152 - The Disappearance of Bryan Hayes and Mark Degner
Trace Evidence
Steven Pacheco
4.7 • 4.2K Ratings
🗓️ 18 March 2021
⏱️ 71 minutes
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Summary
From the first moment there should have been tremendous concern, the boys suffered from several different issues, both psychological and physical, and required support, attention and their necessary medications. Yet, almost nothing was done. It would take nearly six hours before the first missing person's report was filed, because neither family had been told they'd left school.
A desperate search was launched with family, friends and investigators trying to find the boys but there were few leads. Several sightings were reported, though none could be confirmed. As time began passing, years fell away and soon they were no longer looking for boys, but grown men.
Then, in early 2017, Police and the FBI raided the home of a Jacksonville Beach man, charging him with the 1994 murder of sixteen year old Fred Paul Laster. Investigators began to wonder, had Mark and Bryan chosen to runaway on their own or was it possible that a monster living in the area might have lured them into his trap?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This episode is brought to you by Slack. With Slack, you can bring all your people and |
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| 0:38.9 | 12-year-old Mark Degner and his best friend, 13-year-old Brian Hayes, were both students |
| 0:45.5 | in the special Ed Department of their school in Jacksonville, Florida. Each had been diagnosed |
| 0:51.4 | as having developmental delays, bipolar disorder, and other physical and mental health issues. |
| 0:58.4 | Each had medication they needed to take daily, but neither had it with them when the two |
| 1:03.2 | strode off the campus of Paxen Middle School and vanished in the middle of the day. There |
| 1:09.3 | was no call for concern, no panic, not much of any attempt to find them, neither boy would |
| 1:15.1 | be reported missing for hours as their families were never notified. By the time police |
| 1:21.0 | were informed, the day was nearly over. More than 16 years later, investigators are now |
| 1:28.3 | left to wonder if Brian and Mark ran off on their own, or if perhaps they had been targeted |
| 1:34.4 | and groomed by someone living just a few miles away. |
| 1:39.6 | This is Trace Evidence, episode 152, the disappearance of Brian Hayes and Mark Degner. |
| 1:54.8 | Welcome to Trace Evidence. I'm your host, Stephen Pichecco. Today we examine the truly terrifying |
| 2:01.6 | and haunting disappearance of Mark Degner and Brian Hayes who vanished from the campus |
| 2:06.9 | of their school in Jacksonville, Florida. Before getting into the case, just a few notes |
| 2:12.5 | about the show. Trace Evidence is a weekly true crime podcast focused on unsolved murders |
| 2:18.6 | and disappearances. You can follow the show on social media on Twitter at Trace Ev Pod, |
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