What Happened to the Martin Family of Portland, Oregon?

Feb 3

In the early morning of May 2nd, 1959 a fisherman and his wife reported something strange floating downstream near the Bonneville Dam in the Columbia River Gorge near Portland, Oregon.

To them, it appeared to be two bodies, and unfortunately, they were right. The following day one of the bodies was found on the north bank of the Columbia River and the next morning the second body was recovered. They belonged to Susan and Virginia Martin ages 11 and 13.

The two girls were members of a family that had vanished several months earlier without any clues and their discovery reignited a search for the remaining members that would leave more questions than answers.

Today we’re looking into the disappearance of the Martin Family consisting of 54 and 48-year-old Ken and Barbara Martin along with their three daughters, Barbara, 14, Virginia, 13, and Susan, 11, who all disappeared without a trace in 1958.

At the time, their disappearance launched the greatest manhunt in Oregon’s history and even today we still don’t have all the answers.

What happened to the Martin Family?

Martin Family Disappearance — The Martin Family

PART 1 - The Disappearance

By most accounts, the Martins were a happy and close-knit family all living in the suburbs of Portland, Oregon, excluding Ken and Barbara’s oldest child and son, Donald. At the time Donald was 28 years old and in the Navy, stationed in New York.

December 7th, 1958

On Sunday, December 7th, 1958, around 1 pm, the family gathered into their 1954 cream and red-colored Ford station wagon and headed towards the Columbia River Gorge. Their intention was to collect greenery from the surrounding woodlands to use for Christmas decorations around their home.

Three hours later the family stopped at a gas station in the city of Cascade Locks, forty miles from their home. They then ate at the Paradise Snack Bar in the city of Hood River twenty miles further from Cascade Locks, placing them around sixty miles from their home.

A waitress named Clara York confirmed that all appeared normal and they left the restaurant without incident at around 5 pm. This would later raise questions as many who knew Ken Martin stated he would avoid driving at night due to his eyesight.

This was the last time any sightings of the Martin family could be verified.

The Missing Martin Family

On December 9th, Ken’s boss, Taylor Eccles of the Eccles Electric Home Service Company, reported Ken missing as he had not shown up to work, something that was extremely unusual for Ken to do.

That night around 11 pm police arrived at the home of the Martin family. They noted no signs of a break-in, dishes were still in the sink, a load of clothing was still in the washing machine, and even a Santa Claus outfit from a Christmas party was laid out on a bed.

Wherever the Martins were, they had always planned to come back. Within days their disappearance reached the front page of the local papers and as many as five different police agencies all launched separate investigations to find the family.

PART 2 - The Investigations

“There are mysteries which men can only guess at, which age by age they may solve only in part.”

Bram Stoker

Abandoned Chevrolet

Police were quickly able to put together a timeline and verify the family stopped at the gas station and the restaurant but after that, they were at a loss. During the course of the initial search, the police found an abandoned white Chevrolet near Cascade Locks.

The car was from Los Angeles and had been reported stolen by its owner. This led police to search for two ex-convicts Roy Light and Lester Price. There was some suspicion the two may have been involved in the disappearance of the Martins as the owner of the Paradise Snack Bar told the police they were at the restaurant at the same time as the Martin family, leaving shortly after the Martins.

Ultimately there wasn’t enough to link them to Martin's disappearance and they were never questioned. But the police had reason to believe the Martins were still out there somewhere as they received multiple calls and tips with sightings all throughout the area.

Several witnesses claimed to see the Martins or people matching their description in other parts of Oregon, Iowa, and even Montana but none of these sightings could be verified.

The Smoking Gun?

As the case appeared to grow cold, a man in Cascade Locks found a .38 caliber handgun coated in dried blood near where the white Chevy had been abandoned. The butt of the gun was damaged, appearing to have been used to smash something and there was a fired shell casing in the chamber.

The man brought the gun to the Hood River Sheriff who unbelievably, never processed the gun or took samples of it for evidence. The sheriff eventually returned the gun to the man who found it, allowing him to keep it.

The Missing Link?

But a link between the gun and a member of the Martin family was eventually found.

In 1955 prior to Donald Martin leaving Oregon for the Navy, he worked at the Meier and Frank department store but was fired after he was accused of stealing two thousand dollars worth of merchandise from the sporting goods section. The serial number of the handgun that was found confirms it was one of the items that was never recovered from the theft.

But when Donald was questioned about the theft, he claimed his coworker and friend Wayne was the actual culprit and not himself. Nothing more was able to be ascertained from the gun as the new owner cleaned and repaired it after retrieving it from the Sheriff.

Tracks

It seemed as if we would never know what happened to the Martin family but in February of 1959, a volunteer searcher found tire tracks leading off a cliff and into the river near the city of The Dalles in Oregon. Police confirmed it matched the tires on the Martin's car and were also able to send paint chips found at the scene to the FBI.

The FBI then confirmed the paint was the same paint that would have been on the make and model of the Martin’s car. It appeared as if the Martin family had somehow ended up driving off the cliff and into the river.

Despite attempts to search the water and even lowering the level of the river by five feet with the help of the United States Army Corps of Engineers, the police could find no trace of the Martins or their car.

May 1959

On May 1st, 1959 during a dredging operation a barge dropped anchor and hooked onto something believed to be large and metallic but whatever it was broke off when the crew attempted to pull it up. At the time, the crew thought nothing more of it until, by the end of the week, police found the bodies of Susan and Virginia Martin.

Police now believe the anchor caught onto the Martin’s car and caused it to dislodge in a way that would allow the two bodies to float out of it. For a moment it seemed the rest of the family’s bodies would also appear at some point but they never did and the bodies of Susan and Virginia raised more questions.

The field evidence technician who fingerprinted and photographed the bodies noted on his report that the bodies of Virginia and Susan had a hole in each of their skulls. Interestingly the coroner did not note the holes and determined the cause of death was drowning.

The autopsy also found fries and burgers in the girl’s stomachs which was the meal waitress Clara York told police she served the family at the Paradise Snack Bar. This meant whatever happened to the family had to have occurred only hours after leaving and the other sightings from throughout December 1958 could not have been the family or at least not the whole family.

The girls' bodies were then cremated.

Continued Searches

After this police searched the river again, hoping to find evidence of the car and the rest of the family but after a diver almost drowned in the river during a search, it was called off. The rest of the Martin family were never found.

Donald Martin eventually returned for a short time to settle the estate, he was questioned by detectives but was cleared of any wrongdoing especially as many at the time now believed the deaths were an accident.

Others, though, believe there was some level of foul play involved in the Martin’s deaths and disappearance and to this day many are still looking for answers.

PART 3 - Theories and Suspects

“It is the nature of an enigma to remain unsolved.”

William Gay

Donald Martin

The most prevailing theory accuses Donald Martin of being involved in the deaths of his family. It was revealed Donald Martin had a strained relationship with his family due to him possibly being gay and having been caught with a man in the home by his parents. This was corroborated by his friend Wayne in an interview with journalists in 2008.

Some believe Donald was the only person who had the motive to kill the family in order to receive the inheritance and worked with the two ex-cons in order to carry out the murders. It also seems extremely coincidental that a gun Donald stole years prior just happens to be found near where the family went missing.

But this raises multiple questions.

How would Donald have met Roy Light and Lester Price and arranged the murders from the other side of the country while in the Navy and then not leave a trail? Why would Donald have them use a gun that would have connected him directly to the murders and how would they have gotten the gun first place? Finally, the inheritance took 8 years to be settled meaning Donald had nothing to gain for all that time, why take such a huge risk?

Motivation?

Unfortunately, Donald did not help his case when he appeared to not show any emotion to the deaths and disappearances of his family.

During the search for the family, Donald made no efforts to help or return to Oregon. After Virginia and Susan were found, he did not attend the memorial service and claimed there was a mix-up in the dates.

After they were cremated, Donald never picked up his sister’s ashes. Virginia and Susan’s ashes sat at the funeral home unclaimed for a decade before they were picked up by an unnamed relative.

Donald Martin eventually moved to Hawaii, got married, and had four children of his own before passing away in 2004. He never spoke about what happened to his family and refused all interviews. But it’s possible Donald had nothing to do with the deaths and disappearances and more likely he simply cut his family out of his life after they sent him away because of his life choices.

Roy Light & Lester Price

Another theory points directly at Roy Light and Lester Price without any outside motivators. Both ex-convicts were already on the run after having stolen the white chevy and it’s possible they spotted the Martin’s at the Paradise Snack Bar, seeing them as an easy target. This would fit with the owner stating the two left just after the Martin family.

What if, after sending Donald away, Ken found the gun among his possessions and decided to keep it in the car’s glove compartment for safety? Then when approached or attacked by Roy and Lester he revealed the gun in an attempt for self-defense.

During a struggle, Roy or Lester obtained the gun, fired a single shot at one of the family, and then used the butt of the gun to strike the rest of the family unconscious. This would then explain the holes in the heads of Virginia and Susan. Next, they would have forced the car off the cliff and into the river.

But this theory also raises multiple questions. Why would Roy and Lester dispose of the gun near a car they stole, tying it back to them so easily? What motive would they have had to kill the family? It’s not thought the Martins were carrying a lot of cash with them and there were no reports of credit card statements arriving in the mail aside from the charges at the gas station.

Kenneth Martin

The final theory states Ken Martin was behind the deaths of his family and accidentally drove off the cliff due to night having already fallen and the lack of visibility. The question this raises is the gun, what was it doing bloody and close to where the family were at one point during the day? It seems like too much of a coincidence for it to not be connected to the disappearance of the family.

It appears we may never get the answers to any of these questions as the multiple attempts to search the river have been unsuccessful. The latest attempt in 1999 was unable to find anything as the area where the car is believed to have fallen in can reach up to 160 feet deep.

The question as to what happened to the Martin family and the circumstances around their disappearance might forever be a mystery.

But how about you, what do you think happened to the family? Are the sightings of Roy and Lester, the bloody gun stolen by Donald Martin, and the family disappearing around the same time all a coincidence? Or are some things connected? Will we ever find out what happened to the Martin family?