Missing Paperboys /// Chapter 4 /// Milk Carton Kids | Forensic Files

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>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Some of the following is from an article
written by Jodi Ewing, founder of Iowa Cold Cases website. The missing kids milk carton campaign
started in the great state of Iowa. The grainy images of boys and girls sat beside Americans during breakfast time
for much of the 1980s. Before Facebook, Amber Alerts, and text messages, pictures on milk cartons were
a way to distribute information about missing kids. It made sense at the time. Most Americans drank milk, and the
cartons had a frequent turnaround from grocery store to fridge. It was also a grassroots campaign with
deep Iowa ties. Among the first cartons to be distributed in the grocery stores were from Anderson Erickson.
They featured the black and white images of Johnny Gosch and Eugene Martin, two Des Moines Register newspaper
carriers. From there, the missing kids milk carton campaign grew. Dairies across the nation participated. And
missing kids across the nation became part of Americans' routines. Johnny Gosch, aged 12, went missing
September 5th, 1982, while delivering newspapers. Less than 2 years later, Eugene Martin, aged 13, will go missing
on August 12th, 1984, while delivering Des Moines Register newspapers on a Sunday morning.
By September 1984, Anderson Erickson Dairy in Des Moines began running photos and short bios of Johnny Gosch and
Eugene Martin on the sides of half-gallon milk cartons. The trend continued with Wisconsin,
Chicago, and then out to California and across the nation. By 1985, more than 700 dairies were now
involved, and 1.5 billion milk cartons with images of missing kids are distributed nationwide.
This is True Crime Garage, and this is the missing person's case of 13-year-old Eugene Martin from August 1984,
one of the first kids featured on the side of a milk carton. >> [music] [music] [music]
>> Eugene Wade Martin was born on August 17th, 1970, and almost from the start, people closest to him shortened his name
into something that felt like it belonged to everyday [music] life. They called him Gene, the kind of name you
could shout from a porch when the street lights were coming on. Those who knew him described a boy who moved through
the world gently. He's described as polite. He's a quiet kid. He's quite shy. His folks would say not
withdrawn so much, but careful. He was also the kind of kid that was both cautious, but also fearless, they say in
the same breath almost. His mother, Janice, worried about him playing football because he was
on the smaller side. But Gene loved it, and he played anyway. And he And he played the game with
reckless abandon. He loved skateboarding, too, and it showed. He was always equipped with skinned knees
and scraped elbows. Gene, growing up in the 1980s, it was typical [snorts] '80s, video games and television, and
the usual tug-of-war between being outside with friends and being inside with whatever was glowing on the screen.
But he wasn't only a kid passing time, right? Just enjoying the ride. He had taken a job, and he took that job very
seriously. In May of 1984, Gene became a paper carrier for the Des Moines Register. The work required
routine, early alarms, quiet mornings, picking up bundles of papers, folding those papers, rubber
banding them, and loading them into a carrier bag, and then moving house to house while most of the neighborhood
was still asleep. When August of 1984 arrived, Gene had reasons to be quite excited. The Iowa State Fair was in
town. His 14th birthday was approaching. He had plans for a celebration for his birthday, big plans. On the
night of August 11, 1984, Gene went to a movie with friends, and he came home early.
Not under pressure, but because he wanted sleep that night. That night, Gene's older brother, Don, wasn't home.
Don was staying at a friend's house. Don, typically the older brother, would help Gene with his paper route.
But that was not going to be possible the following morning. It meant that when Gene got up before sunrise, he
would be going out on this paper route and going it alone. Before sunrise on the 12th,
Gene woke up on time and moved quietly through the house. His father, Donald, would later say that he heard Gene's
alarm and nothing else, no real commotion, no hint that anything was wrong. Gene's first stop was
the pickup point where carriers receive their newspapers. So, this is the corner
of Southwest 14th Street and High View Drive. At about 5:10 a.m., we have an older man, this is a somebody
who knows Gene, so somebody from the neighborhood. He drove past that corner on his way to play golf. He was going
out for an early tee time, and he said at about 5:10 a.m. when he drove past that
corner, he says he saw Gene sitting there, and Gene's paper bag was empty sitting beside him. So, he just assumed,
right? The kid's waiting there, waiting for the paper drop-off. And he said nothing about Gene's posture
or the moment seemed alarming at all. Gene looked exactly like what he was supposed to be, a kid waiting for the
start of his paper route. Well, it's also exciting time as a kid because you're making money.
It's not something that you have to do for hours. You know, and they can complete your
paper route within a let's say an hour or so. It is every day, so that takes a toll on
you. But it's a time where you get paid, and you don't have to spend money on bills.
So, that money accumulates different, and you >> [clears throat] >> And just like little simple things,
whether it's a bicycle or going to the movies or whatever it is, you're in a situation where you can afford something
that your peers mostly can't. >> Well, in those summer months, delivering papers are fun, too, because you rarely
do you have weather undesirable weather and you have those mornings those summer
mornings where the air is still kind of cool and crisp and you're out there alone and but you get to watch the the
sun come up often times on that paper route. Yeah. Sometime later this would have been after the papers arrived at
the drop-off point. Gene appears to have done the usual carrier type of work loading up the papers rolling them up
and loading them up into his bag and that's really what the next observation here in our timeline Captain
would suggest. So we have route manager Paul Porter. He came by and he saw Gene's carrier bag positioned at the
corner. It's loaded with newspapers looking ready to rock and roll. Porter says he did not see the boy. He did not
see Gene but the bag looked prepared as if Gene had already folded and rubber banded the newspapers and he actually
assumed that Gene had probably just taken a couple of papers went to deliver them and would circle back to grab the
rest or grab another handful. Reports place this sighting in the window of 6:00 a.m. to 6:15 a.m. So let's let's
put this under the microscope microscope real quick. Zoom in on these moments because we have one witness that says at
5:10 approximately he saw Gene just sitting there looks like he's waiting for the papers no papers in Gene's
carrier bag. Right. And then between 6:00 a.m. and 6:15 a.m. we have the route manager who spots the bag full but
no Gene. So in between those two times we can gather that Gene likely received these papers and put them together and
got them ready to go. But then just like we saw in the Johnny Gosch case then in
the Danny Joe Eberle case some point that morning Captain customers start calling making phone
calls. They had not received their papers. Right the route is interrupted. Correct and in those first two cases
we have reports of the calls going directly or at least the majority of those calls going directly to the
residence the home of the paper carrier. This case though seems different in the
sense that the reports I'm seeing here are that most of the calls if not all of them went to the paper itself or the the
persons in charge of the route rather than the carrier's home rather than Gene's home. So they're getting calls
they've not received their papers. One customer says you know she's at her window on the phone complaining that she
hasn't received the papers and she's like I can see the bag of newspapers sitting right there at the corner is it
okay if I just walk over and you know take my my paper. >> [laughter] >> Um in fact Porter I believe it was the
route manager Paul Porter who received this particular call because he says look I was telling
the people calling in don't worry your papers are going to show up and I will go back to I was already at the pick-up
point or the drop-off point prior with the papers and I'll circle back and see if you know what's going on what's the
hold up with with Gene. So at approximately 7:15 a.m. Porter then called Donald Martin and
told him look Gene's not out there delivering the papers and I've I've been by twice and I've not seen him. So
Donald searches the house. He's hoping for a simple explanation right maybe maybe his son returned home for any
reason maybe he's not feeling well but he says you know I I didn't really become alarmed until I
searched the home and Gene's not there. Just think about if you're on your route
and you have to use the restroom. And you don't want to pee on a bush or some tree or maybe it's not a number one
maybe it's a number two. Or the dreaded number three. Or the Sometimes it's a six.
But you're close to your house so there's a possibility that you just go home and I know that sounds funny but
I think these are the things that would go through your mind when you're getting calls that hey
my my paper hasn't been delivered and so you start going well why? Well also zoom
in on the time frame right because this is what roughly one month shy of two years after Johnny Gosch another paper
boy another boy [clears throat] delivering the Des Moines Register the same paper that Eugene Martin's
delivering is there there's always a chance the kid gets spooked and goes home. In all
reality what we have here Captain is we have the dad saying look I heard his alarm go off and I heard you know him
move through the house and we have the people calling in paper papers aren't delivered. We have the route manager who
says he saw the bag the carrier bag sitting there but in all reality all we have for this time frame of roughly
two hours-ish is only one person that can be confirmed as having actually seen Gene that morning. That's the golfer his
name is Connie. He says that roughly 5:10 a.m. that he drove by and saw Gene who he
knew from the neighborhood sitting there who appeared to be waiting on his papers. So Donald
Gene's father contacts his brother Donald's brother and the two of them go out and they
start looking. They got motorcycles. It's a summer morning. They both hop on the bikes.
They rode to places that they said look these are where we thought teenagers go typical teenager places. We went to the
mall. We went to the school. We went to anywhere we thought that Gene might be. And of course they found nothing. No
Gene no clear witnesses nobody saying that they had seen him no sign that the morning had gone wrong. So father Donald
returned home. He calls police to report Gene missing. This week the week that should have held a fair
and a birthday party turned into a week that contained a disappearance. Yeah and
as you have the disappearance of this paper boy and knowing that they're looking forward to these events these
events as they're popping up is is a reminder that he's missing. Absolutely and this is again this is a city haunted
by another paper boy case in Des Moines. It's a dark dark shadow that we're dealing with here only two years earlier
paper boy Johnny Gosch disappeared and the similarity was immediate and sickening and early morning paper route
and another boy gone. Police escalated quickly. Des Moines officers responded with urgency bringing
in six tactical unit officers and assigning five detectives at the outset. Investigators created a fact sheet with
Gene's photo and identifying details so searchers and officers would know exactly who they were looking for and
knowing being able to identify him on site. Right. So the initial search began at approximately 8:40 a.m. and
again this would be more than three hours about three and a half hours after the last confirmed sighting at 5:10 a.m.
In that gap Gene had vanished leaving behind only the carrier bag filled with undelivered newspapers.
Search efforts focused on the southwest area near that southwest 14th Street and
High View Drive. Investigators still had to consider early possibilities right? Maybe there's just this is just
confusion maybe he took a weird detour maybe there's a runaway situation scenario
here but the circumstances were unnerving and what they immediately found here their their findings were very quickly
that we have a responsible boy on a work route papers prepared and then he's absent. So authorities quickly
ruled out the idea that Gene had run away due to a domestic dispute. And as hours passed police said that
they were treating the case as an abduction or kidnapping. So you're seeing the immediate response Captain is
different here than in the Johnny Gosch case. Yeah but it's because of the Johnny Gosch case. They've learned. The
Des Moines Register moved in with in institutional urgency. The newspaper offered up quickly a $5,000 reward for
information about Gene's location and by the next day that reward money rose up to $25,000.
Notices were printed carriers were warned supervisors were sent out to watch carriers at pick-up points during
the early hours when routes were most vulnerable. So not only the police stepping in right away on the hour that
he's reported but within 24 hours we had the Des Moines Register stepping in doing some of the things that they did
in the Johnny Gosch disappearance but they're doing them faster here with Eugene Martin now missing. All right.
Can I get a witness we we get >> Can I get a witness Captain? We get a green car and an older man here so that
these are two different scenarios but let's play through them. So, as officers walked Gene's route, they're questioning
the neighbors, knocking on the doors. Did you see anything? We got a missing newspaper boy. They search for anything
that could anchor a timeline. They want, right, a vehicle. Maybe somebody overheard or witnessed an
argument, heard a scream. Maybe a direction of travel. Anything. We want anything at this point.
We have a vague timeline. We have eyewitness that sees him waiting for the papers.
Then we have the dad going out and looking for him because people are calling about not receiving their paper.
So, we do have a vague timeline. We need some anchors and some more markers on that timeline.
So, there are two troubling pieces of information that emerged from canvassing the area and
talking to neighbors. The first is the green car report. Okay, a green car described as being in poor shape was
reported in the area around 14th and 18th streets. According to the Des Moines Register,
the driver was described as a white male believed to be in his late 20s or early
30s with short dark hair parted in the middle and two to three days of beard growth.
He was reportedly seen possibly following two young women. The car was last seen around 5:00 a.m.
So, this would be before the abduction or whatever happened to Eugene because we know Gene was seen
alive and well according to the golfer at 5:10 a.m. And police did say, look, we have no
direct evidence tying this driver or even this sighting to Gene's disappearance. But, they did
say, we want to talk to the driver of this green car. Then we have an unidentified
man speaking with Gene or so the report goes. So, we get another witness that says that they reported
seeing an unidentified man speaking with Gene the morning Gene vanished. Likely between 5:15 a.m. and 5:45 a.m. The man
was described as wearing light-colored clothing and appearing to have a friendly conversation with Gene. Police
circulated a broad description of this individual and it was as such, a white male roughly 30 to 40 years old, 5 ft 9
in to 6 ft tall, medium build, medium length hair described as clean-shaven and neat in appearance, but no vehicle
was seen with him and and no vehicle was included in that report. Within days, Captain,
five more witnesses would report seeing what they believed was the same man talking with Gene. But, the description
remained too broad, too general. Determined not to lose time the way many believed is what
happened in the Gosh investigation, the Des Moines police requested federal assistance.
And we talked about this man in the first episode of the missing paper boys. Special Agent Herbert Hawkins
of the FBI's Omaha office, he came to Des Moines with 16 FBI agents. Gene's disappearance quickly saturated
newspapers, radio, and television. Tips poured in. Volunteer searches proliferated across
Des Moines. Wooded patches were searched. We're looking in tall grass, culverts,
in parks, anywhere a child might be hidden or harmed. Search teams expanded outward to parks, warehouses,
riverfronts, and other areas where evidence or a missing child might be concealed. The effort included 25 Des
Moines police officers, 16 FBI agents, and volunteers, many of which were friends and family, but also members of
the community. But, the central problem remained. Police, searchers, we got nothing. We got nothing solid, no
confirmed sightings beyond the early morning. Right. No reliable vehicle description, no physical evidence.
What's What's interesting here when we cross-reference and compare the two, what I see
when we look at the Eugene Martin case versus the Johnny Gosh case, Johnny's case has continued
for four decades to receive a mountain of press and coverage, be it podcast, documentaries,
what have you. The Eugene Martin case is often covered alongside of Johnny's, but almost mentioned as an aside. Yeah,
if anybody's ever seen a a picture of Johnny Gosh, you might have seen a picture of Eugene right beside him.
Exactly. Now, the difference here is right away, you heard the search efforts that I just described. The search
efforts immediately were different and much more abundant in strength and numbers with
Eugene Martin's case than it was with Johnny Gosh. Again, back to something you said earlier, it's because of the
Johnny Gosh case that they are they have adapted and are reacting different and reacting more appropriately in this
unfortunate second disappearance of another kid out delivering the Des Moines Register [music] newspaper.
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to the people. Power to the [music] people in the back, in the front, in the sides, and and the
ones blowing it out in the middle. Uh uh >> [laughter] >> And and somebody is out there listening
to the podcast with like giant headphones on. Shout out to whoever that is. We we don't
all need to be wearing earbuds. Some of us need to wear some giant headphones. That's right. Uh
but, even though we have all hands on deck in this Eugene Martin case, and again, it's because, you know, 2 years
prior, we have another newspaper boy going missing. Right. >> That delivered the same paper. But, I
think all this would have also changed if Johnny Gosh was found. But, Johnny wasn't found.
He he just vanished into thin air. Well, and about this same time, having gone back and and really digging through the
papers and the Des Moines Register in particular, they didn't shy away from the fact that
one of their own had gone missing, Johnny Gosh. But, you know, when there's not new information coming in,
the stories do start to fade from the headlines and from the 11:00 news. And Johnny's case was starting to fade a
little bit around this time. You start to see that it it's not so abundant in the news at this time. And then, oh my
god, here's not just the sad reminder that Johnny's missing, but now the scary fact that
Johnny's still missing and here is another kid similar in age, similar circumstances.
Houston, we have a problem here. And that problem is in Des Moines, Iowa, and it's it's paper boys going missing. So,
how about an anonymous tip here, Captain? We get an anonymous tip regarding a Just the tip. green Chevy
Malibu. So, on August 12th, Guilty. >> 1984, Whoever's driving that piece of crap, guilty.
>> police received an anonymous call. The caller claimed to have witnessed Gene speaking with an unidentified man
near a 1972 or 1973 green Chevrolet Malibu with gray primer marks on the vehicle. The caller alleged that during
the conversation, the man placed his hands on Gene at least once. The caller did not give his name. He
offered the information and disappeared back into anonymity, leaving the police with a specific
vehicle description, but no way to assess the witnesses' reliability, credibility,
in any way that could be corroborated. But, Yeah. we did have the early statements of
those of others with the the girls that might have been being followed or the two young women that
were possibly being followed by the green car described as being in poor shape. To me, that's not a
an unlike description. No, I think it's a normal >> that has primer marks on it? 1972, 1973,
it would have been it would have been a vehicle that was over 10 years old. But again, it gets difficult when your
tipster is anonymous and you have no way of contacting the individual, no way of
seeking out more information, or unfortunately, it could just be somebody calling in
a crank tip for whatever reason, for their own amusement or to send the investigators
in a different direction. Please tell me that they called in wrestler. Um we have FBI on the scene here, but this
would have been from the Omaha division, right? >> office. Yeah, from And so, they are
working this case. Unfortunately, the the folks at the Omaha branch field office, they have experience with
this type of work with the John Joubert case and and Eberle and Walden who went missing,
but were found both approximately 3 days later. So, they have some expertise in this, but a
big fail in the Gosh case, and that was one we we had talked about that in when we were talking about
Johnny's disappearance, was something Robert Ressler said. He said, "Look, I agreed
with the Goshes that it was a mistake that the FBI wasn't involved sooner. He did say part of that was we weren't
called in. The jurisdiction was a little different. Remember, it was Noreen Gosh and others that had
pressed Ronald Reagan and and pressed our government to to stack the deck differently so that FBI
and federal agents would become more involved in abduction cases and in murders. So, it's a bit of even though
it's just 2 years later, it's a bit of a different landscape here, and we're seeing how that's playing out
in the Eugene or Gene Martin disappearance. Let's get into some things here because
as the investigation continues, we're going to see a few things play out. They're going to start
re-interviewing people that they've spoke to early on in the case. There's an attempt at a composite
sketch, and maybe maybe some hope here, maybe some some hope. >> Well, I also think this is interesting,
too, because there there's reason to possibly believe that these are that these cases are
connected. So, I think as much as you're going down these rabbit holes, in Eugene's case, you have to then
double-check your work in the Gosh case to see if there's any suspect or any tip
that's over-lapping with each >> And I know that was an obvious statement. Call me Captain Obvious. Well, but you
hope you hope that the obvious is done in all of these investigations, and we've reviewed enough to know that
sometimes that is not the situation. August 15th, 1984, investigators are trying to
sharpen witness recollections. Remember, we have the several persons who had called in
stating that they might have seen something that morning. They wanted to see if we can get those
memories, make them stronger, and maybe even actionable. So, according to the Iowa City Press-Citizen,
they state that a specialist was brought in from Washington to review six witnesses in hopes of producing an
artist composite sketch of the person described in those witness accounts. Even then though, law enforcement said
the unidentified man was not considered a suspect at that time. Simply, they wanted to locate him because in a case
with almost no anchors in the timeline, even this unidentified man near the last
known location, of course, is going to matter. It's going to matter, and we we need more information. Maybe this person
has it. This is very similar to the witnesses that that we discussed in the Gosh case.
That Oh, I saw this person. This type of vehicle. Police said with both of those individuals, we don't
consider them suspects, we consider them potential witnesses, we just want to talk to them. They don't come forward.
They never come forward. In fact, I was trying to locate it before arriving at the garage this morning. I was trying to
locate the exact quote and statement because we have a statement from police that says, "Look, we we really want to
talk to these people." And they keep pressing them saying, "Well, are they suspects? Are they suspects?" And they
kept saying, "No, no, no." And the reporters say, "Well, then why are you so concerned if they're not suspects?"
And the police has to spell it out for the reporters and and says, "Look, we are concerned that they've not come
forward. Yeah. >> We're hesitant to call them suspects, but we're we we are >> suspicious if they don't come forward.
Yes. Don't be suspicious. Don't be suspicious. And well, and that's going to be the case here. Now, again, this is
a pretty vague description, um but this individual appears to not have come forward in the Eugene Martin case.
Right. So, Eugene's parents were scheduled to meet with the governor. The police acknowledged the search was
expanding beyond Des Moines, and the efforts quickly became regional. Searches included members of the Civil
Air Patrol, and in mid-August, police recovered This is where they had some hope,
potential evidence they thought, but sadly, this was going to quickly be determined to be false physical hope.
So, mid-August, police recovered a tennis shoe and a pair of shorts, and they said that this was near the
location where Gene was last seen. And for a moment, it felt like the investigation was finally turning
physical, but quickly, it was determined that these items did not belong to Gene
and likely had no relevancy to the case at all. The reward was now up to $30,000,
and this was with help from the Iowa Newspaper Association. After the meeting with the governor,
Donald, Gene's father, expressed appreciation for the governor's concern and attention
to his son's case. Donald also emphasized something investigators took very seriously, and this is something
that our listeners should take very seriously, too, because when reviewing this case and the the few times that we
have, you know, we we covered Johnny's case a long time ago when we first started
covering cases here in the garage, and we did talk a good deal about Gene Martin's case as well during that time.
Yeah. But this is the thing that has always stood out the most to me. It goes down to
personality. Personality of the victim. And we we talk so often about victimology. You have to study your
victim when you're looking at these cases. And the thing that stood out the most to me is the repeated statement
that Gene was very shy. He wasn't outgoing. He was personable, very likable, had a lot of
friends. He would talk with the people he knew, with the people he trusted, but he wasn't the kind of kid that would go
up to people and talk to them. Wouldn't go up to a group of people and talk to them. May- Probably wouldn't even wave
to somebody from afar unless it was somebody he absolutely knew. Now, compound that thought
with this statement that his father is saying just weeks into the disappearance. Uh-huh. Donald says
regarding his son, "Gene is extremely shy." Donald says it is his belief that whoever took
Gene likely had to be someone that Jean could trust or someone who could convincingly present themselves as safe.
Meaning his father is suspicious that this is either someone who knew Jean or presented themselves in a way that Jean
would be comfortable with this person approaching them. Right. What was their ruse?
My only concern about a shy individual and I was not touched with that uh as a personality trait, but some of
these individuals, especially younger individuals that are shy, sometimes if an individual approaches
them, they they almost freeze. And so, maybe you'd need less of a ruse to to get close to that individual.
Well, we had one person in the you know, one kid in the Gosh case that said something like
Johnny was kind of spooked and said, "Hey, I'm out of here." And so, what we need to underline here
and really highlight is that shy and scared are two very different things. So, he might only
engage in conversation with somebody that he trusts or somebody that presents themselves as someone that he can trust.
But, he he's not being described as scared, meaning like, "Oh, as soon as the bad
guy turned the corner, Jean hopped you know, jumped up and took off on foot." He may have He may have been approached
by somebody. And another big difference that we have here is with the cases that we already
covered in Omaha in Nebraska with Eberle and Walden. With the Eugene Martin case and the
Johnny Gosh case, if they are connected, you can't really profile without any kind of evidence.
So, early in this investigation, there were people asking the police, "Well, is there going to be
an offender profile here? Can the Can the FBI build a psychological profile of the likely offender?" And the special
agent in charge, Herb Hawkins, said, "Look, we don't have enough to do a full profile. We don't
even have enough to do uh much of a profile at all." Right. And he says, "Without a clear crime scene or
any physical evidence, profiling would just be speculative, completely speculative." And he did say,
"Look, we're probably Look, if you're going to force my hand, we're probably looking for an introvert, a loner,
somebody that's not going to confide in others." Maybe lives alone. But but the trouble here for law enforcement is you
get so much more information. Like you said, to possibly build a profile, if there is
um a murder scene or if there is a body, what items are around that body, but obviously that's
not something you're going to wish for. No. >> You can't even imagine what these the
the family members are going through, the parents are going through, what society is going through. This community
is going, "Well, Johnny Gosh, we we know what that feeling feels like." For over
2 years, this guy this kid vanished into thin air and we don't have a clue. And then we also see
the aftermath. We see what's happened to the community. It's This is not a community
miles and miles away. This is a community that's in your on your the front steps, right? So, you see how this
has affected the Gosh family and then the friends and family and then the the kids of that age. And so, you're in this
very weird situation where you go, "Did Eugene just Is it going to be a story of he just
poof disappears into thin air or are we going to find him?" And the sad but the sad reality is if you do
find him, then you're going to have more evidence to to go off to to try to get answers in this case and in possibly the
Johnny Gosh case. Well, and keep in mind in the case of the Omaha cases, we have FBI getting
involved rather quickly, but we don't have a big gun, a mind hunter like Robert Ressler called to the scene until
after the first body was found. And it was Robert Ressler's own words that say, "It's going to be where you find the
body that's going to yield the most evidence." And that's why somebody like Ressler wasn't brought in because what's
he going to review? He put together an incredibly accurate profile of the likely offender in the Omaha cases.
Yeah, I mean he told you what the playbook Right. And he But he also told you the
playbook and the timeline of what was going to happen if we don't catch the individual.
And so, not only is he giving you this detailed description of the person you eventually catch, but
he's telling you he's a fortune teller. Well, this is what's going to happen if we don't catch him.
And but and he was able to create that profile based off of unfortunately so much evidence that was yielded at the
one the murder scene and the other a dump scene where bodies were discovered. So, here
I'm sorry you can't have a profile, but what do you want? Do you want bodies and
a profile or no bodies, no profile? And then as far as the police go, you know, they
jump in and they back up what the FBI is saying here. They said, "Look, this is the This is We're going to have to be
blunt about the sad reality of our investigation. We essentially have nothing. We have no
evidence, no witnesses, and the police here are telling the public, "Unfortunately, this could become a long
grind, grinding it out of lead chasing." And this will show you I think I I Look, you could This is This effort has
been labeled a few different ways, desperate, >> Yeah. showing that it was urgent or that
they were running out of ideas. I actually think that this idea is rather smart. I think this is an intelligent
move, especially when you're wondering what you have to work with here. But they decided in uh
This would be the 16th, I believe, of August. So, we're still in the same month here. But they decided, "Look,
let's get police and get a bunch of volunteers, round up a bunch of people. Let's start searching dumpsters.
We're going to search uh garbage cans of of civilians. Uh we're going to cut open bags and dump them out,
trash bags and dump them out. We'll re-bag them." And so, what they did was they put
police and volunteers uh police in every group and they're riding along, riding behind garbage trucks.
And they were examining trash hoping to find something. And it's reported that they examined trash for
more than 4,000 homes. Nothing was found. Uh well, nothing but a bunch of garbage, of course. But uh
I think that's actually a rather smart a rather smart move. So, kudos to them for having that idea. Well, you like you
said, there is some desperation because we have seen how this plays out. And they've gone down all these rabbit
holes. two different ways, both equally scary, right? Dead kids or forever missing. Yeah.
And I I I wouldn't want to pick either one. But the other problem though, too, is you
go, "Because of the the time separation, if these cases are connected, does the time separation
lead to any thoughts?" Because I could see on one level you go, "Well, maybe it is a local person because if it is a
local person, then because of the attention that the Gosh case, maybe they went into hiding and they were able to
control those urges and control those fantasies." Or is it possible that it is somebody
that is traveling through and the reason why there is a time gap between the two cases, if they're
connected, is because they weren't traveling through at that time. Yeah, if they are connected and you're
looking at these, yeah, it gets really difficult because then you start to go, "Would this be an offender that could
go 2 years without committing the same acts? What other kinds of crimes were they committing
in that window if they were committing any at all? If they're not somebody that could
abstain from this sort of behavior, then were they only in this area at these two times for some other
reason? You know, you look at a case like this and you got to start going, "Okay, what
was in the area at the time? What what moved into the area before? What left the area after?" I mean, there's a
there's a lot There's a lot a lot of stuff here uh that in many different ways that you
could attempt to try to work this. Uh speaking of work, the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children became involved, came in to work with police and to print and
distribute missing person flyers. Locally, and area newspapers also pushed prevention efforts.
Remember that when Johnny Gosch went missing, they put out safety programs specifically for paper carriers and they
were reinforcing those safety programs. Now, unfortunately, the day after they started sifting
through trash and garbage was to be John's 14th birthday and there would be no celebration
on August 17th. And he had been missing for 5 days now and things were looking very bleak.
Donald and Janice kept moving in the ways families often do when there's nothing else to do. They're They're
meeting with investigators. They're trying to keep attention on the case. Trying to force
the world to keep looking. John's birthday cake was placed in the freezer, saved for the moment that he
might come home. The tip line began filling with calls from alleged psychics. So, this is such
typical 80s missing child case, right? Psychics, wannabes, and pranksters bogging down the phone lines in a very
important investigation. Police wanted to be clear. They announced to the media,
"We've not sought any help from psychics." And they pointed out that trying to track down psychic tips
would only strain their limited resources. >> One of the things I'm going to be looking at because
trying to determine if this perpetrator is local, if these if these cases are connected. So,
pervert roundup, but also is there any allegations against anybody that's involved with kids, school bus driver, a
librarian, a Boy Scout leader. In the last 5 years, is there any complaints against any individual? And
then I'll bring that person >> out recently. Right? We've seen that in a bunch of
cases recently with with not recent cases, but cases that have been solved or the
killer identified years, decades later, then it's traced back to somebody that oh, he
he got let out of prison 2 months before this happened and he was in there for similar crimes. Right. And was there a
arrest made in between these cases where somebody went away for a little bit and
then got released? Because again, that could show some sign of a connection here between the two
cases. As the days turned into weeks, now the volunteer turnout began to decline. This is of course an emotional
shift as much as it is a logistical one. At the end of August, the Quad-City Times reported that police said they
were no longer asking for volunteers. Police explained that many locations had been searched more than once and that
larger areas that had been searched with volunteer help would from now on be searched
by police. They were going to leave the future searches to the members of law enforcement. In early September 1984,
the reward money for information reached over $100,000, a sum meant to shake loose someone
sitting on information. If somebody knew something and could point the finger, you would
think $100,000, especially in 1984, would get that person to come forward. >> Hey, you give me a cheeseburger and a
hand job and I'm I'm I'm telling on my neighbor. >> The But keep in mind, September 1984, so
this >> Yeah. same period carried the grim anniversary in Des Moines with the 5th of September marking 2
years since Johnny Gosch disappeared. Between October 1984 and late December 84,
we get a tip and a probe and not the good kind. So, late 1984, authorities announced an investigation involving the
Des Moines Register staff with allegations that surfaced about possible sexual assaults connected to younger
paper carriers. The allegations were brought to police by a private investigator who claimed to have
obtained information for them to look into. And then in a separate port So, this is
another strange report. It's separate. This is in December of 84. A witness claimed to
have seen an adult male carrying a young boy who appeared limp under a highway bridge near Centerville,
Iowa. Mhm. This information's a little vague. I I don't know if they're if the report is stating that it was
something they had seen recently or if it was something that they thought they had seen around the time of the
disappearance of John Martin. What we do know, Captain, though, is investigators
did search along the river, searched in this area. Now, do note though, this area is over 80 miles southeast
of Des Moines and they reported finding nothing connected to John Martin or John's case.
Throughout 1985, the Martin family struggled financially. They were spending a a large sum of money and
large amounts of their money on private investigators. They were reaching out to
psychics and newspaper ads intended to keep John's face and story visible. They're paying for
newspaper ads when they felt that it was needed. And like we've said in many cases, like the Brian Shaffer case, you
hear these rumors, "Oh, well, they found him, right?" And they found him alive or
they found him dead. And so, when you have these two cases that are very similar in the same location, I'm sure
that, you know, some people are going "They're They're looking for who? Oh, I thought they found that guy. What? I
thought they found that kid. I thought somebody was arrested for that, right?" Uh so, I think this
doesn't help uh clear the waters in this investigation. >> Well, one thing that was really
difficult for me to pin down is the genesis of pictures of missing kids on milk cartons. Um
what I mean by that is I was trying to figure out who the first was and depending on what website you
review, they're going to tell you a different case. Etan Patz is one that is sometimes
referenced as being the first kid. There's also some female victims that are referenced. A lot of
times Johnny Gosch is mentioned to be the first one, but but the best I could sort out was in September of 1984.
So, this would have been roughly a month after John Martin had disappeared and roughly 2 years after Johnny Gosch
disappeared, the Anderson Erickson Dairy company in Iowa came up with the idea. And one
of the stories I found was that the There was an employee there that was either related to somebody that
knew the Martin family very well or was actually related to the Martins. And it was this employee along with upper
management and the owners that decided decided, "You know what? This is a good idea to spread awareness and to keep
these pictures out there, descriptions out there of these missing kids. Let's start putting
kids on milk cartons." So, it was this Anderson Erickson Dairy company in Iowa that printed photos of two local paper
boys, Johnny Gosch and Eugene Martin, who had disappeared while on their routes. And we know
any kid that grew up in the 80s remembers seeing this at the grocery store or maybe even sitting on your
table at breakfast while you're eating your cereal with the black and white pictures
of the missing kids with the description of one or both kids that are that are uh presented there on the side of the
milk carton along with a number to call, telephone number to call to report if you have any information or if you've
seen anything or if you see these kids. And then 2 years later, it's the same story basically all over
again. 1986, another boy goes missing. Yeah, this one, Captain, is it's a little different than
the first two cases in Des Moines, but it is there's no way to look at these and not
question if they're connected immediately, right out the gate, right from jump street, right? This is March
29th. We're now in the year 1986. Another boy disappears in Des Moines, Iowa. This is 13-year-old Mark James
Warren Allen. So, Mark Allen, he left his home on Emma Avenue to visit a friend and never arrived. Now,
when we look at these cases, there's no shortage of information, even though there's
I should say there's no shortage of retelling of the Johnny Gosch case. Right. That Johnny Gosch case
really doesn't hold a whole lot of information when you look at the nuts and bolts of it. The Eugene Martin case,
very similar. There's I mean, they're missing for a reason. There's There's not a whole lot of witness statements,
not a whole lot of details, not a whole lot of great ideas as to why they went missing beyond speculation.
Now, in Mark Allen's case, there's less information about his story that's out there.
In fact, he was for the most part regarded as a runaway early on. He went missing in the evening hours,
and that's one of the big differences between his case and the previous two there in Des Moines.
He was on his way to a friend's house, but never arrived. The last time he was seen, Mark was wearing a light blue
T-shirt, blue jean shorts, white socks, gray tennis shoes with Velcro fastenings.
He had brown hair, blue eyes, and a small scar on the top of his head. And of course, this is the same area
that John Goss disappeared in 1982, and then later Eugene Martin in 1984. So, listed as
5 ft tall, 85 in Sorry. Listed as 5 ft tall, weighing 85 lb. And this is a sad story. He was
supposed to have movie night, pizza with his mom that night, and he was going to go out to a friend's house,
and said to his mom, you know, save me a slice, save me a couple slices. I'm going to be hungry
when I get back. And he has never never returned. Sadly, just like the Goss case, and now we just mentioned
Mark Allen, the investigation continues as to where is Gene Martin. The decades-long
four decades-long investigation into where is Gene Martin. There's been thousands of tips or leads over the
years. Des Moines investigator Jim Rowley worked Gene's case until his retirement.
So, he worked this case for approximately 15 years before he retired. And he was very close. He got very close
to the Martin family, got very close with Gene's father, Donald. And he said, "Look, if Donald
came up with a lead or a thought, I chased it down. Didn't didn't worry about what it would take, what we were giving
up, we chased it down." And he says, "Unfortunately, he estimates that he followed over 2,000
leads in the Eugene Martin case, taking him beyond our borders, both north and south, to Canada and Mexico. And he
says, "Out of all this, I never found any concrete answers, any concrete evidence, any concrete breadcrumb trail
that I thought could further the investigation. And anything that looked really good on
the surface, or or would lead him to another state, or even, as mentioned, another country,
he said, "A lot of times it was reports of mistaken identity." And then others, of course, were just
dead ends. His theory, though, his ongoing theory, Captain, is that Gene Martin's disappearance and
Johnny Goss's abduction are connected. He says he believes either by the same individual or a group.
Though he said he could not uncover solid evidence to prove it. And he also believes both boys were
likely killed shortly after they disappeared. Yeah. Like we said in the Johnny Goss case,
there was eyewitnesses that saw multiple people or identified multiple people. And so, you just wonder if it's a
similar situation with the with Eugene's case, and then how how dark and deep does this go, and how many
cases possibly could be connected to these two young boys? Well, and sadly, both cases remain open and unsolved.
And Gene's parents have both passed away. So, they never got any answers as to what happened to their boy.
Now, what is known from that morning, a quick review, and what investigators can return to and
have returned to time and time again, is the same narrow slice of time and place.
On August 12th, 1984, at about 5:10 a.m., Gene is seen sitting at Southwest 14th
Street and High View Drive by somebody that knows him, apparently waiting for his newspapers to
arrive. After that, his papers are prepared, folded, rubber-banded, loaded, and he's gone. Yet his bag remains at
the corner full of papers and abandoned. Witnesses describe Gene speaking with an
older unidentified man sometime between 5:15 a.m. and 5:45 a.m. Descriptions vary.
Even though it's a a vague, broad description, these descriptions vary. There are no confirmed sightings of
Eugene Martin after that morning. Gene is described as a white male with brown hair and brown eyes, about 5 ft
tall and around 110 lb. He was reported to be wearing blue jeans, blue Tracks brand shoes. There is
DNA that is available for analysis or comparisons in his case. And the story that began with a boy
waking up on a quiet morning just to go out and earn a few bucks, money for the fair
potentially, money for video games, ended with a carrier bag left behind at a curb, and a city searching
for answers outward in a widening circle and widening circles that never found the
one thing that would make the rest of the timeline real. Where Gene went after he finished folding the
papers. As we have mentioned, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
have been involved in Johnny Goss's case as well as Eugene Martin's case, and continue to have involvement, as
well as the missing person's case of Mark Allen. And you can go to their website,
ncmec.org, and you there you will find age-progressed images of these missing kids, what they
may look like today or more recently. Four decades have passed in both of these cases.
And if you have any information at all, please reach out to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. You
can call their 24-hour hotline, 1-800-843-5678, or you can go to their website, ncmec.org,
or missingkids.org. >> [music] [music] [music] >> Want to thank everybody for joining us
here in the garage each and every weekend. If you need more true crime for your ear balls,
your hairy, hairy ear balls, then make sure you subscribe to Off the Record, our other show, on
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And until next week, be good, be kind, and don't litter. >> [music] [music] [music]
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Missing Paperboys /// Chapter 4 /// Milk Carton Kids

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In the early eighties middle America experienced tragedies that no parent could imagine. Newspaper boys were disappearing. They would step out into the dark of the early morning hours to deliver the daily news to their neighborhoods and some of them did not return. It started in Iowa and then moved to Nebraska. Kids were plucked off the street just a few steps into their routes and some have vanished forever. In less than two years time - Johnny Gosch went missing in Iowa, Danny Joe Eberle was abducted in Nebraska, Christopher Walden was abducted in Nebraska, and then tragedy befell Iowa once again in August of 1984. 13 year old Eugene Martin disappeared during his early morning paper route. After Eugene vanished the Anderson Erickson Dairy company began printing black and white photos and bios on the sides of Milk Cartons distributed across the state of Iowa.

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Brief Summary

Eugene Martin, a 13-year-old paper boy, vanished in 1984, sparking a major investigation and raising awareness through the milk carton campaign.

Key points

The Missing Kids Milk Carton Campaign. In the 1980s, milk cartons featured images of missing children, raising awareness nationwide.
Eugene Martin's Disappearance. Thirteen-year-old Eugene Martin went missing while delivering newspapers in August 1984, sparking a massive search.
Urgent Police Response. Police escalated quickly in Eugene's case, treating it as an abduction from the start.
The Eugene Martin Case. Eugene Martin's disappearance is often overshadowed by Johnny Gosh's case, but the search efforts differed significantly.
Anonymous Tip Leads to a Green Malibu. An anonymous caller reports seeing Eugene with a man near a green Chevrolet Malibu, raising new questions.
Hope Turns to False Hope. Police recover items believed to be evidence, only to find they are unrelated to Eugene's case.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

The trend continued with Wisconsin, Chicago, and then out to California.

The expansion of the missing kids milk carton campaign.

4:14WatchApr 15, 2026

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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