Archer Mayo joins host Chelsea Rose on Underground History to discuss how he solved the mystery of the tragic death of nearly an entire family decades after the case was closed.
On December 7th, 1958, a Portland family disappeared in the Columbia River Gorge on their way to find Christmas greenery. The missing Martin family includes Kenneth Martin, 54, his wife Barbara, 48, and their three daughters, Barbie, 14, Virginia, 13, and Susan, 11. The couple also had a 28-year-old son, Donald, on deployment in another part of the country.
Several months later, the bodies of Susan and Virginia were discovered downstream from the suspected location of the disappearance. Yet technological limitations and the conditions of the river made searching for the car a dangerous and difficult endeavor, and search efforts were ultimately abandoned.
Enter Archer Mayo. He is a diver and amateur investigator who discovered the recently sunk CRITFC3 research vessel in the Columbia in 2019. He spent more than seven years investigating the case of the Martins, using documents and resources from the Oregon Historical Society. In late 2024, Mayo successfully located the car. After an intensive extraction process, the remains of the other three Martins were discovered in the car alongside personal items.
