Dennis Martin ////// 238 | Forensic Files

foreign [Music] [Applause] foreign garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks for listening this is the
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true crime [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] the Great Smoky Mountains our mountain range Rising along the
Tennessee North Carolina border and southeastern United States they are a sub-range of the Appalachian
Mountains and form part of the Blue Ridge physiographic province the range is sometimes called the Smoky
Mountains or simply the Smokies due to the frequent fog that covers the mountains and which looks like smoke
from a distance the Smokies are covered with drainages eroded by Creeks with many giant
Boulders as well as steep Cliffs cut with crevices the landscape also features thickets of
trees and vegetation that can trap you if you stray from an established Trail the thicket can be so thick that in one
case it took over a year to find an airplane so you can imagine how difficult it
would be to locate a single person given that type of terrain Roaring Rapids especially after Heavy
Rain could drown out sounds of Screams or crying wild cats black bears and a couple of
different poisonous snakes are a rare but dangerous sight in springtime hungry bears come out of
hibernation and they are at their most dangerous as there isn't much food but even in the summer they can if provoked
attack people with millions of visitors annually it is no surprise that some people get lost in
the wilderness of the Smokies but they are typically located within 48 Hours by dedicated rescue efforts
what is surprising is just how many people have come to visit only to never be seen again
these mountains keep secrets there have been a number of mysterious disappearances and deaths that are as
bizarre as they are unexplained this is one of those stories [Applause] [Music] Friday June 13
1969 six-year-old Dennis Martin was on his first overnight camping trip this was part of a long-standing Martin
family tradition of Father's Day outings in the smokies with him his nine-year-old brother Doug his father
who was a Knoxville architect his name is Bill Martin and his grandfather Clyde Martin the group spent the first night
in a location called Russell field and they camped with Dr Carter Martin of Huntsville Alabama and his two sons
Russell field is a grassy clearing in the forest with a panoramic view across the Smokies the next day June 14th the
group went East on a 90-minute walk to a spot called Spence field some quick specifics of Spence field
there were two shelters located there now the Appalachian Trail runs east and west through spencefield and there were
two trails and one Jeep road that lead to and from Spence field to other destinations there at approximately 4 30
PM the four boys were playing a game of Hide and Seek in a grassy area of Spence
field and they thought it would be funny to hide and then sneak up and scare the
adults in their group Douglas and the other two boys went South and then West little Dennis by
himself headed for a spot to the Northwest towards the Appalachian Trail and into the forest yeah and he went
into the forest but his father saw where he went to hide literally a few minutes
later the boys jump out of the woods you know in an attempt to scare or startle the adults gotcha however Dennis does
not jump out of the woods he does not appear and he was nowhere to be seen very shortly after the adults would
estimate 10 minutes so at approximately 4 40 PM just a few minutes had passed without anyone spotting or hearing
Dennis his father Bill Martin was calling out to Dennis and looking for him obviously Bill Then followed the
Appalachian Trail West for about a mile before heading back and then he headed west again this time all the way back to
Russell field only to return a loan to spencefield and there's no sign at all of Dennis
there was nothing of his that was found during this quick search while the boy's
father was making his journey the grandfather Clyde made his way back down Anthony Creek to Cades Cove roughly
eight and a half miles and reached the ranger station shortly before 8 30 PM this was to summon help and at this
point it began to rain very heavily with a very nasty storm well every parent will know this is your worst nightmare
you could be in the grocery store and you turn and your child's not there and it's like your heart sinks all the way
to the bottom of your gut well and I want everybody to kind of picture this okay because I think it's easy to work
through this and I tried to find an exact time that they had left when they woke up that morning and took off on
that 90-minute walk East I couldn't find an exact time my guess is it would be sometime that morning
they'd make this walk it's about an hour and a half walk they're there now at this new spot and they've set up camp
they've spent the day setting up their Camp right this is the time where we're relaxing we're chilling out the kids are
playing you know there's no work to do we're just going to hang out and chill the kids are playing this hide and seek
game Running In and Out of the Woods running around having a good old time now they come up with this idea to kind
of prank the the parents but what's weird and one thing that I can't like Get over like when we cover cases and
there's those moments where you wonder if if other people feel guilty about something or if somebody second guesses
one of their own personal actions for the rest of their lives the moment for me is this we have four boys three of
them decide to hide together in an area and one boy he's only six Dennis is only
six he's hiding by himself now from what I could find Captain it seems like Dennis was wearing a we know that Dennis
was wearing a red shirt and what it seems like is that one or all of the other boys had suggested that
Dennis go hide by himself because he could be easily spotted with his bright red shirt in that area so he's off
hiding by himself these other three boys are all together they jump out and it's
like you know at first it's probably like oh you know you got me and then you kind of wait and you wait
and wait you know where's Dennis yeah why is he not with you guys right and then the boys are saying hey he went
over that way and he hid by himself and now dad and Grandpa are out walking around calling for Dennis's name you you
know how it is you just explained it right there but when you call out your child's name when you scream at hey
Dennis you know you expect him to come running out or at least hear him call back to you well and like I said there's
multiple reports that say that Dennis's father saw him go into the woods kind of
watched where he's going to go hide like that's where he's going to go hide and then obviously because they're playing a
game you you pull your eyes off of him right and I guarantee you that he sees that image of his son going into the
woods over and over and over in his mind well and you never think you never would
expect to look away just for seconds maybe a minute or two and then they're gone right and so let's walk through
this because the official search would begin Saturday June 14th at approximately 8 30 p.m this is after the
grandfather notif defies the park rangers that hey my grandson's missing and we've been looking for him me and
his father as well as other people and we can't find him and obviously they have some things working again some
because of the time this took place they didn't have cell phones to make calls I
don't even know if cell phones would work there now but some way to alert people and stay in the area and have you
know the dad the grandfather the kids searching why they have help coming to find you know help find this kid so from
the the start of this search at 8 30 we have three Rangers from Cades Cove that are checking trails to and from Cades
Cove all the way out to Spence field and anybody that they come across along their way they're going to you know some
have said interrogate some say question whatever right but any hikers or anybody
that they pass on these Trails they're going to ask them hey have you seen a boy what have you been doing you know
where were you at this time so on and so forth and this produces this produces nothing now the other thing we have to
keep in mind though is there's a heavy rainstorm and when I say heavy rainstorm I mean two and a half inches of rain
fell and this occurred at dark all the streams became very high and turbulent at this time and the three rangers the
family members of the Martin family they continue to search the immediate area for the rest of the night the results
were negative not only did they not find Dennis they didn't find any clues to suggest where he could have been where
he was hiding so the day that Dennis goes missing we have three rangers looking for him plus the family and plus
I believe the other Martin family is helping search form as well yes and we also have other people that are camping
in the area that are assisting the family and the Rangers because that's how this works you know when the Rangers
come across other campers they're saying hey this is what we're doing we're looking for a little boy this is what he
was wearing his name is Dennis and can you help us search from the get-go captain we're going to be dealing with
several what I would call major issues in the investigation and search for this little boy the first being the obvious
the the rough terrain as well as the two and a half inches of rainfall that night
yeah this does not help you find anybody and it also does not encourage others to
join in on the search well and these are very thick Woods as well so it's not like you can look into the woods and see
a couple even houses back here and I you're not even going to be able to see that far back what we're going to see
take place is a massive search effort and the other thing that I would say is a major problem in this case is it's
it's very important to note that the park itself had no detailed search and rescue plan in existence at this time
and what I mean by that is those three rangers that went out looking and assisting the family and other campers
looking for that little boy that night that was as much of a plan as they had okay somebody gets lost we send out a
few guys we find the person it's all over with don't worry about it right they have no plan for a massive search
effort so starting on day two the the weather is moderate this is Sunday June 15th now we're going to
start seeing resources and people coming into the area to assist in this search on this day we have nine jeeps and we
have three trucks that are used to transport Searchers they search Trails the trail search continues and the
initial searches of drainages begin all hikers and campers spotted in the area are questioned a large helicopter was
acquired and was used to haul equipment for a base camp at Spence field the number of search Personnel on day two
was 240 people yeah now we do have to note that there were poor conditions on that day and there was also inadequate
food and water for the Personnel involved yeah nothing pisses me off more when I go on to the woods searching for
a missing six-year-old to see that crafts and services really screwed up the spread well there's no sign of
Dennis at the end of day two okay and more importantly there's no um actually I should say more strangely
there's no sign of him there's no clues as to what could have happened to him and one and the other difficult thing
here is you mentioned the rain and that affects things but having 200 and some Searchers that affects other things too
because at that point you can't bring in like a specialist or a Tracker to distract the single movements of the
six-year-old boy you already screwed up the scene by bringing in that many people and sometimes you'll see in cases
uh of especially a younger child that they bring in a Tracker before they bring in search units right that's
interesting that you say that because you're exactly right you would have what did we say 240 people just kind of uh
destroying the scene right right stomping all over the area on day three Monday June 16th the trail and drainage
searches continued and an intensive grid search of Spence field was conducted several military helicopters arrived to
assist the news media arrives on the scene and we have 40 Special Forces troops arrive to help as well two
Bloodhounds are brought in and they are used during day three right again probably would be more helpful on day
one or two because you have now 200 and some cents that are getting in the way of this dog's work yeah after all that
rain as well and then we have the Red Cross that establishes a food service operation for Searchers at Cades Cove
now the total number of people involved in day three was 300 including Personnel
from the park a local Rescue Squad The Air National Guard and as we said 40 Special Forces troops that brings us to
day four Captain June 17th now this is an interesting day because at this point we've had no sign of the little boy
however at 2 30 in the afternoon a set of one shoe on and one shoe off prints are found at this time so the shoe print
was possibly of an Oxford type shoe what Dennis was last seen wearing now they followed
for 300 feet until they came to the edge of a branch that feeds Eagle Creek in North Carolina Eagle Creek feeds Montana
Lake 10 miles from Spencer field even after three inches of rain having fell these tracks were still intact in
the mud investigators did not examine the shoe print finding in detail because the area had already been searched the
footprints could have been overlooked by previous Searchers because it was mentioned repeatedly that there were no
Footprints all over from Searchers the person who found the print used a stick to measure its size in comparison to an
adult print it is noted that there were no small children involved in the search
at the time so what does this mean this well that means we need to teach you how
to say measure well what this does mean is that they concluded that it's a child's footprint right that it's a
small footprint one shoe is on and one shoe is off correct and there are no children involved in the search the
weird thing though like we just said is they did not investigate this finding because the area had already been and
searched and they found no prints they believed that they found no Prince when they originally searched this area yeah
that's strange seems like a misstep there 100 and the scary thing for me in this is you say
the tracks are leading towards a river they're leading towards water yes yeah and then I'd want to know how deep that
water was and because if Dennis tried to cross this water Dennis could have drowned in the water
well what we have here Captain is we have several Creeks that are flowing into this Fontana Lake or Fontana Lake
so this lake is huge it this is not a small body of water this is a very large lake so if if we have this heavy
rainfall that occurs now we have the sweeping creaks and streams that have strong currents that are leading to this
large body of water if he were to have slipped fell mudslide any reason to end up in one of those Creeks or streams he
very likely could have ended up in the lake itself well and we have Footprints going in so we have evidence of possibly
him going into the water but we don't have any evidence of him leaving the water and so not only do you have to
search the other side but you need to figure out how fast this water is moving and if he did get into water and did get
pushed around a little bit would he drift down the water a little bit and come out on the other side if he if he
could come out on the other side the tracks would be somewhere else well keep in mind too we're finding these prints
on day four the the speed of that Creek or stream would have been significantly greater the night that he went missing
with two and a half inches of rain falling that night yeah I would argue though to find these tracks this is
probably happening after it rains because the because they would be deeper so they wouldn't wash away and it would
also have to be after some of the rain where maybe there is a little bit of rain but you're
talking about a six-year-old so these are not going to be very deep Footprints right I get what you're saying he only
weighed about 55 pounds is what is believed so yeah he's not a big giant man who's leaving huge footprints in the
mud or dirt now I did find some notes from a meeting that was held on Wednesday June 18th this was the
quote-unquote first strategy meeting and I found notes from several people involved in that meeting but I just
wanted to go through some of the notes from the chief Ranger so we all have a good understanding of the search itself
the problems that they ran into and his his notes say first unable to transport men the roads are in bad shape due to
heavy rainfall that they needed more helicopters the helicopters actually nullified the need for a huge base camp
at Spence field which they did spend time setting up that huge base camp right wasted time he also noted that the
helicopters were using jet fuel so they were losing search Time by flying to the
base for to refuel these helicopters from time to time he also stated that they should be reaching out to North
Carolina because at some point there's going to have to be a cut off for the search that's being conducted on the
Tennessee side and if you've covered all your ground on that side he may be on the North Carolina side and you need to
search there he also said that um here was one thing that was was uh didn't make you feel very good okay he said we
need a reference map to show areas that have been covered each day and daily so we can record areas covered in the
effort made meaning they they weren't operating with one big map that they're all looking at and saying look on this
day we searched here right from this time to this time nothing found on this day we searched here so forth and so on
so while we have people at the top trying to organize this search it's also kind of loosey-goosey it seems like you
have a lot of people coming into the area trying to help but we don't have a lot of cohesiveness to this actual
search look this this happened in 1969 I think because of the lack of Technology the lack of experience with
putting together search teams the lack of being able to communicate easily with one another that I believe Dennis would
have been found within a day or two if it happened you know this coming weekend he also makes a note the FBI agent Jim
Reich was checking the Martin family's background for any possibilities if they were involved right in this
disappearance of their son or grandson or whomever now the other thing too and this is disconcerting is that we have on
day five he makes a note to tell select leaders to watch for circling buzzards and know any strange
odors [Music] all right cheers mates cheers to you Captain let's get back to the case of
Dennis Martin well I want to discuss um a couple plans that were set up and this was set up by the chief Ranger and
these were discussed in some of these strategy meetings so the chief Rangers set up two plants let's say plan a plan
B plan a is what do we do if we find the boy alive Plan B what do we do if we find the boy dead so under plan a the
boy would be taken by helicopter to the Knoxville headquarters of the U.S marine
reserves and then by ambulance to the University of Tennessee hospital under Plan B the Blunt County coroner would be
notified and this is what they had to tell the Searchers because this is a large area so you may have one
individual that's kind of out on their own find the boy either alive or deceased so we better have a plan or
organized to relay this information to other people especially if he's alive so we can get him help as soon as possible
yeah but I I also think the plan if you find the boy dead it almost feels like they had a hunch
that maybe something went wrong somebody in the family possibly was responsible well we have the FBI that
was checking the backgrounds of the Martin family So the instructions to finders uh one is if you find him first
determined obviously if Dead or Alive then notify the chief Ranger by the fastest means available and give
location in detail if dead the radio code is 10 200 if a live radio code is 10 100 a so if you find him climb a tree
set a flag also build a fire if you are one of the military personnel use a smoke bomb or some other form of signal
for a helicopter then stand by while Special Forces repel in by helicopter and secure the boy if alive or if dead
guard the area until released by the chief Ranger or the coroner so guard the area because we're going to want to to
look that area over we're going to want to see Clues we're going to see what we can find to tell us what happened to
this boy if we find him dead yeah now all the reports that you read and there's been obviously so many years
have passed since this uh since Dennis went missing have you found anything that would lead
you to any suspicion on the father no 100 no yeah and I'll tell you what and this is you know we talked about this
very briefly last week and really all I had to offer when we talked about it was I was like this is
just a this is a sad story and I can't find anything to suggest that the family knew anything other than what they told
the Rangers knew anything other than what they told the police and the FBI and the Searchers actually in all
honesty man I kind of think that the Martin family the father and the grandfather might have been searching
more for this kid than anybody else right and you know and I I know that we we cover a lot of cases and we often say
you gotta look for the family you gotta look toward the family their whereabouts are fairly
known I mean there it's it's pretty pinpointed out to us where they were what they were doing at the time we have
a brief moment you know we have a short period of time where the father is off on his own searching the grandfather is
off on his own searching but the thing I want to point out here is we have a whole other family of people that was
there at the time of The Disappearance at the time that it was noticed that this boy went missing yeah where that
gets confusing is their last name is Martin but they're not any relation I'm glad you cleared that up because I
couldn't figure that out 100 percent at first I made the assumption that they were uh related and then I found
um Dennis Martin's father's obituary he passed away in 2014 and I found his obituary to try to check to see if Dr
Martin was on there as being in relation to him and he was not listed so thank you for clearing that up because that's
been a headache for me but again the important thing here is if if the his if Dennis Martin's father
had something to do with this or his grandfather had something to do with this we have a whole other family of
people that were there at the time that the boy went missing and they're not saying anything they're not saying hey
the father was suspicious hey the grandfather did he was acting weird we don't have any of that and we have other
children we have other children that would have been eyewitnesses that could have told police or Rangers something
was going on as well now we have a search a massive search effort that goes on for over 16 days
captain and we're not going to go through every detail of that search because I'm going to be talking about it
for 16 days so in a quick breakdown of that search just just trust me when I say this was a massive search effort
okay Dennis is not found over the course of these 16 days on one day at the peak
when we have the most Searchers looking for the little boy we have 1400 people out there and we talked about all the
helicopters involved we have special forces I think it was recorded that 66 eventually 66 Green Berets were out
there looking for this boy these are people that are trained to go into areas like this and find someone whether they
are dead or alive they are specifically trained for this right so when I say that they didn't find the boy here's the
thing when you have a search for a person a lot of times people on the outside look looking in they're going to
set the standard of was it a successful search how hard did they try based off of did they find the person right this
situation while they weren't prepared going into it they adapted as they could along the way they brought in a lot of
people a lot of resources he wasn't found but it wasn't because of lack of effort there was a lot of effort to find
this boy well it's not like he's just in a no open field somewhere we have very uh tight packed in woods I think then
you have the other element of if he was attacked by an animal that animal could have took his body somewhere
if he fell into a river or a lake or something like that then you know I don't know if they were searching those
extensively I'm guessing they weren't but you'd think they would search some of those
they were searching the drainages um in all honesty I thought when I looked through the detailed versions of
the searches and the efforts made I saw a bit of a lack of effort on some of the
larger bodies of water in the area I think they search portions of those but not the entirety now right so that's
those are some of the elements they have going against them yeah we do have Rangers that stayed on and promised the
Martin family that they would continue to look for their little boy as long as it took right and
basically we have a meeting that takes place after 16 days of searching where everybody in the meeting kind of has to
throw up their hands and say well where do we go from here what do we do now and
part of those people were the Martin family as well the Martin family is saying what do we do we've tried
everything well let's dive into the there's only one account or a possible account
the eyewitness seeing Dennis yes so here's the thing if if you believe this Theory then it's likely that Dennis was
abducted yeah and hold on we're gonna I should preference this it's gonna get a little strange right and I'm not
laughing at the thought of the boy being abducted I'm laughing at the thought of
things that have been discussed because of this possible eyewitness account well
you might be laughing about that because you don't laugh at any of my jokes well
so on the afternoon that Dennis disappeared we have Harold Key he's 45 years old he's from Tennessee he was
near the Rowan's I hope I said that right but we're gonna go with that Rowan's Creek which is a short distance
away from The Martin family's Campground now Mr Harold Key and his family had been walking a trail in the area looking
for wildlife in particular any signs of black bears nearby when they heard an enormous sickening scream a guttural
ground okay so within moments well look I think that's important yes keys son pointed out a bear
quote unquote a bear nearby now how old was the sun do is that in the report because I couldn't find that I couldn't
either and this is actually a very weird eyewitness account the whole thing about
it's weird um the bear was located up by the ridge this is a bit of a ways from them now Mr
key upon observing the quote-unquote bear his son had spotted determined that this was not a bear uh but rather what
he would refer to as a dark figured rough looking man attempting to well he says that he
thinks that this individual was trying to hide behind some of the Bush there and the man which key didn't manage to
view in clear detail had purportedly been carrying something over his shoulder Harold Key unaware of Dennis
Martin's disappearance earlier that afternoon suppose that the figure might have been a Moonshiner who had you know
was trying to hide from them and upon learning days later there's the key there Days Later of the search for
Dennis Martin Harold Key notified the FBI about what he and his family had seen the same afternoon Dennis went
missing the FBI gets involved right so they actually rule this out as they rule it
as being not connected to Dennis Martin's disappearance because this was about nine miles away from where the boy
was last seen and the FBI's thought here is that at the approximate time that Mr
key and his son see this unkept man is what the theories actually called and referred to as a lot the unkept man
Theory at the time that they believed that they saw this individual it would have been too far of a distance
away for the small child to have made his way there or to have been uh carried by this man
yeah okay so shall we dive into this just just rip right through it or should we get into some other stuff
Captain because there's a lot of weird things here well I think the weird thing is that we
have a kid we and again we don't know the age of saying I saw a bear and I believe after his father says no he's a
disheveled man his son still says Nah it was a bear and that and that's where we have uh
this is where it gets a little strange because normally when your father says no it was a disheveled man and the kid
would go okay maybe it was in this case from what the reports I've read the kid says no it was a bear or at least
something with fur and then that's when uh the coast to coast Talk starts and and when people start saying well we
have this this guttural growl this almost scream which when you hear that initially they're looking for a
six-year-old boy oh it's the six-year-old boy he's the one screaming no it's this disheveled man that's
screaming possibly now again if he's some Moonshiner and he's hiding in the bushes
from you or hiding behind trees from you why would he let out a guttural scream so that's when people start
put it on their velcro shoes and go down into the woods and looking for the Bigfoot the Sasquatch the thought being
that a rogue Sasquatch abducted Dennis Miller well Miller Dennis Martin I'm sorry well let's start with the first
idea of this is that they hear this guttural growl they see this disheveled man or bear
and it's and it's neither one of those it's a combination it's a Bigfoot has something
on his shoulder we don't know if that's Dennis or not so it could just be a weird sighting has nothing to do with
the disappearance people go a little step further and say okay well if this Bigfoot is carrying something and that
something that he's carrying again we have a we know that Dennis was wearing a red shirt I don't think there's anywhere
that they report that the key family saw you know this figure carrying something that had a red shirt or red
anything according to Mr key he could not identify what this thing or person was carrying right or if he was
in fact carrying something at all right and what I'd argue is if he was carrying
this child that had a red shirt on that doesn't mean that the shirt couldn't have left him at some point but
I'm saying if the kids still had the red shirt on Dead or Alive you would have been able
to see that red shirt from the distance that they saw you might not be able to make it out exactly what you saw but you
go while he was carrying something on his shoulder and it was red and that would
lead me to believe that whatever they saw had something to do with the disappearance
um but I don't know look here's the thing it was not a Bigfoot it was not a Sasquatch Yeti whatever you want to call
him it was not that why is that or our thought of that no I don't believe in no I'll get in I'll get into it and I'll
break it down real quick for you but before I do I would love if something like that
existed the world would be a lot more interesting if something like that existed the whole reason I got into True
Crime when I was a little kid was because I was right Bigfoot no I was reading about Bigfoot and and sea
monsters and stuff like that and I got a little older and I was like well this is
not likely there's not a whole lot of substance here let's read about some other form of mystery and that began my
love of True Crime that was my favorite um parts of Unsolved Mysteries when they
would dive into Bigfoot sightings and lock the sponsors because it it seemed like it kind of
you know the The Disappearance or the possible murder cases that when they dove into different things like that or
alien abductions it kind of lightened the mood a little bit well here's why that's not possible okay let's say
the easiest way for me to explain this is that there are a lot of varied reports of this possible eyewitness
account and what I mean by that is there was one original true statement that was
given it at the get-go and since then there have been more fanciful versions of this
same story where people were taking it they're recounting the story and they are giving it their own version they're
spinning it a little bit and some of the versions that I've seen Captain there's
dozens of them out there and some of them are downright they sound like a science fiction story rather than the
actual account right so if you want to break down the actual account there there's some that even refer to this
individual that that say that Harold Key says he saw an ape man he never said he
saw an ape man right he said he saw a dark complected unkept man hairy man okay he said that he saw someone that
appeared to being that didn't want to be spotted by anybody he also said that this individual when whenever they threw
this thing over their shoulder whatever they were carrying they threw something over their shoulder walked away and
Harold Key believes that the individual got into a white vehicle and drove off okay so here's some problems with that
unless Sasquatch owns a white vehicle then it's not Sasquatch that Harold Key saw so you're saying
Bigfoot doesn't know how to drive a car that's what you're saying if he does then he must have done quite the shaven
haircut before he showed up to get his license his driver's license picture taken I look
I'm not saying that you're not an expert on Bigfoot but what I am saying is I've
seen Harry in the Henderson at least a hundred times and I believe he drives a car
well so no I get what you're saying but but I'm regardless if and I'm not here to argue cryptozoology with anybody okay
I'm just I'm just stating the facts are that Harold Key never said or referred to this individual as an ape man number
one and number two whatever he said that he saw he believes that that thing that
person got into a white vehicle and drove away now again um there there was an animal a
long time ago called gigantopithesis I believe that's how you say it and which was a giant ape
figure that that believe they believe walked on two legs so that there would be some sign that something like a big
foot existed at some point now we've had a million sightings but now with technology everybody has a camera
everybody has a video camera in their phone um I have seen a couple videos that I can't watch and explain to you
what I'm seeing and again I'm with you I'd love if these existed where it gets hairy
pardon the pun is this figure gets into a car and if there's any truth to that statement then what he saw was probably
a disheveled man and then these reports of his son say no it's a bear that might
not be accurate and then but what happens in this case you got this missing boy six years old then it goes from Bigfoot
sightings to possible alien alien abductions and this theory that these aliens um when they come down to earth that
they have bases with inside rivers and lakes and these Deep Forest areas and that maybe he was abducted by an alien
then you have other reports that maybe there's portals and I don't want I I'll put this out there I haven't read
the missing 4-1-1 I saw the document documentary I've heard that the book goes more into
The Unexplained as far as portals time traveling portals alien portals um again I look I don't know where the
evidence is you know like I said I've seen a couple videos of of Bigfoot and a couple of videos of alien and UFO
sightings that I can't explain that doesn't mean that they're real so uh I hope some of this stuff exists
somewhere but I don't think it has any bearing on this case at all even though for whatever reason it gets brought up a
lot well I think the this eyewitness account what what I think you're missing here
what I think everyone seems to be missing for some reason is what this man says Harold Key
says that whoever I saw there in the woods whether he was carrying something or not got into a vehicle and drove off
should I miss that no I but no but you you went way out on left field here with with some alien talk and I know that
there's been a lot of it but no no that's not my talk what I'm saying is because of the Bigfoot sightings that
has led to other people that have some fascination with True Crime but mainly their Fascination is in alien sightings
and Bigfoot sightings and time traveling portals and all that stuff and that stuff look I love Coast to Coast I love
listening to um some odd stuff right but what I'm saying is this case people took this
sighting of a disheveled man turned that into Bigfoot turn that into aliens turn
that into time traveling portals and it's just it's just ridiculous you know I believe this case is pretty simple you
have a six-year-old boy that went out to hide and maybe went too far and then as
he got turned around started going okay I need to pop out in the woods I need to
go this way and you said that you know one of the key things that you said is there was a
time lapse of maybe 10 minutes maybe there was a time lapse of 10 minutes again in every case you can go five
minutes forwards or five minutes backwards if you go backwards now you got 15 minute time window that that boy
was missing maybe maybe even as much as a 20 minute time window if that kid got turned around and thought and this has
happened look um when I was in Boy Scouts would go out and play you know hide and go seek and
stuff like that I remember one time getting so freaking confused because we were playing up on a hill
and then I then I took off running went down the hill to hide and then I ended up going up a hill and getting turned
around for a second and started going the wrong way and I then saw some of my buddies like way over and I just thought
oh crap I'm I'm way in the wrong area so is it possible is it very possible the six-year-old boy goes out there to hide
gets turned around and starts I'm just going to head in this direction and depending on how fast he's heading in
that direction now you're half a mile away now you're a mile away right and and you
could be a mile away and and 15 minutes then even if he's not moving quickly but
he's moving in a direction that you're not searching now you're talking within an hour he's three or four miles away
and and you know in in two three hours now now he's he's at that point almost he is a lifetime away
that's probably why they never found him well the key thing that I want to point
out here regarding the story of Harold Key and his son in that possible eyewitness sighting is the vehicle
because we have a statement that says the FBI ruled this out as being connected as it was nine miles from
Spence field it was too far well it's not too far if somebody took the boy from spencefield put him in a vehicle
and drove the nine miles and ended up there for some reason okay it's not true it's not too far for that so why they
chose to rule this out makes absolutely zero sense to me because if this person was the perpetrator of some kind of
crime of some kind of abduction he had access to a vehicle and likely used it yeah no and and where they went Spence
field where they were at you said had two shelters there was campgrounds but we also have two families that are pretty
close together you would think that if this individual saw an opportunity to grab a six-year-old that there would be
some kind of eyewitness either of the man at spencefield or some kind of eyewitness of his vehicle
there so I mean that's the only reason why it seems unlikely to me but we're not
talking about a situation where the Martin family and the other Martin family are the only people in the area
camping or staying no I understand that we're talking about a very busy area with lots of people coming in from all
areas to stay there and spend the weekend no and I understand that as well again now you have more people more
possible eyewitnesses that didn't see a man carrying a child um this child again we don't I don't
know for sure but with this child scream yell whatever and also we have more eyewitnesses that
didn't see this vehicle and you think but we don't have a great description of the vehicle it's not like we have have a
situation where they're saying I saw a white Buick 1986 with a maroon vinyl top no this guy's saying I think that the
guy got into a white vehicle and drove off that's that's as good of a description as you get a vehicle that
could have been white and then we have a we also have a situation of if this man
as described the one that's hiding in the woods Bigfoot well if he is as described you would think he would be
easily remembered he would be memorable to the people staying in the area the quote-unquote unkept man the problem is
I wonder the amount of distance between this individual and the key family as well as the obstacles between them I
don't think that they had a very good I don't think they got a very good sight of this individual not when somebody's
saying it's just it's an animal yeah and somebody's saying no it's a bear I mean
you could you could have a guy wearing a brown sweater at a great distance and he's got some weird hat on and maybe
that's where you come up with this strange description of this individual well and I I think the thing that
is it possible that there's this pedophile out there or our murder or child murder that's out there just
trying to find a victim that's very possible I mean we've seen times with uh Bundy and other people that go to
campgrounds and and to kind of stock prey it's possible the but you always have to look at the
evidence and I think one of the pieces of evidence is when they found the shoe print where there's one shoe print and
then the machine shoe print you're finding that uh oh I don't know how far away it was from the site
that he went missing but I think it was a distance and so again it's like the the eyewitness of the disheveled man
would have to line up with the boy going missing at this time and then when the the shoe prints were found and I think
the shoe prints would have been found after that if I'm correct on that then I think this
disheveled man probably has nothing to do with the case I think if the shoe prints um were there and if they are in
fact part of The Disappearance if they were left there by Dennis Martin [Music] I think they probably should have been
found on day two of the search I don't see any way that the family and some people helping and assisting and three
rangers would have found those prints during the course of two and a half inches of rainfall right so day two now
we do know we have to believe I don't have record of where those prints were found but the inference we can make is
that they should have been somewhat close to where the Martin family was staying because the key word the words
that are used is stating that this area had already been searched and these prints weren't there or not believed to
have been there the first time we searched this we know that when they first started searching they started
searching in the most likely areas first and work their way out that means starting close by where the Martin
family was staying well and that's the other scary thing too though is I mean you said it I believe uh in the trailer
um that took them an hour once not an hour to took him a day one time to find a missing plane it was a year a whole a
whole year wow I need to pay attention to you you were only off by 364 days hey that's not but I want to keep it I think
we should keep in mind you know I've gone over that statement time and time again and I'm like well of course they
didn't find Dennis Martin how would you if it took you a year to find a plane but the plane got there in a much
different way than Dennis would get to where he may be resting right but what I mean by that is
is it possible that they're searching for this child but because he's so small and because the woods are so dense that
you can't see him maybe 15 yards away so he walks by you during the search and so
is it possible that again these Footprints are not left till day two or possibly even day three and then you
go he's here he's been here the whole time we're just not seeing him when we're searching I mean I I again I I don't
know the terrain too well I mean I've seen a few pictures but it seems like once you got into those woods that it
would be hard to spot anything so here's my one of my thoughts and you know it's tough for me to go a whole
case without throwing somebody under the bus or at least bringing up some good questions that I think have not been
looked at regarding individuals and my first question would be for Mr Harold Key the one that has this quote unquote
possible eyewitness statement right he does not report this for days because he didn't he was unaware that there was
a missing person for days I wonder where was Harold Key during the course of those days before he reported
this and what I'm getting at is okay well well I don't think that should be laughed at we've caught we've covered so
many cases where somebody comes forward with a possible eyewitness account why do they do that sometimes they're trying
to create and establish an alibi for themselves they were actually up to no good yeah but isn't his wife with him
well that's no that's what I mean I would like to know where this individual was during the course of those days and
how does it turn into that he doesn't know that there's somebody missing four days when we have statements all along
the way that Searchers when they came across anybody else they'd be like hey we're looking for a six-year-old boy his
name's Dennis he was wearing this have you seen anybody and so he's like well I saw the shuffled man but what I mean
Captain is Bigfoot is when this sighting occurred did the keys shortly leave after that and they didn't become aware
of Dennis Martin missing until they saw it on the news when they returned to their home right and they're sitting at
home in the comfort of their family room and they see it on the news so that's just one question I have I'm not trying
to to make it look like anybody's guilty of anything right what but what I'm getting at is we have a very possibly
important eyewitness account that we have no information of we're fed this account so many times and if you
look into this case like I said you'll find two dozen different versions of this account
and only one of them is correct yet we have no follow-up information on Mr key his family what they were doing why they
were in the area and and where were they and to whom did they finally report this possible
sighting of this man and or this boy well let's get into the other weird story involving this disappearance of
Dennis Martin it's not as weird as bigfoots or aliens but it's still odd so several years after Dennis went
missing an illegal ginseng Hunter claims that he had found a skull in other remains of a small boy or I'm guessing I
don't know how he would determine it was a boy or a girl but state that in the same vicinity
however this person did not report this to anybody officially until 1985 because
the man had feared that he might be arrested for his illegal activity in the area which led him to the discovery this
area was around three miles away from where Dennis was last seen and then a later search of this area yielded no
results so many years after the incident yeah for whatever reason my gut just tells me that this story isn't true that
this guy didn't see a skull or anything I believe that after he told them even though so much time passed I believe
they would have found something some kind of remains This Is A Lie this has got to be a lie I mean anybody that that
would come forward to want to do the right thing what are you gonna do Captain you and I have talked about this
you get rid of your damn ginseng and you go report your findings immediately well
you said it was 1984 when he came out when he finally reported this incident it was 1985. okay so 16 years after the
boy goes missing I mean so if you are telling the truth you're horrible piece of [ __ ] because you waited for 16 years
and if you're not telling the truth you're a horrible piece of [ __ ] because you're lying about it well you know also
keep in mind that when the search was finally you know when it was over they had searched 56
square miles of land 56 square miles of land this guy says that he found this around three miles away from where
Dennis was last seen and here's the other thing that's strange about his statement I found a skull and other
remains of a small boy in this area again years later after years of decomposition how would this guy know
that it was a small boy right you know what indicators told him it was a small boy and not a small girl right and then
the indicators are that he read this story somewhere and he wanted to be a part of it right that to me you should
probably look into individuals like that though you know I mean because it's like
why why does this guy want to be a part of the story again but it also shows that there's also people up there
hunting when they shouldn't be and so again does Dennis go into the woods and get
does he get lost does he get attacked by animal or does he does he find some evil
piece of [ __ ] out there I have trouble with the theory of an animal attack as well
and the reason being is I think there would have been evidence of such I think that we would have found something of
Dennis or some something belonging to Dennis after this animal attack never happened there's no sign of this
boy anywhere oh well I think it's in the documentary missing 4-1-1 or at least in a documentary that
I watched recently where the same scenario they they went up somewhere the boy these kids were playing they turned
around the boy was they were hiking on the trail they turned around the boy is gone
and so then they hightail it back to where the father would stay and say hey we can't find your boy he goes up there
or maybe was the grandfather they go up and start looking they can't find anything and one of the Rangers and
would tell you this if an animal would attack anything it is going to take those
remains with it and so yeah you would argue would you find blood well you're talking about he goes missing we don't
have anybody with any knowledge searching until 8 30 so now it's dark then once it starts raining would
whatever blood would been found at the scene where he was attacked would that be washed away and so my gut
feeling is to me it's this simple I think he got turned around he got lost he either was
attacked you know got lost and moved around for a while and then got attacked by an animal
or he you know was lost roaming around and possibly tried to you know oh if I just crossed this water and you know
uh drown in the water I think those to me are the two most likely scenarios yeah I I agree with you I think we have
a situation where I would say the most probable is that somehow the boy got disoriented
he got lost and for whatever reason ended up in water now that could be a million different reasons as to why
maybe he put himself in water but we all and we also have some evidence of this we do have footprints that lead towards
water and we he the boy's got no food or water no food or drink so did he go towards water to to drink something at
some point the the only thing that I have issue with in this theory is that okay so the average adult would walk a
mile and about a little less than 20 minutes a six-year-old boy okay let's go ahead and expand that out
to about 30 minutes and you also have to factor in it's rough terrain he's not walking on a
paved Road on a flat paved Road this is the Wilderness where this child is walking
his father and grandfather began looking for him if we're to believe the stories
within minutes within a very short period of time calling out his name why did he not return their shouts why
didn't he shout back at them why and if he did why didn't they hear him he would
have been close enough in that time period that they should have heard him so it's it's a very troubling thing
because what seems the most probable of him getting lost and then ending up in the water and if he were anywhere if he
were any anywhere on that property to this day it would be in the water because that's where they had the
toughest time searching that's where they weren't able to conduct proper searches shortly after he went missing
but again the troubling thing is why didn't he call back to his dad and his grandfather and if he did why didn't
they hear him so then my other thought my number two Theory number one would be he got lost and something happened to
him it's still surprising to me that all this time later they've never found anything or you know to tell us what
happened but my number two Theory would be that he was abducted and what I mean by that is some people have said really
all those people in that big of an area and he is abducted that just seems like too perfect of a scenario for the
abductor you the thing that these people are having trouble figuring out is I'm not
suggesting a theory where Dennis Martin was targeted to be abducted I'm pointing
out a thought and theory of the abductor went to this location and thought you know what there's going to be a bunch of
people here there might be unsupervised children I'm going to watch some of the children in the area and if I see
someone unattended to if I see an opportunity I'm taking it and we have a situation here where if we
have an abductor who's attracted to young boys well he very well may have been watching those four young boys
playing together that day and thought you know what I might like to take one of those boys in a situation may have
presented itself where three boys went off in One Direction and poor little Dennis went off in another Direction and
either he was enticed by this individual to walk further into the woods or he was
grabbed up by this individual and you pointed out a very good thing you pointed out a very smart observation
captain and that's one that I'm having trouble getting over and this is why the abduction theory is my second most
probable to me is that if he was abducted there would have had to have been some time of this
individual running with the boy in his arms and nobody ever saw that nobody ever came forward saying you know if
somebody would have come forward believe you me this would be an abduction this would not be a missing person's case
this would be an abduction case and they would have investigated as such right from the get-go and so that's a that's a
smart intelligent observation that you've made and I so those are my thoughts and and I and I apologize that
I can't have a better answer for you but those seem to be the most likely and here here's the thing as far as the
abduction goes Captain this is why I can't get over the thought that it might have been an abduction
there's no trace of this boy anywhere it's almost as whatever happened to him not only removed Dennis but it removed
everything that Dennis had on his person at that time it removed all trace of Dennis at that time from the area I
believe we have a search here that was big enough that if he was in the area he would have been found or something of
him could have been found what's scary here is you know you just look up missing persons from Parks numbers as
far as over 1600 people going missing this is a lot of people but I think it it shows one that that um
mother nature and the Wilderness is not anything that you should take lightly right you could just get lost you could
be attacked by an animal you could again you could have an accident falling off a
cliff something with water so you know be careful out there and and I think the reason why some of these crazy you
know quote-unquote crazy ideas as far as alien abduction and time travel portals
and dimension portals and Bigfoot sightings and and possible other animals is because there is so many individuals
that have gone missing that we don't have answers to and I think it's people trying to fill in the gaps
yeah and I do want to address two other things that have been pointed out in this case as being quote unquote weird
okay the first being author Dwight McCarter uh he's the author of lost a Rangers Journal of search and rescue
he had a strange tale to tell about the Martin case in which McCarter in which McCarter claimed that during the search
for Dennis Martin the special forces units that had been called in had barely communicated at all with authorities
Rangers or civilian Searchers instead working on their own as if in his words they had their own agenda he also states
that they had been heavily armed as if they were expecting something big to happen and he asked what could this mean
I want to address that real quick here captain I think this this is another way of
making this story more fanciful than it is than what it actually is he's talking
about the Green Berets when they came in to look for the boy they were going to work on their own
okay these are this is a unit a Special Forces Unit that is trained highly trained to conduct searches and find
people and remove them from an area okay they're not going to fraternize with the
local Rangers with some locals that helped search that are only going to muddy the waters for them Cloud their
operation they're not going to spend time communicating with those individuals they can do nothing but slow
them down well this is another reason why the Bigfoot Community has said that Bigfoot was involved and this is
evidence of that because when they came in that they knew that they're looking for a boy and it's possibly that he was
abducted by a Bigfoot that's that's what I've read time and time again and the other thought of what could this mean
that they were heavily armed um they're the Green Berets how would you expect them to be armed they're going to
be armed the way that they're always going to be armed on any search and rescue mission let me tell you something
when they sit down at dinner table they're heavily armed the other weird detail that people bring up is that the
lead FBI investigator on the case agent Jim Reich later committed suicide okay I'm sorry but people in law
enforcement have a higher rate of suicide than most other professions it's just a fact okay we're talking about
they want to paint this picture of well Jim Reich must have known something that
the general public didn't and he couldn't take it anymore so he killed himself did he know things that the
general public didn't know of course he's in the FBI right but most likely it was about other cases this guy was
probably he worked a stressful job for many years and who knows what other stressors it added to his life his
personal life and his family life I'm sorry but to point out that the agent that worked this case later committed
suicide it has no bearing on this case itself it means nothing it carries no weight so again Captain we have a lot of
strange theories out there that are interesting to read and think about but they just don't carry any weight yeah I
don't want any hate from the Bigfoot Community I don't want any hate from Aliens or or ghosts
or any Community or time travel or portals of different dimensions I'm into it all I watched some of the craziest
things you've ever seen and then sometimes I laugh afterwards and sometimes I go
that [ __ ] might be real you know it all depends on the day I think but I do find that stuff
fascinating I enjoy it I mean I've been a big fan of coast to coast for years and I I find those they're just puzzles
and they're they're like mind puzzles and I think it's fun to think about and I do want to point out a couple of
things here too Captain we have the Martin family okay everything that I read states that the grandfather Dennis
Martin's grandfather was looking for the child till very late in his life we also
have his father William Martin William Martin you know one test that he passed that the Martin family passed for me was
they didn't move away he lived in the same home that he lived in with Dennis at the time of Dennis's disappearance
till very late in life and he was married to Dennis's mother for 55 years until he passed away in 2014 and again
everything I read stated that he was looking for his son until he passed away foreign
I hope everybody had a great Labor Day weekend hope it was fun hope you got some nice cold drinks and enjoy the
short work week that's that's the best part of uh you get the great holiday followed by the short Work Week little
recommended reading for everybody out there uh this week we were recommending missing when the sun sets the Jared
adidero Story and sun is spelled s-o-n discover the case that rocked the state of Colorado for five years and changed
the way many view their world forever on October 2nd 1999 three-year-old Jared anadaro vanished on a group hike in the
Comanche Peak Wilderness as ours turned into days and days into months Jared's father Alan goes through hell and high
water to combat nightmarish circumstances hindering the search for his son and how about a little
recommended listening Captain we have our show that you can check out people always ask us where can I find the old
show those of True Crime garage guess what it's very easy you get the Stitcher app and you can listen to every episode
of True Crime garage you get years of Great Garage goodness and then if you want to take it a step further which I
recommend that you do because we're getting so much good feedback about our other show which is called off the
Record use just five dollars a month and you get every show that is on Stitcher premium yes so you can check that out
off the Record by going to Stitcher premium.com True Crime garage and use promo code garage and if you just want
to check it out before you buy you can listen for free for a month yeah it's becoming one of my favorite parts of the
week is just when we're done recording the show for us to just keep the mics going and kind of just talk about
whatever is happening one in our lives anything that's going on with the show any updates on cases it's been a lot of
fun so check that out and thanks for sharing the show on social media and sharing your pictures and everything
with us on social media I'd love to repost those so uh much love to everybody out there and like the captain
says thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend we will see you all back here in the garage next week and
until then be good be kind and don't litter [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Dennis Martin ////// 238

Part 1 of 1

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

A family trip to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park should be a wonderful Father’s Day weekend but it wasn’t. Six year old Dennis Martin vanished seemingly without a trace. One minute he was playing with his brother and friends and then the next minute he was gone. Tonight we discuss a famous case of a missing child and the search and investigation that followed. Join Nic and the Captain in the garage but crack a beer please because this one could get weird. Beer of the Week - Appalachian Pale Ale by Smoky Mountain Brewery Garage Grade - 3 and a half bottle caps out of 5

Beer Fund: https://truecrimegarage.com/home

Brief Summary

The episode covers the 1969 disappearance of Dennis Martin in the Smoky Mountains and the extensive but fruitless search efforts that followed.

Key points

Mysterious Disappearances. The Smoky Mountains are known for their mysterious disappearances, with many visitors never seen again.
A Parent's Worst Nightmare. The moment a child goes missing is every parent's worst fear, as described in the podcast.
Plans for Dennis Martin's Search. Plans A and B were set for finding Dennis Martin, alive or dead.
Theories of Abduction. Theories arise about Dennis being abducted, including a strange eyewitness account.
Eyewitness Account of a Dark Figure. Harold Key reported seeing a dark figure near the time of Dennis's disappearance.
Eyewitness Accounts. Harold Key's sighting raises questions about the timeline of events surrounding Dennis's disappearance.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

These mountains keep secrets.

Introducing the mysterious disappearances in the Smoky Mountains.

4:48WatchNov 24, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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