DNA proves remains in car found in Columbia River are of Oregon family missing since 1958

Water spills over the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River, which runs along the Washington and Oregon state line, June 21, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Jessie Wardarski

CASCADE LOCKS, Ore. — DNA analysis has identified the remains found in a car in the Columbia River as those of an Oregon family that went missing in 1958 while on a trip to find Christmas greenery, authorities said Thursday.

The state medical examiner’s office has identified parents Kenneth and Barbara Martin and their daughter Barbie from remains located in the river within the wreckage of the car, the Hood River County Sheriff’s Office said. The sheriff’s office said it concluded its investigation and found no evidence of a crime.

The Ford station wagon thought to belong to the family was found in 2024 by a diver who had been looking for it for several years. Authorities pulled part of the car from the river the following year.

The family vanished in December 1958. The bodies of two of the family’s children were found months after the disappearance, but the other members never turned up.

The search for the Martin family was a national news story at the time and led some to speculate about the possibility of foul play, with a $1,000 reward offered for information.

“Where do you search if you’ve already searched every place logic and fragmentary clues would suggest?” an Associated Press article asked in 1959, months after the disappearance.

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Only the frame and some attached components were retrieved from the water because of the “extent to which the vehicle had been encased in sediment,” the sheriff’s office said. Analysis of those items allowed investigators to conclude that it was indeed the Martin family’s car.

Later in 2025, the diver located human remains that were ultimately turned over to the state medical examiner’s office.

Scientists developed DNA extracts from the remains and generated a profile that was compared with relatives of the Martin family, allowing for the identifications, authorities said.

The Associated Press