Key Points:

• Authorities have located a car believed to belong to the Martin family, who disappeared in December 1958.
• The vehicle was found upside down in the Columbia River, confirmed through a partial license plate match.
• This development marks a significant turn in a case that has remained a mystery for over six decades.
• The family, including three daughters, went missing during a trip to collect Christmas greenery.
• Two daughters' bodies were discovered the following year, while the rest of the family remains unaccounted for.

Authorities in Oregon have initiated the recovery of a vehicle from the Columbia River, which is believed to belong to Ken and Barbara Martin, a couple who mysteriously vanished along with their three daughters in December 1958. The family embarked on a seemingly innocuous trip to gather Christmas greenery but never returned, leaving a perplexing cold case that has haunted investigators and local residents alike for over six decades.

The vehicle, a red and off-white 1954 Ford station wagon, was located by diver Archer Mayo, who had spent seven years searching for it. Following indications from Mayo, authorities undertook an extensive dredging operation that revealed the car upside down, buried under sediment, silt, and debris nearly 50 feet deep in the river. "This is a very big development in a case that's been on the back of Portland's mind for 66 years," said Mayo's representative, Ian Costello, highlighting the case's longstanding significance to the local community. The identification of the car was aided by matching partial license plates, and officials are optimistic about its correlation to the missing family, noted CBS News.

The tragic story began on December 7, 1958, when the Martins stopped at a gas station near Cascade Locks. Hours later, they disappeared, and subsequent searches led to the discovery of the bodies of two of their daughters, Virginia, 13, and Sue, 11, found a year later in separate locations near the Bonneville Dam. However, the parents and their eldest daughter, also named Barbara, were never located. Investigators conjectured that the family’s vehicle might have gone off a nearby cliff and into the river, leading to their enduring mystery, as detailed by the Los Angeles Times.

As authorities prepare to extract the station wagon from the river, some hope remains for uncovering more about what transpired that fateful day in 1958. "We're not 100% sure it's the car," cautioned Pete Hughes, a sheriff's deputy, emphasizing the uncertainty that still surrounds the case. "It's mostly encased in mud and debris, so we don't know what to expect when we pull it out of the water today," he remarked. Investigations will also consider the retrieval of other vehicles in the vicinity, potentially connected to other missing persons cases around that time.

The resurfacing of this vehicle promises not only answers but also a chance to reflect on the unresolved pain felt by the Martin family’s relatives and the community, bringing renewed attention to a tragic event that has remained shrouded in mystery for too long. The New York Times provides further insights into this complex case.