The Journey Podcast 32. J.B. Fisher – True Crime in Oregon: The Case of The Missing Martins

Author J.B. Fisher and publisher Kris Millegan discuss “Echo of Distant Water: The 1958 Disappearance of Portland’s Martin Family,” J.B.’s book about the Oregon family who went on a Sunday drive, on December 7, 1958, and disappeared.

After six months, a couple of the bodies turned up in the Columbia River.  Over months and years of investigating, one detective pursued, not the accident theory, but the foul play theory, based on many clues, and he committed the rest of his life to trying to solve this case, despite having his higher-ups tell him to just leave the case alone.

This detective found a slew of clues, but they were not given the attention that he felt they deserved – a gun, later linked to an older brother of the family, who was in another state at the time of the family’s disappearance, was found near where the family had apparently stopped for gas; an abandoned car was found to have been driven to Oregon by one of two ex-cons who became linked to the story.

K: Why did it become such a big case?

J.B: You have a quintessential, “Leave It to Beaver,” 1950s’ family go missing.  Then, after Detective Walter Graven’s original investigation, there were three more big investigations, hoping to find the car and solve the case.  The case was actually re-opened ten years after the family disappeared.  And each time, those investigations were thwarted.  It’s still an unsolved case.

K: What I got from your book is that the Martin family bumped into some criminal activity and had to be taken care of, and then the larger criminal enterprise, which included a lot of the police department, helped cover it up.

J.B: That’s essentially it.

J.B. Fisher teaches writing at Portland Community College. He holds a doctorate in English Renaissance literature and was a Shakespeare professor before returning to Oregon, where he is now researching some of the state’s most intriguing unsolved cases.