Remains of Three Oregon Family Members Finally Discovered After Trio Went Missing in 1958

The bodies of three members of a family who left their home in Portland, Ore., on Dec. 7, 1958, to gather evergreen branches to decorate their house for Christmas have been found more than six decades after they disappeared.

The remains of Kenneth, 54, and Barbara Martin, 48, and their daughter Barbie Martin, 14, were identified using DNA analysis, CBS News reported.

The family, along with younger daughters Virginia, 13, and Susan, 11, set off on a fun day trip to the Columbia River Gorge, but then vanished without a trace.

After an extensive search, the bodies of Virginia and Susan were discovered downstream the next year, but Kenneth, Barbara and Barbie were never found.

The case remained one of Oregon’s biggest mysteries until November 2024 when diver Archer Mayo, who had been searching for the family for seven years, located what he believed was the Martins’ station wagon submerged in 50 feet of water and buried under sediment and rock.

In early 2025, the Hood River County Sheriff’s Office used a crane to recover the vehicle but officials were only able to retrieve the undercarriage.

So Mayo returned to continue the search, and eventually located human remains 50 feet below the water’s surface.

“I came up with a theory of where they would be and started digging until I found them,” he told KATU.

A Texas lab used advanced DNA testing methods to identify them.

Mayo has a theory about what happened. “I think that they turned around [in a parking area] in such a way that they kind of got stuck against a curb, put the car in reverse and it wouldn’t move,” Mayo continued in the interview with KATO. “Then all of a sudden it jolted and it went backwards in an uncontrollable way into the water.”

He notes that in the 1950s, the parking area near where the Martins’ car was found didn’t have a protective barrier preventing a vehicle from accidentally ending up in the river.

But Mayo is thankful he was able to locate them after so many years.

“I feel like I got them out to be restored with their families,” he said, according to Oregon Live. “And that was the dream.”