Discovered in river

Family missing for 66 years: car turned up

Nachrichten
09.03.2025 11:03

66 years ago, a family of five from the US state of Oregon set off to buy a Christmas tree. Since then, there has been no trace of the couple and their three girls. Now the mystery surrounding the whereabouts of the five missing people could be solved: a diver discovered a car in a river that probably belonged to the family.

On December 7, 1958, Ken and Barbara Martin drove off with their daughters, aged between eleven and 14, to get a Christmas tree - they never returned home. For 66 years, it was unclear what had happened to the family. Now the mystery has apparently been solved. 

A picture of the diver's search operation (Bild: AP/AP ( via APA) Austria Presse Agentur)
A picture of the diver's search operation

A diver found a wrecked car in the Columbia River that could have belonged to the Martin family. Special forces recovered the Ford station wagon from the river using a crane. No human remains were discovered for the time being, but the interior of the car must first be examined in detail, the police said. 

Police: "Everything fits together"
The officers are fairly certain that the car is one of the missing family. "Everything fits together," police officer Pete Hughes told the media. "It appears to be the Martins' vehicle in terms of color, make and model."

The Martin family in an archive photo: parents Ken and Barbara with their daughters Barbara, Sue and Virginia. The grown-up brother Donald was in the Navy at the time of the incident. (Bild: AP/AP ( via APA) Austria Presse Agentur)
The Martin family in an archive photo: parents Ken and Barbara with their daughters Barbara, Sue and Virginia. The grown-up brother Donald was in the Navy at the time of the incident.

The case caused a sensation at the end of the 1950s: After the Martins had refueled and eaten lunch in Cascade Locks, a small community on the Columbia River, there was no trace of them. Even then, the police assumed that the vehicle might have crashed into the river. 

Bodies of two girls were found
Just under six months later, the body of the youngest daughter was also found in an arm of the river, and just one day later the remains of the 13-year-old sister were discovered 40 kilometers upstream. The other family members remained missing. 

Diver Archer Mayo has now apparently solved the decades-long mystery. (Bild: AP/AP ( via APA) Austria Presse Agentur)
Diver Archer Mayo has now apparently solved the decades-long mystery.

More vehicles found in the river
When diver Archer Mayo, who specializes in searching for accident victims, heard about the case, he wanted to get to the bottom of the mystery - quite literally. After seven years of searching, he finally found the car at a depth of 15 meters, covered in mud, silt and mussel shells. During his mission, the diver also found other vehicles at the bottom of the river - these will now also be investigated by the police. 

This article has been automatically translated,
read the original article here.

Loading...
00:00 / 00:00
Abspielen
Schließen
Aufklappen
Loading...
Vorige 10 Sekunden
Zum Vorigen Wechseln
Abspielen
Zum Nächsten Wechseln
Nächste 10 Sekunden
00:00
00:00
1.0x Geschwindigkeit
Loading
Kommentare

Liebe Leserin, lieber Leser,

die Kommentarfunktion steht Ihnen ab 6 Uhr wieder wie gewohnt zur Verfügung.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen
das krone.at-Team

User-Beiträge geben nicht notwendigerweise die Meinung des Betreibers/der Redaktion bzw. von Krone Multimedia (KMM) wieder. In diesem Sinne distanziert sich die Redaktion/der Betreiber von den Inhalten in diesem Diskussionsforum. KMM behält sich insbesondere vor, gegen geltendes Recht verstoßende, den guten Sitten oder der Netiquette widersprechende bzw. dem Ansehen von KMM zuwiderlaufende Beiträge zu löschen, diesbezüglichen Schadenersatz gegenüber dem betreffenden User geltend zu machen, die Nutzer-Daten zu Zwecken der Rechtsverfolgung zu verwenden und strafrechtlich relevante Beiträge zur Anzeige zu bringen (siehe auch AGB). Hier können Sie das Community-Team via unserer Melde- und Abhilfestelle kontaktieren.

Kostenlose Spiele
Vorteilswelt