| Why Search Managers may turn away the public who want to help on a search for a missing child. | ||
| KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - The disappearance of a boy who went missing in the Great Smoky Mountains on Father's Day, 1969 changed forever the way officials search for people missing in America's wilderness. Additional Resources... The search for a boy who went missing near the Tennessee border with North Carolina in 1969 changed forever the way searches are executed for people missing in the wilderness. June 7, 2006. WBIT-TV Knoxville. On that day, 37 years ago, the family of Dennis Martin was enjoying their annual camp out at Spence Field in the mountains, near the Tennessee-North Carolina border. The adults were gathered near the shelter. Four boys, including 6-year-old Dennis, his older brother and two cousins were playing nearby, and planned to circle behind the adults and surprise them. The three older boys went in one direction and young Dennis headed in the other direction. Dennis was never seen again. "This was about 2 pm on June 6," remembers retired Park Ranger, Dwight McCarter. "The older boys jumped out of the woods; spooked the family. They had a lot of fun. And they asked, 'Where's Dennis at? Has he not got here yet?' 'No.' And he never showed up." Dwight McCarter was a young Park Ranger when Dennis Martin disappeared. He says when the little boy didn't show up that afternoon, there was immediate concern. The adults began calling and searching for him. The next day, rangers and 150 other people showed up, searching Spence Field inch by inch, and looking throughout nearby trails. Helicopters were called in to ferry searchers from location to location, and to search by air, but there was no sign of the 6-year-old. Each day, the number of searchers increased. By the eighth day, there were 1400 searchers in the mountains. "Big mistake," says Dwight McCarter of the way the well-intentioned searchers handled the hunt. "Prior to June 6, 1969 we managed searches like a forest fire. We attacked it like a forest fire. If someone was lost we sent lots of people." However, all those people may have wiped out the small clues that an experienced tracker or search dog might have discovered. "You have a better chance of picking up a footprint, a broken twig," says McCarter. No trace was ever found of the little boy lost in the vast mountains that day. Many wonder what became of him. His family continues to hold out a glimmer of hope that one day he might be found and return to them. It's a tragic story and one that had a big impact on how we search for missing children. "The Martin search changed the way we search in America forever," explains McCarter. "That knowledge that we learned from the mistakes that we made on the Martin search has saved lives. Many lives. Little kids." written by Katie Allison Granju WBIR-TV (Courtesy WBIR-TV Knoxville, Tenn.) |
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