
- 59:59Wow.
- 1:00:00Sadly, at the time, certainly, very possible.
- 1:00:05And unfortunately today, very possibly, might they have sent him to a reform school simply
- 1:00:12because he'd been caught stealing?
- 1:00:15That's admittedly also a possibility.
- 1:00:18Mmm, but there's also one last thing.
- 1:00:21No, I don't want anymore.
- 1:00:23I'm done.
- 1:00:24Well done.
- 1:00:25You're going to want to know.
- 1:00:28One of the items that Donald had stolen dating back to his days at Myron Frank.
- 1:00:34Was it gun that matched the description of the one found under the rock in the cascade
- 1:00:41blocks?
- 1:00:42The bloody gun.
- 1:00:46It even had the same serial number.
- 1:00:49Okay.
- 1:00:50It had already been cleaned by the man who found it after being returned by the authorities.
- 1:00:55Of course.
- 1:00:57The main investigator, Walter Groven, began to speculate that even though Donald was
- 1:01:03across the country, maybe he could have hired someone to carry out the deed.
- 1:01:09Maybe even two ex-cons?
- 1:01:13And that's where I'm going to actually leave this one.
- 1:01:17Wow.
- 1:01:18I know.
- 1:01:19But ending was like such a twist.
- 1:01:22I know.
- 1:01:23I know.
- 1:01:24It's like just, I guess just because these people died presumably tragically that they were
- 1:01:30good people, but still doesn't mean that they deserved to die the way they died.
- 1:01:36Oh, absolutely.
- 1:01:37Yeah.
- 1:01:38Also, the kids.
- 1:01:39I'm sure the kids don't have anything to do with that.
- 1:01:42Right.
- 1:01:43They're blameless regardless of whatever their parents might have done.
- 1:01:48And I mean, obviously at this point, even if they had not been in the vehicle when it was,
- 1:01:56I mean, this is one theory, obviously, when it was submerged in the Columbia River, more
- 1:02:04than likely, all three of the remaining family members that were not previously found, they
- 1:02:10would probably be dead.
- 1:02:14I mean, I suppose with the exception of Barbie because she was only 14 at the time.
- 1:02:21So she very much, you know, she could still be alive at this point.
- 1:02:26If she had survived whatever happened to the rest of the family, but there's a lot of,
- 1:02:36there's a lot of different ways this case could go.
- 1:02:39But I think the fact that, you know, there are so many obvious tie-ins.
- 1:02:46This gun that's discovered right by the stolen vehicle, the X-con, and that gun happens to
- 1:02:57be more than likely the gun that Donald stole from Iron Frank.
- 1:03:05I just honestly, obviously, they were never able to piece together enough to feel like there
- 1:03:14was a case that they could win.
- 1:03:18Did they have enough for a case at some point?
- 1:03:22I think possibly, but DA likes to go for a case that they think they can win.
- 1:03:30That seems like a hot, this one seems hard.
- 1:03:33Yeah.
- 1:03:34There's a lot of things that feel like, ooh, but then it, it's like, it goes back to, like
- 1:03:42I said, at the top, it really is a lot of very circumstantial things.
- 1:03:49Yeah, you're right.
- 1:03:51Yeah.
- 1:03:52I know.
- 1:03:53Who knew?
- 1:03:54It's like I wrote this thing.
- 1:03:55It's like you researched the shit out of this or something.
- 1:04:00I mean, it's a wild one though.
- 1:04:02It does.
- 1:04:03And there are some things that I read that make it sound even a little bit more salacious.
- 1:04:12There are some things that I was like, I'm not sure that I'm seeing that echoed throughout
- 1:04:18the source material.
- 1:04:19So I don't know if I feel confident enough to say to include that.
- 1:04:25But there were some other kind of things that were rumored that I was like, ooh, boy.
- 1:04:31If it's true, it gets even wilder.
- 1:04:34But whoo.
- 1:04:35Well, let's go to Patreon and talk about it.
- 1:04:39Right?
- 1:04:40See you in the Patreon.
- 1:04:43See what the post.
- 1:04:45Should we do in tarot?
- 1:04:48Yeah, should we do some tarot about it?
- 1:04:51Let's do it.
- 1:04:52I'm ready.
- 1:04:53Bitchin.
- 1:04:54I'm gonna have nothing to do with it because I'm not in your vicinity, but I'll send you
- 1:05:00my powers and vibes.
- 1:05:02You guys.
- 1:05:03I'm doing witchy mind powers to you.
- 1:05:08Oh, shuffling is hard.
- 1:05:14Okay.
- 1:05:15I'll send you my vibes and you'll film through your fingertips.
- 1:05:19Oh, it's the ten of cups.
- 1:05:25Okay.
- 1:05:26In reverse.
- 1:05:27Oh, it looks like monkeys.
- 1:05:30Is it monkeys?
- 1:05:32Nope, not a monkey.
- 1:05:33I can't tell it's blurry.
- 1:05:36It's birds.
- 1:05:37Oh, are they on a tree?
- 1:05:39Yeah.
- 1:05:40Okay, okay.
- 1:05:41I thought it was like monkeys on a tree.
- 1:05:42I see it.
- 1:05:43Yeah.
- 1:05:44Yeah.
- 1:05:45How many birds are there?
- 1:05:47Four.
- 1:05:48So numerically, it doesn't fully align for me, but we'll see.
- 1:05:53We'll see.
- 1:05:54You said it was a four of cups?
- 1:05:56No, the ten of cups.
- 1:05:58Oh, okay.
- 1:05:59Oh, ten of cups is like the family card.
- 1:06:02That's really interesting.
- 1:06:04Yeah.
- 1:06:05Oh, oh, shit.
- 1:06:08Okay.
- 1:06:09Wow.
- 1:06:10Okay.
- 1:06:11I just always feel like cups is like I'm trying to sort of create a little bit of like muscle
- 1:06:18memory for myself about like kind of broad strokes themes and things like that.
- 1:06:27And cups to me just is so positive that I'm always a little bit like, okay.
- 1:06:32It is reversed though.
- 1:06:33It is reversed.
- 1:06:34That's one is kind of.
- 1:06:36Yeah.
- 1:06:37Boy, howdy.
- 1:06:38I skimmed real quick and okay.
- 1:06:44Keywords are comfort, happiness, domestic bliss, love and harmony.
- 1:06:51A card of fulfillment, the ten of cups represents a happy home where love and harmony abide.
- 1:06:58One deck show a contented couple gazing at their beautiful home while their children play.
- 1:07:05Others picture the pair with flowers, rainbows and other symbols of love and hope.
- 1:07:12You could think of this as the happy ever after card.
- 1:07:15I feel like that was like obviously just very much how they were being portrayed on the
- 1:07:22outside or how everything looked on the outside at least.
- 1:07:25Yeah.
- 1:07:26I totally agree.
- 1:07:27Like even when you were talking about it, we were always like, oh that's so wholesome.
- 1:07:31Like dressed up like Santa.
- 1:07:34Yeah.
- 1:07:35It definitely has a very, it's a wholesome vibe.
- 1:07:44It's like very Brady Bunch.
- 1:07:47It's very of that era, which obviously the Brady Bunch I really came a little bit later.
- 1:07:54But you know what I mean?
- 1:07:55It's a vibe.
- 1:07:56The reverse ten may point to disharmony or disappointments in your home life.
- 1:08:05Things haven't turned out the way you'd expected.
- 1:08:08I feel like it was obviously was the perfect card.
- 1:08:14Sometimes it suggests a family that puts too much emphasis on stuff and not enough on
- 1:08:20love.
- 1:08:21God.
- 1:08:24In some cases, this card may represent the loss of a home or children leaving home.
- 1:08:32Wow.
- 1:08:33There was like all of that going on.
- 1:08:35The oldest left home to go to the Navy.
- 1:08:38Yeah, which I feel like at that point in his life, that's a normal thing to do, but wow.
- 1:08:44But then like yeah, losing children and they were the only one who were found too.
- 1:08:50That's also interesting.
- 1:08:52But only, wait, it was three children, right?
- 1:08:56And only two of them were found.
- 1:08:57Two of them were found.
- 1:08:58Yeah.
- 1:08:59The two younger of the three girls.
- 1:09:03In a reading about money, the ten reverse can mean having to scale down your expenditures
- 1:09:08and lifestyle.
- 1:09:11Sometimes it shows declining property values or squabbles over an inheritance.
- 1:09:17Whoa, or like having to pay for the fact that your son stole a bunch of shit too.
- 1:09:24I mean, it all fits.
- 1:09:27Oh my God.
- 1:09:28Holy shit.
- 1:09:29Holy shit.
- 1:09:30Are we still so powerful from a distance?
- 1:09:33I think so.
- 1:09:35Okay.
- 1:09:36If the reading is about your job, this card says you're not as secure as you'd like to be.
- 1:09:44Sometimes within a company may threaten your position or company may grow too fast or
- 1:09:51overextend itself requiring you to work extra hard.
- 1:09:55I'm going to go ahead and say it because I don't think I stated it in so many words, but
- 1:10:00I think it goes without saying that Donald was fired from my iron Frank.
- 1:10:06Right.
- 1:10:07I would assume.
- 1:10:08Yeah.
- 1:10:09So I would say that matches up with problems within a company.
- 1:10:16Yeah, I think so.
- 1:10:17I think so.
- 1:10:18Your position.
- 1:10:19Whoa.
- 1:10:20Okay.
- 1:10:21Oh, this is very interesting.
- 1:10:24Okay.
- 1:10:25I'm not going to say anything.
- 1:10:26I want to get your take on this.
- 1:10:28Okay.
- 1:10:29Okay.
- 1:10:30In a reading about love, a partner may not share your values or may have different ideas
- 1:10:35about family life.
- 1:10:37If you don't get along with the in-laws or kids from a former relationship cause problems.
- 1:10:44I don't know.
- 1:10:45My first thought was like not love is in like a relationship, but like love is in this
- 1:10:51is their family life and the parents don't agree.
- 1:10:54Maybe with how the sun wants to live his life.
- 1:10:56I don't know.
- 1:10:57Yeah.
- 1:10:58I feel like there's part of me that reads into this.
- 1:11:04And again, it's hard to know if Donald was actually someone who was gay.
- 1:11:13I mean, he married a woman and had children, but that was not an uncommon thing for a gay
- 1:11:19man to do at that point in history.
- 1:11:23Right.
- 1:11:24Especially if you freaking family tries to convert you if that happens.
- 1:11:27Right.
- 1:11:28Right.
- 1:11:29It sounds I don't have any reason to doubt that his family did try to convert him and that
- 1:11:37they were disapproving of that quote lifestyle.
- 1:11:45I think it does speak to just sort of a difference in values or as it says, different ideas about
- 1:11:53family life.
- 1:12:01Or ultimately because if you are a gay man that is living closeted and you know, you're
- 1:12:09living with a partner and creating a family, ultimately that could speak to some conflict
- 1:12:15in the relationship that you have with that partner.
- 1:12:19Yeah.
- 1:12:25I was totally thinking of his wife and wow.
- 1:12:27I was trying to think too.
- 1:12:28Did you mention in-laws?
- 1:12:31I think you said the word in-laws in that statement, having trouble with your in-laws.
- 1:12:36It says maybe you don't get along with the in-laws.
- 1:12:39Pretty hard to not get along with the in-laws when they are dead.
- 1:12:44Right.
- 1:12:45Yeah.
- 1:12:46Presumably.
- 1:12:47I mean, at this point they certainly are regardless of what happened to them.
- 1:12:52Legally, yeah.
- 1:12:53I mean, legally or otherwise.
- 1:12:57It's been a number of years and they were both born in the early 1900s.
- 1:13:02They are certainly dead.
- 1:13:04Yeah.
- 1:13:05I keep forgetting kind of how old this is.
- 1:13:07Right.
- 1:13:08Right.
- 1:13:09I know.
- 1:13:10Yeah.
- 1:13:11It's because like you said, it feels like it could be happening recently.
- 1:13:14Yeah.
- 1:13:15It's kind of wild.
- 1:13:16Wow, I can't believe what I mean, I can't believe what a perfect card you've pulled, but still.
- 1:13:23Yeah.
- 1:13:24It's crazy.
- 1:13:25It's just like the whole family vibe and it was about a family and yeah.
- 1:13:31It feels like I mean, dead on.
- 1:13:33It really does.
- 1:13:34Oh, I want to know the short story and like what kind of birds they were.
- 1:13:39Because I'm selfish.
- 1:13:40I was going to say, of course, you do.
- 1:13:43I want to know.
- 1:13:45Okay.
- 1:13:46So, blah, blah, blah.
- 1:13:48It's, I mean, honestly, it's all the same keywords.
- 1:13:52So I'll just read the little short story that's kind of, it serves as our interpretation.
- 1:13:57What kind of birds are they?
- 1:13:59They are violet, green, swallows.
- 1:14:02Swallows.
- 1:14:03Swallows.
- 1:14:04You told me to swallow earlier.
- 1:14:07Yeah, sorry about that.
- 1:14:10The sun shower had felt good, washing the swallow's feathers clean after too long cooped up in
- 1:14:16a nest that would be generously described as cozy.
- 1:14:21But now that the summer rain was finally letting up, she was so ready to take to the air
- 1:14:26to stretch her wings and judging by their hungry chirping, again, already.
- 1:14:34Her chicks were ready for her to go to.
- 1:14:37Her blitzed flicked outward from her wing tips as she rapidly beat the air, expertly intercepting
- 1:14:44insects to deliver to hungry beaks.
- 1:14:48Each time she returned, her mate eyed her admirably from the back of the nest.
- 1:14:55Happy to see her back and happy to watch over the hatchlings while she was away.
- 1:15:00Aww.
- 1:15:01I was like, this motherfucker get off your ass.
- 1:15:05That makes sense, yeah.
- 1:15:06It's still the wholesome vibe.
- 1:15:08Yeah.
- 1:15:09She knew one day her chicks would fly off, migrate on their own paths, perhaps find their
- 1:15:16own mates and nests.
- 1:15:18But that was for another season.
- 1:15:21For now, they were happy and safe, caring for each other.
- 1:15:25At this moment that constant chirping was the most beautiful sound she could imagine.
- 1:15:30Aww.
- 1:15:31It made me sad.
- 1:15:35It did remind me though, like talking about the water in the rain, that the cups are water.
- 1:15:40And the water had a lot to do with this.
- 1:15:44Yes, it definitely did.
- 1:15:46Yeah.
- 1:15:47Interesting.
- 1:15:48Ooh.
- 1:15:49I've gotten the chili willy as a couple of times.
- 1:15:52Oh, I was just thinking about how like it said that you know your children are going to
- 1:15:58find a mate and move out on their own.
- 1:16:02What if that mate isn't the person that you think is right for your child?
- 1:16:06Like it just reminded me of that too.
- 1:16:09Yeah.
- 1:16:10Like everything's perfect and nice until it's not.
- 1:16:14Yeah.
- 1:16:15Yeah, that's sort of where my head went to as well.
- 1:16:18And ultimately he kind of went off on his own.
- 1:16:22And I mean the thing about it is that part of me does wonder because you know his parents
- 1:16:31and you know his siblings were long dead by the time that he married.
- 1:16:38So you know it's possible that he still just felt like that was necessary to do, to be
- 1:16:45able to live and you know somewhat like assemblies of a normal life in society.
- 1:16:53But I feel like you know if he had cut all of those ties whether by his own hand or just
- 1:16:59by you know that is what was determined you know by fate.
- 1:17:05I can't help but wonder you know why would he have gone through with you know sort of
- 1:17:13it.
- 1:17:15I think what most of us would refer to is kind of a sham marriage if that was the case.
- 1:17:20But or maybe he was just like a bisexual and was like yeah I like do that.
- 1:17:25But I also ended up falling in love with a woman and completely like have a normal not I
- 1:17:31don't want to say normal but I have like a loving marriage is what I do by normal.
- 1:17:35Yeah but like a happy and healthy well-adjusted relationship.
- 1:17:40Yeah.
- 1:17:41You know I steer heavily on this one and I think there are certain things that they feel
- 1:17:49more likely than you know some of the other theories that I've heard.
- 1:17:54There are a number in this case.
- 1:17:58But I don't think there's any I don't think there's any one theory that feels like it kind of
- 1:18:08totally fits like yeah.
- 1:18:11Did they get driven off the edge of a cliff by Xconvex and if so was that just because those
- 1:18:21people were in the wrong place at the wrong time you know was that sort of a hit man squad
- 1:18:29that was hired by Donald.
- 1:18:30I mean I don't know.
- 1:18:32Did you know the gun for someone else like if someone else out there like another unsolved
- 1:18:37murder that they don't know even know about.
- 1:18:39I know that was kind of something that came across.
- 1:18:43Yeah like there are so many questions so many questions.
- 1:18:49Did they DNA test the blood on the gun and like save it?
- 1:18:53Cassie.
- 1:18:55Did they did not have DNA testing back then?
- 1:18:57No.
- 1:18:58I don't know the time.
- 1:18:59No.
- 1:18:59And it was already cleaned.
- 1:19:01In 1959 they did not have DNA testing.
- 1:19:04I don't know when that came about.
- 1:19:05I really don't.
- 1:19:07Like in our lifetime like when we were like actual living breathing people.
- 1:19:13Like the 90s?
- 1:19:14Yes.
- 1:19:16It was in its infancy in the 90s so it wasn't good.
- 1:19:20You know the times where I'm like were cars invented yet?
- 1:19:25I have a really hard time with the time line.
- 1:19:28Well and we've I mean we've kind of covered like through this because I mean the parents were
- 1:19:34born early in the 1900s.
- 1:19:37You know we've been talking about kind of the 50s.
- 1:19:39This really it covers multiple decades because by the time by the time they figured out
- 1:19:47that like holy shit the sisters remains were never claimed.
- 1:19:51That's like almost 1970.
- 1:19:54Wow.
- 1:19:55So I mean details of this case span multiple multiple decades.
- 1:20:02And the article that I was kind of intrigued by just it's interesting to hear a little bit
- 1:20:08more.
- 1:20:10It's actually dated to 2009.
- 1:20:12Wow.
- 1:20:13Yeah.
- 1:20:14So.
- 1:20:15I mean that's like old.
- 1:20:18It sounds like it's not that old but it is.
- 1:20:23Yeah.
- 1:20:24That's you know roughly 15 years.
- 1:20:28Yeah.
- 1:20:29It's like if I can quickly do math in my head it's like 15.
- 1:20:33Yeah.
- 1:20:34Yeah.
- 1:20:35I know it's wild.
- 1:20:36We're coming on 2025.
- 1:20:37And we're coming on 2025.
- 1:20:40Come actually when this is out it's New Year's Eve.
- 1:20:43I think we decided we're going to put this out on New Year's Eve.
- 1:20:46Yeah.
- 1:20:47Oh my gosh.
- 1:20:48Happy 2025.
- 1:20:49Oh.
- 1:20:50We're going to have a good year.
- 1:20:57I really hope so.
- 1:21:00Because 2024 didn't turn out the way any of us wanted it while some of us wanted it but
- 1:21:04not enough.
- 1:21:05Not enough of us wanted the different outcome apparently.
- 1:21:09It's really strange how that worked out.
- 1:21:13So we're just going to move on 2025.
- 1:21:15You know what we're going to focus on us this year.
- 1:21:17Fuck everyone else.
- 1:21:19Except for the creepy people.
- 1:21:21It's us and the creepy people this year.
- 1:21:24Yeah.
- 1:21:25Oh my gosh.
- 1:21:28Okay.
- 1:21:29Should we do our outro thingy?
- 1:21:30Yeah.
- 1:21:31Let's do it.
- 1:21:32Okay.
- 1:21:33Have a creepy year.
- 1:21:35Have a creepy year.
- 1:21:37Have a creepy year.
- 1:21:38See you next year.
- 1:21:39See you next year.
- 1:21:40See you next year.
- 1:21:41Oh my god.
- 1:21:42Don't have a 2025.
- 1:21:43That's as creepy as 2024 though.
- 1:21:51I have a feeling it's all like going to get creepier.
- 1:21:54Well, we're here.
- 1:21:56And not in that good way.
- 1:21:58We're here for you.
- 1:22:00We're here for us.
- 1:22:02You're here for us.
- 1:22:03We're here for you.
- 1:22:04How about us?
- 1:22:05We can do this.
- 1:22:06You guys.
- 1:22:07We totally get.
- 1:22:08Put a pin in that.
- 1:22:16You know, it'll be important later.
- 1:22:18Actually, it's literally important right now.
- 1:22:20I'm just going to say the whole thing again.
- 1:22:22Okay.
- 1:22:23Yeah.
- 1:22:24Just leave the pin alone.
- 1:22:26No pins.
- 1:22:27No sharp objects.
- 1:22:29[laughter] www.pnwhauntsandhomicides.com