As The Raven Dreams Podcast - ATRD Ep. 200 - 3 Missing Persons Cases (Vol 2)

Episode Date: November 8, 2025

Today on the 200th Episode of the ATRD Podcast, we will be going over 3 Missing Persons cases. These cases are real cases of people going missing with little to no evidence as to what happened to them. Today's episode was written by Tom K, Find his other works here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DBVX81W7 If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like or rate the podcast, and leave me a comment with your thoughts if the platform your own supports it! I upload episodes every 3 days, so there are 2 days between new uploads. The podcast consists of new scary story collections, Glitch in the matrix collections, and also what I call the "Dark Dreams" collections (which are older stories, remastered and layered with rain sounds). If you have a story to submit, would like to find where to listen to the podcast, or want to find me on social media platforms, all of that info can be found at https://www.astheravendreams.com You can also send stories into my subreddit (r/theravensdream) or email them to me at [e-mail] Want to check out some ATRD Podcast Merch? ➤ https://teechip.com/stores/astheravendreams Or for signed merch ➤ https://ko-fi.com/AsTheRavenDreams I wrote a novel, "The Insomniac's Experiment" by Raven Adams! Check it out on amazon (Or you can email me for a signed copy!) Join Patreon to get early access and support the Podcast! ➤ https://www.patreon.com/AsTheRavenDreams Check out my gaming channel with my pal Ghost_Ink ➤ @superNefariousBros On YouTube TimeStamps… Ad breaks after Case 2, no other ads in the episode. Case 1 ➤ 1:45 Case 2 ➤ 9:34 Case 3 ➤ 16:57 ----- Disclaimer ➤ Episodes include a content warning for language and sensitive/disturbing content. Listener discretion is always advised. ALL Audio and visuals on this podcast are copyright of AS THE RAVEN DREAMS / RAVEN ADAMS and may not be duplicated, in any format. Bless This Mess. None of my audio is AI Generated, I am a real person reading real stories into a real microphone. Note: The podcast nor the host endorses any advertisements played during the podcast, ads are not chosen by ATRD or Raven Adams, they are chosen automatically by the advertisement systems by the platforms that host the podcast. I do not endorse, support, or promote any opinions or statements made in any adverts played during the show. #TrueCrime #UnexplainedMysteries #MissingPersons Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello there, friends. Hope you are doing well on this the 8th of November somehow. I feel like October was yesterday, when in fact it was a week and a day ago. Anyway, today's episode is a write-up episode done in collaboration with friend of mine, Tom Kay. He is an author, his links are down in the description below for his Amazon page. If you want to check out more stuff that he's written, his story series. Anyway, today's episode is the second missing person's case episode. I did one of these a while back, quite a while ago. And I know some of you do enjoy the true crime style stuff or the research-heavy stuff,

so that's what this is. If that is not your beat, then I do not recommend listening to this one. And yeah, these stories are harrowing. They are terrifying, really. Stories about people who have disappeared and never been found. These stories always get to me because they are genuinely terrifying. It's terrifying to know that

you can disappear. People have disappeared, and there's just no information as to where they went, what happened to them. And yeah, Tom, like said, good friend of mine, he's done a lot of write-ups for the channel, and that's what this is. I'm not really sure where I was going with this intro

other than it's a write-up heavy true crime-style episode. And if you're not into those, you will not be into this one. And if that's the case, then I'll see you again here very soon. But to those who wish to listen, I do hope that you enjoy the episode. And yeah, much love and sleep well. Brandon Swanson's story. When you've just completed high school and are just starting your college years,

it's not uncommon for someone to want to decompress and celebrate a little bit. On the night of May 13th, that's exactly what 19-year-old Brandon's Swanson was trying to do with friends. He left his home in Marshall, Minnesota, and traveled a few minutes away to Linde, and joined some friends at a party. Around 10.30, Brandon leaves the party and heads to Canby, where the college campus that he attends, Minnesota West Community and Technical College, is. We do know that at the party in Linde that Brandon had indulged in a few adult beverages,

and, well, it's hard to trust the judgment of other impaired people. Other people that had been at the party with him said that he wasn't acting overly impaired, or as if he were past the point that he could safely get himself home. In Canby, we know that Brandon had himself a single shot of whiskey, and at some point before midnight left for the 30-mile drive home back to Marshall. Now, Brandon's evening had consisted of him basically making a kind of, triangle, with him beginning by heading southwest to Linde, then further west to Canby. The drive from Canby back to Marshall would have been the most direct and technically easiest

portion of this trip, as the two towns are connected by Highway 68. However, for reasons I think we can all surmise, Brandon instead opted to take the back roads home. This did add a bit of time to his trip, but he still did. still should have made it home in a fairly, timely fashion. This, however, was not to be. Around 2 a.m., his parents received a phone call from Brandon, saying that he had hung his car up in a ditch.

He was unsure of exactly where he was, but he said that he thought he was near Linde, and he asked his parents if they could come and help him. Between 154 and 214 a.m., there are multiple calls between Brandon and his parents, as he tries to explain to them just where he is. During one of these calls, he stresses to his parents that he is uninjured from the accident. He describes to them being somewhere between Lind and Marshall just off Highway 23

and tells them he's on the left side of the road. This is where things actually start to get interesting. Because when his vehicle is eventually located, he is nowhere near Highway 23 or Lind. His car is found 25 miles where he thought he was, near the town of Taunton. This entire scenario suggests that he was impaired enough when he left the party, that he got himself turned around. What is really indicative of this is the fact that Brandon had lived in this area his whole life, and back in 2008, GPS and smartphones weren't as prevalent as they are today. So when Brandon would have been learning to drive, he would have actually had.

had to have learned the roads and landmarks, as unlike today he couldn't just put in an address and then follow the blue line. When you consider his choice to take back roads instead of the main highway, which would have been the most direct and fastest route home, I think we can safely assume that it was to avoid a possible confrontation with police. As at this time of the year, when school is ending, the police know all too well that the kids are going to start getting up to things, such as underage drinking or driving under the influence, etc.

They possibly even would have sobriety checkpoints to check for people who are driving under the influence. During the multiple phone calls with his parents, one thing is clear. He genuinely wanted their help and was trying to get them to locate him. He wasn't just jerking them around and trying to send them on a wild goose chase or anything. though it is worth noting that he only called his parents as a last resort. Initially, he had tried to reach out to friends for help, but he'd gotten no answer from anyone that might have been closer to his location. Thus, with his back against the wall,

he called his parents seeking help in his situation. During the final phone call with his parents, Brandon tells them that he is walking towards what he believes to be the town lights of Linde. However, at roughly the 47-minute mark, Brandon says, Oh, shit, before the line goes dead. At the time this happened, his parents were searching for him and his car around the Lund area. At 6.30 a.m., his parents contacted police to report him missing.

The initial response was the one that we have all come to expect in these kinds of stories, and the officer actually told Brandon's mother that the 19-year-old had every right to be missing. And the initial response was greatly delayed. Even when the police did begin to search for the young man, they were still searching in the Linde area where Brandon believed himself to be. However, it wouldn't be until later that afternoon when police began checking cell phone data that the search area was expanded to the Taunton area

where his car was found, exactly as he had told his parents. Despite a very, very exhaustive search, no sign of Brandon has ever been found. The thing that did strike people as odd was the fact that his glasses were found inside the car. This came off as strange because he was legally blind in one eye. Before long, air patrol and canine units were dispatched to search the area. One of the canines followed Brandon's scent trail to the Yellow Medicine River, but there was still no definitive sign of Brandon,

nor anything that could suggest what had possibly befallen him. So while we have no definitive answers to this case, what we do have are some dark theories. One theory states that while walking in the dark, he had fallen into the Yellow River and drowned. Another theory states that he may have crossed the river and then due to cold temperatures, fallen victim to hypothermia.

Other theories say that he might have fallen into an old abandoned well, of which there are many in the area, and this would explain why no real trace of him had ever been located. While we don't know just what happened to this bright young man, it can be said that some good came from his disappearance, because the result of this has been the passage of Brandon's law, which states that police are to begin investigating the disappearance of an adult, straight away, regardless of their age.

While a hollow comfort, perhaps, this law just may help a lot of people be found, and returned safely home, then otherwise sharing Brandon's fate of being missing for nearly 20 years and counting. And, of course, if you have any information on Brandon Swanson's whereabouts or fate, please contact Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehensions,

the BCA, or the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office. Contact info in the description below. Cassandra Ramirez's story. This is one of those stories that really resonates with me due to some of the details that serve as something of a backdrop to this incredibly tragic story. I'll give a bit of a trigger warning,

as some details of this case will possibly be upsetting to some listeners. Cassandra Brianna Ramirez was born March 15, 19, 1993. While a lot of details about her early life are difficult to find, such as where she was born, the details we do have provide enough of a picture that it can be said that she was really invested in turning her life around, from the path that she had started to head down. It can be really difficult when telling these kinds of stories to figure out just where to begin.

However, in cases like Cassandra's, due to the lack of certain details, sometimes, that choice is made for you. In this case, we'll begin with the birth of Cassandra's first child, a son, in November of 2010, when Cassandra was only 17 years old. Jaden Isaiah was born prematurely and would tragically pass only 12 days after his birth, and this event would serve as a catalyst for Cassandra to fall into a pattern of substance abuse in order to try and cope. As a tribute to her first-born son, Cassandra got a tattoo with his name and dates of birth and passing.

Two years later, in 2012, she would give birth to her son Ethan, whom she would lose custody of. Ethan currently resides with his paternal grandmother. During the intervening years and while struggling with both her substance abuse and homelessness, Cassandra was trying to put her life to write and completed culinary school. and was aspiring to become a chef. Despite the positive strides she took, Cassandra still had a good many of those little hurdles that do love to spring up and take us all by surprise,

when she was assaulted by her ex-boyfriend's current girlfriend in July of 2017, and ended up being stabbed by her. While the assailant was charged in this case, so too was Cassandra. Although those charged, charges were later dropped. Things were not bound to get any easier for her either, as a year later, Cassandra would be attacked again.

This time it was by a family friend, and the attack was of the most heinous kind. The assault took place in an apartment in the Bronx, and in the aftermath, she called her mother, Ingrid in tears, saying that she didn't know what to do. Ultimately, she pursued charges against the individual in this entire situation kind of marks the run-up to her ultimate disappearance in 2018. She had very conflicted feelings going forward, afraid of what people were going to be saying about her. Her aunt, specifically, said that she was very nervous when she spoke about having to testify before a grand jury in the case. As you can imagine, this took a toll on Cassandra. While she had never outright said that she was scared, Cassandra did voice that she was going to have to be careful now.

And, oh, just how eerily prophetic those words would prove to be. You see, just one week after this, Cassandra would disappear. Her aunt was one of the last people to speak to Cassandra the night that she went missing. The young woman was out with one of her exes that she'd had a kind of on and off again relationship. with. During the call, Cassandra told her aunt that they had stopped for gas and that they were then heading to Long Island. The guy in question, by all accounts, is said to have had a very unhealthy and downright toxic relationship with Cassandra. Ingrid says that the first time she met the man, he said, I just love your daughter so much, but she pisses me off just all the time.

And that was apparently just the first in a series of, not red, but crimson flags. Everyone of Cassandra's friends and family members that met this unnamed guy and said they all knew something about him was off the moment that they met him. And on the night in question, Cassandra was in touch with her aunt periodically checking in and letting her know that she was safe. So it would seem that even Cassandra herself, felt the need to let someone know that she was safe as the night progressed. Cassandra was due to begin working at a new job the next morning

and had been emphasizing to everyone that she was going to be going to bed early and getting up early. The next day, however, was when the horror would begin for Cassandra's family. After she not only failed to get in touch with any of her family, but was also strangely absent from her social media, her family immediately knew that something was terribly wrong. Unfortunately, this is also the point in the story where we have to begin dealing with speculation and theory, since we have no way of knowing just what exactly happened to Cassandra overnight. But this is also where it kind of gets interesting.

As a New York reporter was given access to Cassandra's call log, and she went through calling some of the more frequently dialed numbers. She got in touch with the few people that acted very sketched out when she started asking questions. This really interesting bit is that when she called the ex that Cassandra had been with the night she vanished, the guy that answered was most certainly not the guy that she was trying to reach. The man said he'd had the number for about three years, which would fit the timeline when Cassandra disappeared. It would also mean that not long after her disappearance, the ex in question had dumped his old phone number.

The person that hasn't now said that when he first got the number, he received a lot of texts from people's asking about bars, which is slang term for Xanax. So, while Cassandra might have cleaned up her own act, it would seem that some of the people she associated with were still involved in the seedy underbelly of society, and in that world of drugs. It's really tragic that a young woman that was rising above the challenges life had thrown at her

and preparing a better life for herself and her son would so suddenly and completely vanish, especially after she had endured all of this within her life. And if you know anything about Cassandra, please contact the New York Police Department, Missing Person Squad. Contact info below. lasagne sur-gillet, Puisance-Moyerned 15 minutes.

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Dennis Lloyd Martin's story. I want to start this piece by saying that the case of young Dennis Lloyd Martin has very quickly become a far more intriguing story than I had ever dared to think that it might be. This case is actually quite unique among some of the MPCs that I've looked into and researched. And that's probably because this particular story, is said to have paranormal aspects to it.

So, my dear audience, today we're going to look into a case that, while it certainly falls under some type of true crime umbrella, also brings that supernatural kind of mystique to it. Now let's jump into this one. I don't think that I would have to tell people just what a bizarre and creepy place that Appalachia can be. The stories that have come out of those ancient mountains

and the valleys around them, quite frankly, speak for themselves. And I'm not just talking about the creepy, ghost-crypted, supernatural kind of stories. There are just as many unsettling true crime stories from this enigmatic region as well. I would know, as I've researched both sides of the coin, and I do have plans to do some Appalachia-themed pieces in the future. But even in a place known for some of its more unsettling happenings, The story of young Dennis Martin is especially disturbing, and is a tale that generations of children have grown up being told by their parents as a cautionary tale,

spoken of in a hushed tone, around campfires by other children as they spun their own creepy version of the story, and speculated about the possible fate of the young boy. And just right out the gate, this case hits a level that not a whole lot of such cases do. While in some communities, it might not be uncommon for people to clam up and just not talk about a particular incident or individual. In the case of Dennis Martin, there have been people actively researching the case that have been threatened and told to keep their mouths shut about the entire Dennis Martin incident. So, Raven, if this gets us heat, I do apologize in advance. Oh, thanks, Tom, for the warning, I guess. So with some of this groundwork laid, let's get back to 1990.

and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. On June 14th of 1969, young Dennis and his older brother Doug Martin and some other children were camping in the National Park and were planning to sneak up on and surprise the adults back at camp, when the group separated from the six-year-old Dennis who was wearing a bright red shirt, and therefore the other boys thought he would be a liability in their stealth approach. They sent him down the path back towards the adults and camp while Doug and the others crept along the edge of the trees until they reached their parents.

Upon arriving back at the camp, when Doug and the others asked about where Dennis was, they were informed that the adults had no idea where he was. In the immediate aftermath of Dennis' disappearance, the first strange stories emerged from witnesses that claimed to have heard a young boy scream in the woods on that day, with one family saying they saw a figure emerge from the bushes shortly after the scream, with something slung over its shoulder.

In the first seconds of seeing the creature, the family thought it might have been a bear, but quickly realized that the figure was far too humanoid to be a bear. So, yes, my friends, in one of the most roundabout kind of write-ups I've ever done, and today we're going to touch on the topic of the Tennessee Wild Man. Because as far as a lot of accounts go, there is a strong connection between the infamous cryptid and the vanishing of young Dennis Martin. In fact, one of the park rangers has even been reported

as flat out saying that one of the wild men took Dennis. For anyone remotely familiar with Appalachia, or the Smoky Mountains specifically, then you know that for generations, the Tennessee wild man has just been a part of the history of the region. What, for some, is just a scary story to tell around a campfire before bedtime, to others is a terrifying fact of life. Since the 1800s, there have been stories of these wild men attacking and even abducting people,

specifically women. Now, while the stories of them abducting women are possibly the most common, it's not women that are exclusively targeted by these creatures. So, if we, for the sake of argument, just assume that this cryptid does in fact exist, then it wouldn't be a stretch to see a creature that attacks and abducts human women as fully capable of and willing to attack an even more vulnerable child and possibly abduct them.

Especially if that child were, for instance, separated from their pack, and walking alone down an isolated park trail way up in the mountains. For just about any creature with a predatory kind of instinct, this would be too tempting a target to pass up. Now, while what the purpose might be for taking a child like Dennis is definitely open to speculation, I think we can all agree that the drive to abduct him for any reason is nothing short of predatory. However, we are immediately hit with the question of whether the instance of the scream and the figure carrying something over its shoulder are the same instance as that of Dennis Martin vanishing. This question comes about based on where Dennis was at the time of his disappearance, and where the subsequent search area was and the location where the scream was heard and said creature was witnessed. It would be nearly impossible, if not impossible, for anything.

or anyone to have crossed that distance in the elapsed amount of time between the occurrences. Despite these doubts, people who have alleged encounters with the Tennessee Wild Men will tell you that, for one of these creatures traversing that distance would be nothing, as one of the local names for the Wild Men are Ridge Runners. And when we think about how any creature is at its deadliest in its native environment, and couple that with the Wild Men's reputation for its agility and mobility in motion, then it would fall into the category of plausible that such a creature would have little issue making that trek in the allotted time frame. The more disturbing angle to this comes in when you think about the fact that,

even at the time of his disappearance, Dennis Martin was far from the first child to mysteriously vanish in the Smoky Mountains with no real explanation. Nor has he been the last. At this point, the phenomenon of children disappearing in the Smoky Mountains might have even suffered. supplanted those of women being targeted by the Tennessee wild men. What's truly unsettling is to consider are the possible motives for these abductions. But since tales of the wild men date all the way back to the 19th century, and we can categorically say that should the wild man exist, especially in modern times,

there would have to be wild men and not just one wild man. I think possible implications, become clear, which only makes the thought of a child, like six-year-old Dennis Martin being taken by them, all the more terrifying and downright bone-chilling. Dwight McCarter, a very decorated park ranger, was part of the search for Dennis, and he documented extensively his involvement in the search for the boy. He reported that they encountered multiple dog teams that had found no sign of him, and that it was a if he had dropped off the face of the earth.

By the third day of the search, more than 300 people, including Green Berets, were in the park searching for any sign of the missing child. By day five, the FBI was begrudgingly involved with William Martin, Dennis' father, personally reaching out to the then-director Edgar J. Hoover by letter, asking for the Bureau to get involved in the search. There are FBI files associated with this case that contain redacted information. They did become involved due to the possible kidnapping theory. These files, however, say that they found no signs of evidence suggesting a kidnapping

and as such would not investigate further. Even 50 years later, this does remain a possibility as well for Dennis's disappearance. So, looking at a kidnapping theory, We need suspects to consider, right? So who could have possibly kidnapped the unfortunate boy? Well, again, if you are familiar with the lore of Appalachia, you are likely familiar with the stories of the feral people, the literal wild men of the Appalachians.

They're said to be cannibalistic and are often implicated when people go missing along the Appalachian Trail. stories of these people date all the way back to a time before the Great Smoky Mountain National Park even existed all the way back to the pioneer days when each new hilltop every new valley marked the beginning of the new frontier the andersons are one such example of a clan that isolated themselves up into the mountains and deepest part to the woods and are said to have devolved into a feral incestuous and cannibalistic pack of feral people. With stories such as these, it's not as far-fetched a theory as at first sounds. But before we start wrapping this whole thing up, I want to circle back to the original conversation about the potential cryptic connection to this story. You see, there are also stories of those things even older than the feral humans of the Smokies and Appalachians. There are stories of a time

when men were paid by federal men to, quote, go hunting in the woods, around where today the national park exists. Many families that had homesteads there took the feds up on their offer, and once they were displaced by the government in order for the park to be established, all such, quote, hunting ceased. It's that they were hunting what we call today the Tennessee Wildman, or in this case men. I mention this because I want to circle a bit further into our earlier narrative. Have fun wrapping your head around that statement. To day five of the search for Dennis Martin, when we have the Green Berets deployed to the park.

While the Green Berets are an absolute beast of a fighting force, I think it's an interesting choice to send them into the National Park, when I feel the Army Rangers may have been a bit more natural of a choice. It certainly implies some kind of combat was expected, or at least seen as a possibility, out there in those woods. Some, of course, based on history, like to say that, with the rumors that a wild man took Dennis, the berets were sent in to, quote, finish the job of hunting down the infamous cryptid,

kind of like an Order 66 on the so-called Tennessee Wild Men. The sad outcome of this story, though, is mostly that we don't truly, truly have one. We have no more answers today in 2025 than we did back in 1969, when young Dennis Lloyd Martin vanished in the woods of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park at only six years old. The only truly definitive traces the boy ever found were a set of footprints that went for a short distance.

One foot was bare, while the other was clearly the imprint of a shoot. with the prince being consistent with those of a child in both size and gait. However, that trail didn't run very far, and no further evidence of what happened to him has ever been found. I think to any of us, the very notion of a child spending a single night alone in the wilderness is terrifying. But the thought of that child spending longer than that out there, perhaps amongst feral people,

and slowly becoming one of them is truly horrifying. So that my friends was, as stated, a collection of some missing persons cases. These episodes, although rare, are something that I personally feel are necessary, not just because I know some of you do enjoy them, but because I personally like doing research episodes like this. Don't enjoy reading about people that go missing.

That's not what at all what I mean. What I mean is it is nice to step away from the submitted and scary stories that I find and do something that's like this, a little more reportive. Yeah, I don't know. My point is going to keep doing these randomly as we do. So hopefully you enjoyed them. If you did, leave a comment down below on Spotify. if you're on Spotify.

Just letting me know your thoughts, or if there are any missing person's cases you would like us to consider for the next collection, which will probably be in a little while. I think it's a few months between the two, so probably be a few months then too. But if you have a missing person's case that you find interesting and think we should look into,

just let me know. I will happily add it to the list and talk to Tom about it. I guess the other thing I should mention is if you do have a true scary story, an experience you've had, and you want to share it with the podcast, go to as the ravendreams.com, or email it to as the raven dreams at gmail.com. Both are direct ways to get them to me.

I do also have a subreddit, R-slash the Ravens Dream. I don't get many submissions to the subreddit. I get a few, but not too many. But if you're on Reddit and that's your preference, you can do that there too. All that said, friends, I hope you remember that you are loved, you are valid, you are important, and the world is a better place with you in it. Until next time, much love and sleep well.