Remains of 3 Oregon family members identified after 1958 disappearance
The remains of three members of an Oregon family who disappeared in 1958 have been identified after DNA testing, nearly 68 years after they vanished during a trip to collect Christmas greenery, authorities said. Investigators said they found no evidence of a crime.
The Hood River County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday that the Oregon State Medical Examiner’s Office identified the remains of Kenneth Martin, his wife Barbara Martin and their oldest daughter Barbara “Barbie” Martin after DNA analysis of remains recovered from the wreckage of the family’s car in the Columbia River near Cascade Locks.
The Martin family disappeared in December 1958 while visiting the Columbia River Gorge. Months later, the remains of Virginia Martin, 13, and Susan Martin, 11, were found downstream, but Kenneth, Barbara and Barbie, who was 14, were never located despite extensive searches and diving operations.
The breakthrough came after a private diver located what he believed was the Martin family’s car in 2024 in a catch-basin area within the original locks in Cascade Locks, about 40 miles east of Portland.
In early 2025, the sheriff’s office hired a crane in an attempt to pull the vehicle from the river, but authorities said the car had been so heavily encased in sediment that only the frame and some attached components could be recovered.
Investigators said those items, along with other material retrieved by the diver, allowed them to confirm it was the Martin family’s car.
Later in 2025, the diver located human remains, which were turned over to the sheriff’s office and then to the Oregon State Medical Examiner’s Office.
To help identify the remains, the medical examiner’s office and the sheriff’s office worked with Othram, a Texas-based forensic genetics laboratory that specializes in advanced DNA analysis.
Authorities said Othram generated a genetic profile from one set of remains by analyzing SNPs, small variations in DNA used in forensic genealogy, but the other two samples were too degraded to be fully sequenced.
Investigators compared the successful profile with family reference standards from known Martin relatives, which allowed them to positively identify Kenneth Martin. Based on the circumstances in which the remains were recovered and an anthropological assessment, authorities said they also identified Barbara and Barbie Martin.
The sheriff’s office said it has concluded the investigation and found no evidence of a crime. Authorities said next of kin have been notified.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
