John Fray on Saturday, March 8, 2025:

Yesterday, Friday, March 7, 2025, the Chassis of What is Believed to be the Martin Family's 1954 Ford Station Wagon has been Retrieved from Cascade Locks.

In a matter of a few days, word will get out as to whether the badly rusted automobile chassis with attached engine, which was pulled up this afternoon from Cascade Locks, matches a 1954 Ford station wagon. Mr. Archer Mayo, the man who initiated the recovery has performed a magnificent accomplishment. He engaged in multiple scuba dives just to understand the layout of the canal floor which constructed in the 1890s. The natural path of the Columbia River is parallel to the canal. Unbeknownst to essentially everyone over the past fifty years or more, a trench about twenty feet in width and 90 feet in length traverses the canal from side to side in a crescent layout. When Mr. Mayo recognized that feature, he realized that the trench was a logical spot for a submerged car to be buffeted into by the current of the waterway. Thereafter, he made over a hundred scuba dives with specialized tools to dig debris out of the underwater trench. After many such dives, the vehicle which is thought to be the Martin family car was revealed, stuck in the concrete-like sediment in the trench.

The reason why so much emphasis was placed on the theory that the car sank at The Dalles (forty miles upstream from Cascade Locks) is that the investigating deputy sheriff held to that theory.

Even if the car chassis pulled out of the Cascade Locks yesterday is that of the Martin family car, the possibility of foul play can not be ruled out. Actors may have robbed the family members and then killed them with the pistol which was subsequently discovered in the vicinity of Cascade Locks.


John Fray on March 6, 2025:

The Car of the Portland, Oregon, Martin Family Members Who Vanished Sixty-Six Years Ago Has Been Discovered, MAYBE.

The five-member Martin family, of Portland, Oregon, went missing in their car on December 7, 1958. On March 6, 2025, authorities announced that they are 99% certain that a vehicle which last year was detected resting in a deep underwater, muck-filled pit in the Columbia River near Cascade Locks, Oregon, is the family's missing car.

Despite extensive searches conducted in the first few months following the December 7, 1958, disappearance, no trace of the family or the car turned up, until May 1959.

Here is where the story gets confusing. On May 1, 1959, a river drilling rig near The Dalles, Oregon, is said to have dislodged something, maybe a car, from the river bed. The Dalles is located about forty miles east, upstream, along the Columbia River from the Cascade Locks.

Early on May 2, two witnesses saw two bodies floating downstream near Cascade Locks. The witnesses followed the bodies a few miles to Bonneville Dam.

On May 3, the body of the youngest girl (Susan, age 10) was discovered along the Columbia River, near Camas, Washington, which is about thirty miles west, downstream, of Bonneville Dam.

On May 4, the body of the middle daughter (Virginia, age 12) was discovered near Bonneville Dam.

The inconsistency of the above-stated events is this: The object dislodged by the drillers near The Dalles could not be the Martin car, if what the authorities believe is in fact true, namely, that the resting place of the car is in the river near the Cascade Locks, which is forty miles downriver from The Dalles. Yet, the dislodgment of the object near The Dulles on May 1 coincides with May 2-3 recoveries of the bodies of the two daughters.

No traces of the parents or the oldest daughter were ever found.

At the time of the disappearance, the eldest child, son Donald (1930-2004) then age 28, was serving in the U.S. Navy or Marines. He was stationed in New York State. One news story reports he was working towards earning a Ph.D. There are conflicting news stories about him. One story states that he was estranged from the family, at least to some degree. One news story, which may be totally untrue, states that, when he was in his teens, he had been suspected of stealing a pistol from the store where he worked. The news goes on to state that the stolen pistol was the very same one which was discovered in January 1959 in the brush or under a rock near Cascade Locks, an area where authorities searched for the car and family members in the days after their disappearance. The story states that traces of blood were present on the pistol. It is reported that the authorities bungled its handling of the pistol. It was cleaned and returned to the third party who found it.

The five members of the family disappeared after they had been gathering evergreen boughs while on a day trip to the Columbia River Gorge. There is evidence that the family was followed out of a restaurant by two interstate car thieves who (unbeknownst to anyone at the time) had abandoned two stolen cars in the area.

The final conclusion stated in the police report is that the family drowned when the father accidentally backed the car into the river. Of course, other possibilities such as foul play and murder-suicide can not be ruled out at this point.

As an aside, it can be noted that there is a diverse spacing in the births of the children. The son was born in 1930. The oldest daughter was born in 1944. The middle daughter was born in 1946. The youngest daughter was born in 1948. The parents were in respectable professions. The mother was a school teacher. The parents attended a Christmas party the night before. According to a report, they got back home late. The day trip commenced the next morning. It was a weekend drive. The adventure of cutting pine boughs was intended to help put the daughters in a holiday mood. It has been suggested that they stopped at The Dulles and visited a restaurant for breakfast. It has been suggested that two car thieves followed the family of the business. None of that may be true.

The images of the family photos suggest a serene late 1950s family. The children were sweet. There exist a few images of them in Christmas Season settings.

At the time of the disappearance, there were supposedly screams heard in one of the area of interest along the river. That may not be true. The police did an abysmal job in handling the pistol. It contained a spent casing. One report has a witness saying that body of the youngest daughter showed a sign of a possible gunshot injury. The bodies were cremated. There is a possibility that the gun was stolen by the son, and the father or a friend of the son received it.

No one theory ties all of this together. One report has a river drilling machine encountering what might have been a submedged car on May 1, 1959. The machine temporarily dislodged the object from the bottom of the river. The bodies of the two daughter were discovered floating in the river forty miles downstream two days later. It would make sense that the machine broke open the car's windows, thereby allowing the bodies to float out. However, the location of the machine's encounter with the object occurred forty miles upstream from the location where, as of March 7, 2025, it is now thought where the car went into the river at Cascade Locks.

There is archived on the web a half-hour audio podcast produced by a reporter from a Portland, Oregon, television station. The reporter interviewed people familiar with the investigation of the December 9, 1958. The suggestion set forth in the podcast is that foul play caused the disappearance. A few points noted in the podcast include the following:

Someone with access to the family's home hired a taxi so that he (presumably it was a male) could rifle through the personal files of the father. This occurred the Monday morning following the Sunday disappearance.

A friend of the son gave one or more peculiar interviews over the years. That friend possessed a key to the house. At the time, he lived in the community of Cascade Locks. The friend may have received the pistol from the son. There is a suggestion that the friend had inappropriate contact with the oldest daughter.

There may have been a planned meeting which led the family to The Dalles on the morning of the disappearance. There is a report that the family car sped from restaurant at The Dalles back west (about forty miles) to Cascade Locks. There is a report that two men, possibly the car thieves at the restaurant, were seen standing next to the family car parked at Cascade Locks.

The lead detective (who retired in 1968) thought that the son knew a murder plan was in the works. Before he died, the detective delivered his case files to the police at The Dulles, since the Detective believed the car was pushed into the river at a location at The Dulles. For years, sleuths, too, have believed that the car is resting in the murky depths of the river at The Dulles. The underwater canyon in the river at that location is 200 feet deep. Diving, even by highly skilled professionals, s a very slow, dangerous process.

Of course, the March 6, 2025, announcement that authorities are 99% confident that the car is located in the river near Cascade Locks is contrary to the conclusion of the podcast that the car is resting in the river at The Dulles.

On March 7, 2025, a dredging crane pulled up the chassis and motor of the car of interest submerged in the river at Cascade Locks. Any meaningful recovery of the remainder of the car may not be possible. Rocks, concrete-hard-sediment, and other obstacles will likely prevent recovery of any good-sized pieces of the car's body, which essentially has been reduced to a heap of rust. Floodwaters which torrented through the river canyon over the past sixty-six years have likely washed away any human remains which may have been present. The best evidence that the artifacts recovered on March 7, 2025, are part of the missing car would be if the chassis and engine are found to match known 1954 Ford station wagon models.

It is an interesting story. I feel so bad for the victims, especially the young children. There have been books written on the subject. The final chapter to the story is yet to be written.

Updated By John Fray On March 7, 2025