On Friday. March 7. a ford station wagon was pulled from the Columbia river. Believed to belong to a family that disappeared 66 years ago.
In fall of 2024 local diver, archer mayo managed to pinpoint a location on the Martin’s family car. This took him seven years to do, and several dives before he managed to find what he believed to be the family’s car upside down 50 feet deep, covered in mud and other river debris. They began the process of trying to remove the car on Thursday, March 6 of 2025. After some difficulty they postponed until Friday, March 7 when they managed to pull the car out around 3:50 PM, unfortunately the frame and the chassis separated so only the frame was pulled out.
On December 7 in 1958, the Martin’s family, consisting of Ken, Barbara and their three daughters Barbara age 14 Virginia age 13 and Sue age 11 went on a trip to the mountains to collect greenery for Christmas. The family was reported missing two days later when Barbara and Martin failed to return to work. Police used a debit card transaction that took place at a gas station near Cascade locks, a small Columbia river community, to narrow their search for the missing family.
Five months after the family‘s initial disappearance, the body of their youngest daughter Sue was found bobbing in the Columbia River near Camas, Washington. The next day, her sister Virginia was found 25 miles upstream. Unfortunately the rest of the family was never found.
The Martin’s also had a 28 year-old son Don, who was a marine veteran that graduated from Columbia University in New York and in an interview with AP news, he stated he believed his family was dead.
During his search, Mayo, found two other cards in the vicinity, a previously identified car and an unidentified Volkswagen.
At this time, the remains of the rest of the family remain missing and their car has been sent off for forensics.
Missing family’s car possibly found after nearly 70 years – WGAL
Partial car pulled from Columbia might have belonged to Oregon …
