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Disappearance of Dennis Martin

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Dennis Martin
Born(1962-06-20)June 20, 1962
DisappearedJune 14, 1969(1969-06-14) (aged 6)
Spence Field, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee, U.S.
StatusMissing for 56 years, 5 months and 29 days
Known forExtensive search
FatherWilliam Clyde Martin
RelativesClyde Demetrius Martin (grandfather)
FamilyDouglas Martin (brother)

Dennis Lloyd Martin (born June 20, 1962) was an American child who disappeared on June 14, 1969, in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee at the age of six, six days before his seventh birthday. The search effort was the most extensive in the park's history, involving approximately 1,400 searchers and a 56-square-mile (150 km2) area.

Disappearance

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Dennis Martin, a six-year-old resident of Knoxville, was visiting the Great Smoky Mountains National Park along with his father, grandfather and older brother on Father's Day weekend in 1969. The camping trip was a family tradition for the Martins.[1] The family hiked from Cades Cove to Russell Field and camped overnight. The next day, they hiked to Spence Field near the Appalachian Trail, where they planned to spend the night.

Martin disappeared on June 14 at 16:30 while planning on surprising the adults with his brother and other children from a separate family the Martins were camping with; he was last seen by his father going behind a bush to hide, intending on surprising the adults walking down the trail with the other children. Martin's father had spotted the group of children crouched at the side of the trail in the bushes. After not seeing him for about five minutes and when all of the other children had returned to the camp site, his father became concerned and began searching for him. His father ran down the trail for nearly two miles, until he was sure he could not have gotten any farther. After several hours, they sought help from National Park Service rangers.[2][3]

The area where Martin disappeared is marked by steep slopes and ravines. Wild animals such as copperhead snakes, bears, feral hogs, and bobcats inhabit the area. A downpour broke out shortly after Martin's disappearance, dropping 3 inches (7.6 cm) of rain in a matter of hours, which washed out trails and caused streams to flood. Temperatures on the night of June 14 dropped to nearly 50 °F (10 °C).[1]

Investigation

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Search efforts, including a separate search by the National Guard and Green Berets[4][5] found no trace. Heavy rains during the first day's search[6] and heavy mist the next days[7] hampered efforts. Up to 1,400 people were involved in the search effort, potentially obscuring possible clues.[8] Footprints were found in the area, but were dismissed from the possibility of being Martin's by park officials, who determined them to have been left instead by a Boy Scout participating in the search.[1][9] The child-sized footprints led to a stream, where they disappeared. The tracks indicated that one foot was barefoot, while the other was in an Oxford (the type of shoe Martin was wearing) or a tennis shoe. Retired park ranger and author Dwight McCarter believes that the prints likely belonged to Martin, as the tracks were not part of a group and none of the Boy Scouts were searching while barefoot.[1]

By June 22, 56 square miles (150 km2) of ground had been covered.[1] More than a thousand searchers continued to look until June 26, when the search was cut back.[10] The search was abandoned on June 29, after a last search.[11] The search was officially closed down on September 14, 1969.[12] As of 2025, it is still the largest search in the history of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.[1]

Aftermath

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Dennis's father offered a US$5,000 (equivalent to $42,872 in 2024) reward for information.[13] A few years after, a ginseng-hunter claimed to have discovered the scattered skeletal remains of a small child in Big Hollow, Tremont. He kept the find to himself until 1985 because of fear that he would be prosecuted for the illegal ginseng. A subsequent search turned up nothing.[14]

The immense size of the search party was blamed as one of the reasons for its failure. The participants were said to be too numerous to manage and often too inexperienced. The unsuccessful search for Martin led the National Park Service to review and amend its policies on searches for missing people.[1][5]

Theories

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Three main theories exist about what happened to Martin.[14]

  • The first is that he became lost and perished from exposure or some other cause, likely not long after the first night. This is the most probable theory according to park officials.[1]
  • The second is that he was attacked by a bear (or, less likely, a feral pig) and carried off.[5]
  • The third is that he was abducted and taken out of the park by something or someone. His father was a proponent of the third theory.[15] On the afternoon that Martin disappeared, tourist Harold Key and his family heard an "enormous, sickening scream" and shortly thereafter witnessed an unkempt, shaggy, rough looking man running up the trail near where the scream had come from. Key also claimed the shaggy man was carrying "cloth or clothing" and it was red, the colour shirt Denis was wearing,over his shoulder. Harold Key claims his sighting happened roughly an hour after the disappearance of Dennis Martin and a mere five miles from the incident.[16] Park Rangers and the Federal Bureau of Investigation concluded that there was insufficient evidence to link the sighting to Martin's disappearance, particularly given that Key's sighting was approximately five miles away from where Martin disappeared, and closer to seven or nine miles by trails, and the difficulty of traversing such a distance in the amount of time between when Martin disappeared and the time that Key provided for when the incident occurred.[14][5]

The abduction theory was featured on the Hulu series Out There: Crimes Of The Paranormal (2024) episode titled "Smoky Mountain Nightmare".[17] The episode aired September 24, 2024.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Matt Lakin (June 6, 2019). "Missing in the Smokies: Dennis Martin's disappearance still haunts park, 50 years later". Knoxville News Sentinel. Retrieved June 16, 2019.
  2. ^ "7-Year-Old Boy Missing In Smokies". Kingsport Times. June 16, 1969. p. 1. Retrieved July 16, 2017 – via newspapers.com.
  3. ^ Charles R. Farabee (2005). Death, Daring, and Disaster: Search and Rescue in the National Parks. Taylor Trade Publications. p. 276. ISBN 978-1-58979-182-4.
  4. ^ "Green Berets Join Search For Boy". The Index-Journal. Greenwood, South Carolina. June 17, 1969. p. 8. Retrieved July 16, 2017 – via newspapers.com.
  5. ^ a b c d Michael Bradley (2016). Death in the Great Smoky Mountains: Stories of Accidents and Foolhardiness in the Most Popular Park. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-4930-2563-3.
  6. ^ "Rain Hampers Efforts To Find Child, 7 [sic], in Park". Albuquerque Journal. June 16, 1969. p. 6. Retrieved July 16, 2017 – via newspapers.com.
  7. ^ "Mountain 'Smoke' Defeats Searchers". Kingsport Times. June 17, 1969. p. 1. Retrieved July 16, 2017 – via newspapers.com.
  8. ^ Dinata Misovec (2017). Big Creek: A Closer Look at a National Park. Hugo House Publishers, Ltd. p. 21. ISBN 978-1-936449-89-7.
  9. ^ "Hopes Fading For Boy Lost In Mountains". The Marion Star. June 18, 1969. p. 16. Retrieved July 16, 2017 – via newspapers.com.
  10. ^ "Slim Hope Left For Lost Boy". The Daily Times-News. Burlington, North Carolina. June 26, 1969. p. 2. Retrieved July 16, 2017 – via newspapers.com.
  11. ^ "A Last Sad Search For Dennis". The Gastonia Gazette. June 29, 1969. p. 24. Retrieved July 16, 2017 – via newspapers.com.
  12. ^ Escar Thompson (June 15, 1970). "Great Smokies Keep Mum On Secret Of Lost Child". The Robesonian. Lumberton, North Carolina. p. 6. Retrieved July 16, 2017 – via newspapers.com.
  13. ^ "Reward Offered For Boy Missing In Great Smokies". The Bee. Danville, Virginia. August 9, 1969. p. 8. Retrieved July 16, 2017 – via newspapers.com.
  14. ^ a b c Jim Balloch (June 28, 2009). "Search in Smokies for lost boy, Dennis Martin, produces lessons for future searches". Knoxville News-Sentinel. Retrieved July 16, 2017.
  15. ^ "Dennis Martin Case Study" (PDF). Kentucky Emergency Management. Inland SAR Planning. Retrieved June 16, 2019.
  16. ^ "Dennis Martin vanished in the space of 3 minuets". vanished.us. Retrieved June 1, 2024.
  17. ^ "Watch Out There: Crimes of the Paranormal Streaming Online | Hulu". Hulu. Retrieved October 13, 2024.

Sources

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Further reading

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  • Dwight McCarter; Ronald Schmidt (1998). Lost!: A Ranger's Journal of Search and Rescue. Graphicom Press. ISBN 978-0-9641734-1-5.
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