Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan: 1958 MYSTERY SOLVED! The Martin Family Disappearance

Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

iHeartPodcasts and CrimeOnline

True Crime, News

4.2 • 8.1K Ratings

🗓️ 24 May 2026

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Martin Family took a day trip on a beautiful December day to gather greenery for Christmas decorations. The All-American Family led by father, Kenneth Martin, 54, Mother, Barbara,48, and their three daughters, 14-year-old Barbara - they called her "Barbie", 13-year-old, Virginia, and 11-year-old Susan. An older son, Donald, 28, was not with the family as he was serving in the US Navy stationed in New York. While out on their family day of fun, something strange happened..... the Martin family vanished. Searches were launched, interviews conducted and a reward was offered, but no luck, the Martin family was gone. Six months later, two of the girls bodies showed up in the river, but they were so decomposed dental identification was used. Were the Martin's murdered? Hunted for Sport? Was it a tragic accident? Joseph Scott Morgan and Dave Mack take a ride with Doc and Marty back to 1958 to uncover the mystery of the Martin Family disappearance.

Transcribe Highlights
00:00.16 Introduction - Travel

02:17.35 Family vanishes in 1958

05:12.31 Martin Family outing

10:47.78 River could move car a long way

15:18.32 First bodies found after 6 months

20:05.82 Looking for bullet track

25:14.77 Diving expert finds car

30:17.46 Expert understanding of vehicle

35:29.27 Getting vehicle out of the water

39:46.01 Conclusion

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This is an I-Heart podcast.
0:03.4	Guaranteed Human.
0:06.7	I'm not yet.
0:10.5	I haven't traveled everywhere in the U.S. that I would like to go to.
0:15.6	I'm ashamed to say that I've never been further north in the north in the northeastern corridor, than Boston.
0:23.0	And I love Boston.
0:25.5	But I've always wanted to go to New Hampshire and Vermont and Maine and take that trip.
0:32.4	I've been to most of the western states with the exception of Montana.
0:40.6	And there are other places I'd like to go to in the U.S. that I have yet to make it.
0:45.0	We love to travel, Kimmy and I both to.
0:47.3	One thing that I have borne witness to, though, that really stuck with me was many years ago, I got to pay a visit to Oregon and literally
1:01.8	did an entire circle around the interior, around the interior of the state.
1:09.3	While I was there, I got to experience something that was quite remarkable. It's
1:15.5	what's referred to as the salmon run. And it's when the salmon are moving up and down the Columbia
1:23.3	River. Now, first off, being an old Southern boy and, you know, thinking about rivers in
1:29.9	terms of the Mississippi River, you know, you think about, you know, kind of slow-moving,
1:35.6	Old Man River, that sort of stuff. Columbia River is nothing like that. As a matter of fact,
1:41.2	just standing on the shore of the Columbia River, and this is going to make me sound very unmanly, it was a bit terrifying because of the current, the rapids.
1:53.6	Now, beautiful it is, but I got to see the movement of the water from the interior all the way to the mouth where it dumps in to the
2:03.6	Pacific Ocean. Today on Bodybacks, I want to discuss a case that started all the way back
2:14.6	in 1958.
2:20.9	And it's not about a disappearance
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 13 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from iHeartPodcasts and CrimeOnline, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of iHeartPodcasts and CrimeOnline and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.