National Park After Dark - Cannibals? Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Episode Date: March 8, 2021

Bring your hiking boots and pack all your summer camping gear. We are taking you to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This episode is inspired by a viral Tik Tok video that surfaced with the claims of cannibals living inside the park and specifically, these cannibals are the reason for the long time debated disappearance of 6 year old, Dennis Martin. We're diving deep into this entire investigation of his disappearance, day by day, and debunking the mystery of what could have happened to him. Is it possible that he was abducted by cannibalistic people inside the park? Tune in and find out.For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials at:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!Thank you to this week’s partners!For a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Everybody, welcome back to National Park After Dark, episode seven. I'm your host, Cassie. And I'm your host Danielle. And we hope everyone had a great week and enjoyed last week's episode, where we took you to Mount Rainier, aka Tahoma. Did you see that thing I posted on our story about the Jeopardy question? Yes, I did. And I thought that was so funny, especially. because you just did that whole episode. I know. And I was thinking about it, like, from my ivory tower. Like, ha.

How did they not know? And I, that's something like that is common knowledge. But in reality, I probably wouldn't have known if I didn't research it. But now we can say we knew a question on Jeopardy. No, you totally would have won Jeopardy. I think so. Someone didn't even answer at all. just like, I have no idea.

There's, I can't think of any volcanoes in Washington. Path. Yeah. But yeah, we are very excited for this week. And I have to say, I'm a little fired up for this week's episode because I did a lot of research on this. And there are a lot of conflicting stories to this. I'm excited to talk about it because there's so much information out there that. I have found might and probably is not true. So this has been a very interesting case. So I'm

really excited to dive into it. Okay. So I have an idea because you had been texting me about how spiced up you were about it because of the viral TikTok that's been going around. That has something to do with it, I think, right? Yeah, you're on. You're on the right track for sure. I am taking us into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. And it is inspired by a viral TikTok video that I was sent quite a few times, or we were sent quite a few times on our Instagram page. And also just friends have sent it to me as well.

This is a TikTok video of this girl who claims that there are cannibals in the Smoky Mountain National Park. And this went viral. This blew up and I saw it. And I think I had the same reaction as everybody else when I saw it. It's like, oh my God, there's cannibals in the Smoky Mountain National Park. That's crazy. How could that be? That's wild. What's going on? How did we find out about this? And then I listened to it a few more times and I was super skeptical. If you have not seen this TikTok before, I will just explain it to you briefly. It starts out of this girl. She's responding to another TikTok.

The video is of a girl saying, when you hear a family screaming and dying in a national park. And then the girl made this TikTok video responds. And she basically says, I believe you. I believe you heard what you heard. There are feral people in the Smoky Mountains. And the government knows about this.

The local government, the federal government, knows about it. They're covering it up. If you don't believe me, look up the Dennis Martin case. They say they don't know what happened to him, but they know. And I heard that. And I was skeptical for a couple reasons. And the first one was just because she said there's feral people in the park. And I had no idea what that meant. I don't know what feral people are. So I went on Google and I looked up, but are feral people. And it basically came up with an explanation that feral people were actually more referred to as feral children who had been abandoned by their parents at such a young age

and never formed communication skills and their motor function skills never developed because they were children who were like dropped off and never had any type of socialization. Like one example was this boy, his parents abandoned him out in the woods somewhere and he survived for so long because he was living off of goat mill. And they were just examples like that, like the boy who was raised by wolves that they found and those were more referred to feral people. So it had nothing to do with cannibals. So that was the first thing where I was kind of skeptical. And then the second part was just she said the federal government knows all the local people know. But, the local government knows.

And I was just thinking in the South, if in the South there are feral people or whatever, cannibals that are attacking people and abducting people. She also said that they were known for abducting children. If that was happening in the South, Southern people aren't going to stand for that. They have guns. They are prepared.

There would be some group down there that would go off into the National Park. and they would find these people. There's no way that this would be allowed to continue to happen. So I was just thinking of all these reasons why I would be super skeptical. And then she said, look up Dennis Martin. Look up the Dennis Martin case. So I decided I would do just that. And welcome to episode seven.

We are going to talk about the disappearance of Dennis Martin. Ooh, that was quite the intro. And I am really excited to hear about it because I know exactly the TikTok that you're talking about. And maybe we'll post it on our Instagram so people who aren't aware of what it is all about, they can take a look. But it does have a very overshadowing kind of theme of consistent. to it. A big cover-up government conspiracy, like this hidden underground culture of people that our government knows all about that were, are somehow being ignored and someone is now

busting open the lid off of this whole thing through TikTok. And I will say I was very intrigued when I did see it at face value as well. So I'm really excited to hear about what it, what you found based on your research into it. Yeah. And I don't want to tell anyone what I think of the cannibal story yet. I'm going to tell you all this whole story. And then you can kind of decide if you think that that is what happened to him or whatever. I'm not going to spoil anything. Find out if there's cannibals in the National Park. Okay. So starting just as a background of the park, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was established as a national park on June 15th, 1934. The park is located in the southeast part of the United States, and it's located in part of North Carolina and Tennessee. Inside the

park, they have the Great Smoky Mountains, and they also have parts of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The entire park is internationally recognized for its mountains. It's biodiversity and there's spur-fur forests. The park is the most visited park in the United States, attracting 12.5 million visitors every single year and covers 522,419 acres of land. It is also home of sections of the Appalachian Trail. I had no idea that this was the most visited park. I would have bet money that it was Yellowstone or a park out west. Yeah. I thought it was Yosemite. I just, I mean, I understand, like, I haven't been to this national park, but I have been

to North Carolina and visited, like, the Asheville area, and I've gone, I've driven part of the Blue Ridge Parkway in the Blue Ridge Ridge Mountains. So it's definitely beautiful, and I understand the draw. But I had, I don't know, I just, when I think of a really heavily visited National Park, I think of all the crowds that are in places like Yellowstone and Yosemite and parks like that. Yeah, absolutely. And it's crazy actually because the Great Smoky Mountains National Park actually is more than double the amount of visitors to those parks. So Yosemite, I believe, has 4.4 million visitors every year, and I think it's around five or a similar number to Yellowstone. So fun fact, crazy fact, I also would have never thought that if I hadn't researched this.

Another jeopardy fact. Another jeopardy fact. Now I know. Yeah, so in June of 1969, Dennis's family, who were from Knoxville, Tennessee, decided that they wanted to do a getaway weekend into the mountains of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. And it was Father's Day weekend. They decided to do a boys trip there. So it was Dennis, his father, Bill, his grandfather Clyde, and Dennis' older brother, Douglas,

who was nine years old at the time. So they packed up all their camping gear and they loaded up their car and they headed out for this trip. They arrived to the park to the Cates Cove Campground, got all their things together and headed out on their first hike. They settled out onto the Anthony Creek Trail and then they went on to the Russellfield Trail. These trails were filled with wildflowers, mountain views. It was a beautiful hike to be doing in the summer. And after they hiked about 5.2 miles together, the group stopped at Russellfield Shelter to sleep for the night. Early the next morning, they got up together to

hike further along. They headed out onto part of the Appalachian Trail. They passed through small grassy meadows for about three miles until they reach their destination at Spence Field. Spence Field is a grassy meadow and it has beautiful views of the North Carolina side of the Smoky Mountains and it has lots of mountain laurel flowers and mountain laurel flowers are really pretty. They're these bushes with these little white flowers with these pink insides. To them they're really pretty flowers to have in this area and in the woods area they're They were flooded with rhododendrons. And rhododendrons are, they're kind of like bushes, but they have these big, windy stems to them, thick, and they have these big leaves to them.

They're subtropical plants, so their leaves are like these big oval, dark green leaves, and they have these beautiful flowers. They'll be white flowers or purple or pink, depending on the plant, but they're really beautiful. I remember when I lived down south, we would hike through these areas that were actually flooded with these mountain lyrl and the rhododendrons. And it was like next to the river. And it was so beautiful. So I can just imagine this hike for this group of people was just, I'm sure they loved it. I'm sure it was amazing. I haven't been on this trail in particular, but I can just picture it from the areas that I have been down there before.

And it sounds like it was peak time for all that vegetation to be blooming and, you know, flowering at that time. Because you said it was father. So that's like June, right, beginning of June? So it was around the second week of June. And that is, like you said, it's like peak, all the flowers are out at that point. So they reached their camping destination for the trip. And that was at Spence Field. and they unpacked all their gear and they set up their spot for the weekend.

And strangely enough, there was actually another family that was there and their last name was Dennis. And it was also a father and his two sons who happened to be around the same age as Dennis and Douglas. What are the chances of that? I mean, I guess around Father's Day doing a father's day trip, you know, a father and his sons, I get that. So that's not that unlikely, but I don't know, just running into someone with your same last name same weekend, same spot, kids the same age. Yeah, it's super coincidental. Like, what are the chances? So they arrived there and shortly after the boys started to play, I mean, there are a bunch of boys same age, got together, became friends quick, and they were out in the field and they

started to play games with each other. Dennis's father and his grandfather and the other boy's father, They're all found a little spot to sit down in the field and just watch them. And they were talking and hanging out. And the boys were playing and hanging out. And it was what you picture, a typical father's son weekend, boys' weekend out there. It's beautiful summer day. And then the children huddled around together. And they decided to come up with a plan to scare the adults.

So they wanted to sneak up behind their father and grandfather. and then their new friend's father and jump out and yell at them and scare them, like hoping that they would jump and yell. And they thought it was going to be this really funny prank that they were going to pull on them. So they decided that Douglas and his two friends would go one way to jump into the woods and then come up and sneak behind them. And then Dennis would head in the other direction and he would kind of circle around and come up behind him from that way.

they come up with this plan and then they all break off into their directions to go carry out their prank. So Douglas and his new friends, they sprang from the woods, jumped out, tried to scare them. And immediately it was apparent that Dennis did not jump out. They just thought that he misunderstood the timing. He was only six years old at the time. So he was six years old. It was actually a week before his seventh birthday. So he's really little. He's a young kid. They just figured he misunderstood the timing. And so they waited a couple minutes for him to come out and he didn't. So his father gets worried and he decides that they need to go into the woods and look for him. So they all go out and they're clear Dennis and there's no signs of him. And at this point, there's a storm that's

starting to roll in when the winds are starting to pick up. There's a thunderstorm on the way. In these woods, like I was talking about before, they have these thick rhododendron bushes everywhere. And it's dense woods. So when the wind picks up, it's hard to hear. If you're calling out, it's hard to hear someone response to you with the wind and the thick wooded areas. So they were calling for Dennis and calling for him. And they got no response back. After an hour for searching for Dennis and he even ran almost two miles down the

trail that they came just calling for him and looking for him. And after an hour of not seeing him, they decided to call the park rangers. And immediately several park rangers showed up and started searching the area for Dennis. They talked to some hikers who had been in the area at the same time and they hadn't seen him. They're just searching everywhere trying to find this little boy. But shortly after, the storm just came roaring in and it came in with strong winds and rain. And it even brought in hail, and it made the searching really difficult. And they ended up experiencing about three inches of rain that night. So they're trying to do this search, but the weather just turned for the worst. And they did the best they can, but the water is rising. There's creeks

and there's streams around this area, and they're rising, and they're starting to become turbulent. They're just having no luck in finding Dennis. I can't even imagine. So I don't know about you, but I even get scared as an 30-year-old adult in the woods when it starts getting dark. And especially if there's any sort of howling winds, like I just imagine fall in New England as it's getting dark. I know it's not New England or the fall. But when you hear like some leaves crunching or snap of the branch and you're like, what the fuck was that? Being a six-year-old kid by themselves lost, it's dark, it's starting to downpour. I just feel so bad envisioning myself in his shoes.

I was hiking yesterday and we reached the summit and we're hiking in the woods and the weather. I mean, it was sunny out, but it was really windy. And there were a lot of pines up at the top. We weren't above the alpine zone, but we were like, we were pretty close to where trees wouldn't be there anymore. So they were shorter, but the wind was howling so hard that all the trees were creaking around us. And there were branches that were like breaking off around us. And it was like, ooh, we got to get down.

Like, this could get bad if a tree falls on us. or anything like that. So it definitely creates this kind of, it creates a scary environment for an adult, never mind a child who you know is now out in the storm. Right. So I can only imagine what his family was thinking that whole night with Dennis out there. So that night, they made plans for more search efforts in the morning. The park rangers reached out to maintenance personnel, the Smoky Mountain hiking club, multiple rescue groups, and more people to meet up the following morning at 5 a.m. to start searching. So pretty much as soon as the sun came up, they wanted to start searching for Dennis. And they put this information out and the next morning, lots of groups

showed up. They had, they even had Ranger students that were on a trip nearby that showed up To help out, they had groups on horseback come to check the area to cover more ground. People brought in their jeeps, experience. There were experienced rescue crews, park rangers. And then also there were people who were visiting in the nearby area that came out to help search. So it drew a lot of attention really quickly. And it actually brought in news crews.

They started calling in asking for more information. The park rangers actually also reached. out to the Air Force Base in Macomb, Georgia to send in a helicopter for assistance. And they were also able to get permission from Fort Benning, Georgia to send out Green Berets to help search the area. So this is coming together in full force. Yeah, immediately. This hasn't even been 24 hours yet.

And immediately all this is coming in. And the Green Berets are coming in and they train in this kind of terrain. So this is like where they thrive. So they reached out to them to ask for them their help because they knew how to navigate this terrain better than anybody. Makes sense. With the high levels of water from the rain that came in the night before, they decided to send out multiple crews to different drainage areas because they thought that it was possible that Dennis got carried away by some of these creeks and streams that started flash flooding through the night. So they were going to all these drainage areas around to look for Dennis. That actually turned out to be a bit of a problem too because of all this rain that came in.

And they got three inches of rain that night. It actually washed away a lot of the footprints. It became super unlikely to be able to find his tracks because of all the rain washout. The following day on June 16th, they continued their search and they rechecked all these drainageers. as thinking maybe he could be there now. Dennis's mother and grandmother arrived that day to help with the search as well. His mom when she got there, she even stated that she was hopeful and she said, quote, I have a feeling we will find him. Maybe God sent us this ordeal so we could appreciate things more. So she showed up there with the real hope they were going to find Dennis. She thought they would find him within a few hours that he

had just wandered off somewhere. It seems like you should be able to find him very quickly. He's a young kid. How far could he have really gone, especially in the terrain and the weather that you're describing? And with that many people searching from all these different avenues, how, like from the air, horseback, people on foot, how far could he have really gotten without anybody seeing him or seeing some sort of trace of him. So I get it. And of course, as his mom, you know, of course, she's going to be really hoping that she finds him and it'll be a quick thing. And it'll be like a story they can laugh about sometime. Like, oh, remember when you got lost in the woods for a day and we were worried sick about you? So they came in and that this is on June 16th. So she arrived

two days after his disappearance. That day they also acquired more personnel for their search. So they had rescue units from Tennessee, Kentucky, North and South Carolina and Georgia. They set up a heliport for the helicopter with the Air Forcemen combing the area. That day they also received word that there were more green berets not far from the area who were doing a training in North Carolina and they were available to join in the search efforts and they would be coming in later that night. And the news of Dennis's disappearance started airing on news stations and it brought in even more volunteers from around the area.

And people were offering anything they could to help with Dennis. They were offering their jeeps to get to more tough terrain locations. They were offering their hunting dogs, their searching hounds to come in. They were offering any radios they had. And people did bring their dogs. and their dogs didn't end up being helpful because all the rain that came in, it washed away any scent that would have been there for the dogs to follow. And also, so many people are coming in. And this later becomes something that they wish that they had done different for the search party is that they had so many people come in so quickly that flooded the area that even with the rain, there was less hope of finding footprints with so many people running around. it was even more unlikely to find footprints because there were so many people creating more footprints. They do discuss that this was probably a mistake that they have made, bringing in not many people.

What a catch 22. You know, it's like, on one hand, the more the merrier, in part of your mind, you know, the more people, the more square miles you can search, the more quickly you can find Dennis. But yeah, I guess on the other hand, it just makes things a lot more complicated and a lot of other aspects. Yeah, exactly. And on June 17th, they continued their search. With all the help that had arrived, they decided to extend their search areas. So they started out in the nearby area where they thought Dennis probably was. And then with all these other people, they started searching the less likely areas,

that it was possible that he could be in, but less likely. So they were sending people out further. And this day on June 17th, they did find a footprint that was matching the same type of Oxford shoe that Dennis was wearing. And it was by a nearby creek. And they showed Dennis's parents. And his parents ruled out that it could have been him. They said that the shoe size was way too big for Dennis, for it to be him.

And there were Boy Scouts in the area that were helping with the search too. So there were little kids that were running around this area, and they decided that they believed that it was one of the Boy Scouts footprints. And this is also a point where at the beginning of this story, I said that there was a lot of misleading information that I read. This information that I'm going through is all information that I read from the incident report from the entire search. I actually got the incident report off of the National Park website, and it is an 80-7. page incident report on what happened to Dennis. I believe that that information is probably going to be the most accurate compared to articles that you read or videos that you listen to about this case.

And one thing that I found was really misconstrued and was not in the incident report at all. People were saying that there was a footprint found a foot with a shoe on and a foot without a shoe on that was going towards the water. And they believed that it was Dennis's, but they ruled it out and said it was a Boy Scout. But that's not what happened. That's not what's in the incident report. It was one shoe. There was no footprint of a foot.

So they were thinking that it looked as if there was someone that had lost a shoe or was barefoot on one foot and then had a shoe remaining on their other foot. But that's not in the incident report at all. That's not in the incident report at all. And you can read this all for yourself on the government website as well. Throughout this whole story, actually, there are a lot of details that are never mentioned in the incident report and have somehow gotten into articles and on different YouTube channels. And I'll go through that as we're going through this case as well. On June 17th, the same day, they also acquired 50 more air-nast. guards to help with their search and another helicopter. That morning, it was really foggy and the

helicopters weren't able to fly until after 11 o'clock that morning. They scouted the area from an aerial point of view and they also were dropping volunteers at search points throughout the area that they could bring them to. That day, the U.S. Guard offered boats to search the nearby Fontana Lake, and they patrolled the shoreline and sent more people out to search the surrounding trails. So at this point, they had about 365 trained personnel in the search, and they had set up base camps at Russellfield, Spenfield, and Camp Cove for the search parties to stay at overnight since they were staying in the park to help with the search. On June 18th, the American Red Cross became the center of contact for food donations for all the volunteers.

So the American Red Cross got involved with all these people staying. They needed to bring in food and supplies. That day, they also sent out 22 more special forces units to help search the area. And they added two more helicopters to more people from rescue groups, hiking clubs, and forest services. So they're adding more and more people to this search every single day. Do you know how many people? I mean, you just keep saying more and more and more people are at it. Do you know how large the search got?

Yeah. So this actually became the biggest search effort that there has ever been in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park history. There ended up being 1,400 people who joined in on this search. Wow. Okay. Yeah. So a huge number of people every day it just keeps growing. They actually had some psychics come in to offer help as well.

And they came in claiming that they could see vision. of what happened and what was to come. And Bill Martin, Dennis' dad, actually didn't discredit these immediately. He was so desperate for answers. He was willing to listen to anybody. And he was listening to what they were saying. And he kept getting psychic saying near a stream by a small waterfall with white pine trees in the area.

And that is such a vague description. There are white pines next to a stream everywhere in the south that does. not help at all. And after he kept getting these vague descriptions, he gave up on the idea that a psychic would be able to help with his search of Dennis. So at the end of the day on June 18th, they ended with 651 personnel that were searching for Dennis. Okay. I feel like with the psychics, they always end up popping up on like big cases like this. I feel like I've read about them a lot. I I don't know of any case that has ever been significantly helped by their information. But then again, I haven't really done a lot of research into it.

But it's sad because as a parent, you would be willing, like you said, the dad was all about getting any information that may be helpful. I will just say, and out myself right now, I am a huge fan of psychic mediums. and Teresa Caputo, number one fan over here. I've read all of her books. I've been to six of her live shows. Really? Yeah. I went to Long Island, Long Island, to see her.

Massachusetts. I've seen her in Colorado. I've seen her a couple different places a few times. And one time, okay, I don't, fun fact that you don't know about. me. So I was in Colorado Springs at one of her live shows and I'm part of her fan club, obviously. And you get to, like fan club members get entries into winning a chance for like a meet and greet with her after her live shows. And I was chosen. And I have a picture with her. You were. Yeah. And I got to meet. How have I never heard this story? I don't know because it's like. How have I never heard this?

The crown jewel of my memories because she didn't do like a reading or anything for me, which was kind of sad, because which I already knew she wasn't going to. It's very clearly stated, like, you're not going to get a reading if you get a meet and greet. But she signed my, a copy of my book that I have of hers. Like, I have that all like in storage somewhere. But it was really cool. And it's kind of like case by case, obviously, I don't believe every single person who says they're a psychic medium is truly has a gift like that. But in her case, I've been there enough to see firsthand that I can make an opinion on her. But yeah, it's sad that sometimes people are just, you put all your faith and hope into the, their information and sometimes when it doesn't work out or it's not what you thought it was, which I also have experience with with another psychic medium that was terrible. It's, yeah, it can just be, I just feel the letdown and sadness of hoping to get information

that can give you some sort of an idea, like something to go off of. So I thought that was interesting that a psychic was brought. into that because it could have been imagine. I've had one experience that was like dead on. I mean, not my, it's hard to explain, but she was right. And I've had another experience where it was completely wrong. So I think there's definitely people who are total fakes out there. And I think that it really is a gift as well.

Anyway, so, so they ended a junior. 18th with 651 personnel searching for Dennis. On June 19th, they continued their search. The special forces units continued searching the areas throughout the park and they were not having any luck. And they also brought in the Tennessee Highway Patrol and the Knoxville Fire Department to join in with the search that same day. Another little thing about special forces units that I saw misconstrued information and I'm not sure how it got out like this is people, were saying all these conspiracy theories about the government and the special forces units because they were saying the special forces units showed up out of nowhere and they were heavily armed

and they were being super secretive while they were there and none of that is true. If you look at any photos of the special forces from this search, they're not wearing weapons. You don't see guns. they're wearing survival gear and outdoor gear to be searching in these woods. And as far as they came out of nowhere, they were specifically requested by the National Park Service. Some people question that as well. But I thought it made total sense because these men actually train in these areas and they know how to get through these areas better than anyone else would. These men are especially trained in a lot of situations to find people and get them.

So I thought it made total sense for them to come into an area where they train and they thrive in to help find this little boy. Yeah, what a odd detail to warp. I'll probably even post a photo, but there are no photos that I could find where these men were heavily armed at all. They were just saying why would they be heavily armed to search for a little boy? And the answer is they were not. Okay. So end of story. Okay. End of story.

At this point in the search, they started to examine animal excretions from the area. So bear, boar, and coyotes that are known for that area. And they were searching for human remains. At this point, we're trying to see if it was possible that Dennis had been attacked by an animal. and had been consumed, and they were essentially looking for his remains in these excretions throughout the area. And they continued their search extensively for days, and they were bringing more and more personnel each day. They did not find anything in these animal excretions, but they continued their search, and they were setting up communication trucks. They had helipads for

landings. They had facilities for food and showers. Like I said before, this became, the most extensive search effort in Great Smoky Mountain National Park history. And at this point, they had over 1,400 people there. And during this time, the military were holding meetings multiple times a day to discuss their search efforts, where to head to next, to keep track of where they had searched. And we're really just coming up with plans. At this point, they were covering 56 square miles of land. Wow, that's a huge. out. That's a lot of area, especially for a individual that is unlikely to have traveled that far on

his own. And as the days were going by, the crew started becoming tired and the amount of volunteers were starting to dwindle, even though the crowds were dwindling down at this point, there were still hundreds of people out there searching for Dennis. And they were just searching everywhere, and they were having no luck. On June 26th, the man called into the Knoxville News Centennial and informed searchers that they should, quote, look in the trees and the treetops. Stop looking on the ground.

What does that mean? What does that mean? People were really skeptical of it. He was anonymous. This person was anonymous. People didn't know who it was. And some people thought, maybe he has something to do with this case. Maybe he knows something that we don't know.

And other people didn't think he knew anything. He was just some person who was either trying to cause some type of drama or was just a mentally unstable person calling into a news source to say whatever for whatever reason. Right. Because you would think if it was someone who was genuinely trying to help with the suggestion. that maybe others haven't thought of yet, I feel like you would back that statement up with more information. Like, stop looking on the ground, look in the trees and tree tops, and here's why. I think you should do that. Yeah. And who knows? Maybe it was a psychic who was calling in with another tip. Like, they just have no idea. Right. Okay. Weird. And nothing ever came of this phone call.

So people to this day still don't know if this person, could have had some type of tie to this or if it really was just someone out of nowhere calling. June 29th, 15 days after his disappearance, they held a meeting with Dennis's parents. And this was pretty normal for them to do. They were holding meetings daily. But at this particular meeting, they decided to discuss further options from there to go on their search. and they had really exhausted all of their options. And they decided that with no evidence of an abduction or of an attack or any signs of

Dennis being in the area at all, they couldn't continue this huge manhunt for him. So this huge operation shut down and everyone was sent home minus a handful of people. So there were a few people who ended up staying in the park and they were searching. for the next 50 days and they ended in September. But they ultimately were not able to find anything. Not even a shred of clothing or footwear. Nothing. Wow. Okay. With such a lack of physical evidence, were they thinking that maybe he was taken or? Yeah. So they actually, they had three main theories of what they thought could have happened to Dennis. And then, of course, there's the most recent theory that has become the TikTok that I talked about at the beginning of the story, which I will go into as well.

But they had three main theories. And the first one that he became lost in the woods, he ventured off, and then he perished from exposure to the storm. And that is what the park rangers said that they thought was most likely to have happened to him. The second theory that they had was that he was attacked by an animal, a hungry bear, or a boar, and then he was carried off. And that's why we could never find his body. And the third theory is that he was abducted and he was taken out of the park. And that is why no one was able to find him. And Bill Martin, which was Dennis's father, believes that that's what happened to him. And that is why they couldn't find him was because someone got him out of the park and out of that area before they started their extensive searches

or before they reached to the point where they left the park. Well, and that's not as far-fetched as, I mean, obviously, abductions sadly happen all of the time, but it's not that while to think that maybe someone was watching them over the times that they, you know, the whole day before and their trek. It would be a lot for someone, I think, to essentially watch the movie. especially over five, six, seven miles, whatever they were hiking. But people do crazy things. And maybe they were just waiting for an opportune moment when one of the children was by

themselves or maybe someone was just in, I hate to say, the right place at the right time because that's so morbid. But it actually brings me to my next part of the story. It was weeks after Dennis's disson. appearance, a man named Harold Key came forward to police when he heard about the situation. Harold Key had been inside the park at the same time as Dennis's disappearance. He was there with his family visiting, and they were actually out looking to find a bear out in the woods, and they went to the certain area.

And when they were out here, he heard what he described as an enormous, sickening scream and then after that emerged this unkept, rough-looking man from the same direction where he heard the scream. Harold reported that he seemed like he did not want his family and him to see him at all and he got out of that area as fast as he could and he jumped in his car and he sped off from this direction. And he said he got into a white car and sped off and sped off. And he said he got into a white car and sped off. And that was it. And that was it.

Harold Keith had assumed at the time that it was a moonshiner that was out in the woods and he was doing something sketchy. So he just got out of there fast. But then when he heard about Dennis's disappearance, he thought maybe that screen was Dennis. Maybe this guy was up to something horrible and decided to call the police and let them know. Okay.

Very coincidental. Yeah. Police determined that it was really unlikely that he could be a suspect because he was actually seen nine miles from where Dennis was last seen. And the trail that this man was on had no connecting points to where Dennis was. And remember, these woods are thick. They're dense. It is hard to walk through these areas. So basically, said it was really unlikely that he could have been involved at all. And they said, even though Harold couldn't remember the exact time that this incident happened, just the timing that he was able to describe didn't seem like it could have been connected with Dennis's disappearance as well. Interesting. Okay. And obviously there's no follow up on that. Just a random guy. Yeah. Screaming in the woods.

Mm-hmm. Then another thing happened with another potential clue to find Dennis. A few years after his disappearance, a man came across human bones, bone remains that resembled that of a small child in the park. And it was not far from where Dennis was last seen. But this man kept this information to him. himself for years and years. And he did not call the police. He did not tell anyone about it.

He kept it completely to himself. And then for whatever reason, one day, he decided to divulge this information to the police. And he told them that the whole reason he kept this to himself was that he had been in the park illegally harvesting ginseng. And he was afraid he would get in trouble if he called it in. What? Okay. And I don't want to laugh.

But so you're telling me that this guy had this really important information of maybe leading to the conclusion of solving this case or not solving, but at least bringing closure to some degree of this case. because I can't imagine there's very many many sources of human remains out in the National Park, especially that of a child that just had the biggest search in the National Park's history happening. And he just decides to keep it to himself for however many years because he was harvesting a plant. So the interesting thing about, I totally agree with everything you just said, it's insane. But if you don't know about harvesting ginseng,

ginseng is actually this plant that is known for having really nutritious properties where it helps with lowering blood sugar. It boosts energy. It helps with diabetes. And it became a trend where people really wanted ginseng to help them with, like herbal remedies. And it's been a highly coveted plant for thousands of years. And when you harvest the root of it, it kills the entire plant. So tons of people were harvesting this plant and it actually faced extinction. They changed the laws. And you actually need a license now to grow

ginseng and to harvest it. And to do that in national parks is very illegal. And if you you do sell your own ginseng, it's very valuable. So it is selling for $300 to $600 per pound. So it's very, very valuable. Okay. So there's black market herbs coming and going on in this situation. I get that. But can't, and obviously I'm asking you like you have the answers, but couldn't he have just called it in anonymously? Like that guy with the tree tops or whatever the hell? Like just say. I, you know, what, where is, what's stopping him from doing that? What did stop him from calling in an anonymous tip? Or, you know, playing, people do this all the time.

Like, okay, I have this really important information for you. And I'll give it to you if I can be pardoned or I, you know, you can't prosecute me for this black market ginseng deal or whatever. I mean, I'm, I guess that's not how the law works all the time, but it just seems like the information that he could have offered would have far outweighed what he was doing. And I'm all about protecting, you know, flora and fauna, and it's harvesting that plant was obviously illegal for a reason. And I don't think that he should have been a hundred percent excused from that. But I think it's worth a hell of a lot more foreclosure for that family and to bring, you know, some answers to the case. I don't know. That just really got under my

skin. I think no matter what you're doing, if you find human remains of a child, whatever you're doing is not valid. It's not important. That is someone's child. You have to tell someone. You don't just find that. And because you're breaking a law, don't tell them someone is missing their child. This person died out here and nobody knows because you're the person finding their remains. So whatever the excuses, I don't think it's valid. And I felt the same way you do. It really got under my skin and I thought that that was really horrible to do and the worst part about this

was he waited for so long that and he knew exactly where this was he told the police the exact location to go to and there was nothing there there were no remains there anymore so whatever opportunity that they had whether or not that actually was a child skull or if it was an animal skull

we'll never know and he could have really taken the opportunity away for Dennis's family to find out what happened to him or have some type of closure of whether or not he was alive. Or it could have even been a different child. It could have been someone entirely different who is also waiting to hear what happened to their kid and find out. And either way, he took that opportunity away if that really was someone's, if that was a person's remains. There is something to be said that he did eventually come forward and provide the information. It's just really a shame that it transpired the way it did.

At the end of the day, Dennis Martin was never found. His father, Bill Martin, died in 2014, and the rest of the Martin family has not discussed his case publicly since the search parties in 1969. This case has been covered a ton. You can go, you can find articles about it, you can find other podcasts that have covered it, you can find YouTube channels that have covered it. And there is a lot of misconstrued, just completely false information out there. One of the things that you will find if you're researching this is that people speculated that Dennis was taken by Bigfoot. And their whole assumption on that is based on Harold Key's eyewitness account of, what he saw in the park.

And they've actually changed what he saw. And they now say, you can find reports where people are saying that he saw a man covered in fur with a red sack over his shoulder. And Dennis was wearing a red t-shirt when he was last seen. And then he heard the scream. And then he took off into the woods. And that is not what happened. who Harold Key saw drove off in a car. So that is not Bigfoot.

So that was totally false information that got put out there. Some people covered it where they didn't even mention that they were playing a game when he got lost. There is just a lot of false information out there. So I read the entire incident report, 86 pages, and that was the first resource that I read. to read about Dennis Martin's disappearance. And after that is when I started listening to other people's accounts of what happened and articles. And that's where I started finding all this strange information.

And then, of course, taking it back to this TikTok video where she is claiming that there are cannibals out in the park. I actually read an article that this man who has grown up outside the park is whole life and has lived there his whole life, wrote about the disappearance of Dennis Martin. And then he talked about how he has never heard about cannibals in the park before. He has always grown up where people have told them to be careful when he goes into the park because of bears and because of wild boar. But he has never once heard about these cannibals.

And one of the main things in the stick talk is she says, all the locals know about it. The government is hiding it. And he says he has never heard about it. And I lived down south for about two years. And I lived on the Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia corner right over there on the borders there. So I was a few hours from the park. But that was never something I ever heard either. And you would think that every region of the world, but just putting it in the frame of the United States, every region has their local legend and lore. that if you live there long enough, you hear of all that stuff pretty much right away. A couple things that come to mind. Pacific Northwest, it's definitely Bigfoot country.

Everyone, it's all over everything. People talk about him. That's the jam up here. And then in like New Jersey, there's the Jersey Devil. In Vermont, there's Lake Champlain and Champ. And then New Mexico, Roswell, New Mexico. has aliens and the UFOs. I just feel like every area kind of has their little, their stories that are passed down through the generations where they come from. And if they're based in any sort of fact

is up for a huge debate depending on where you're talking about. But I feel like that would be a prime example of something. Like, you know, like if that truly was something that was based on in any sort of local legend or lore. And I don't know, correct me if I'm wrong. I haven't looked into this at all, but I have never heard of cannibals in the Great Smoky Mountains area ever. Until the TikTok video, obviously. Yeah. Yeah, I had never heard of it before.

And when researching it, another thing that people have said, there are like so many people go missing. from the Smoky Mountains National Park. And it's true, people have gone missing, but they figure most of the people they find. Also, the terrain is really difficult, hard terrain, and people get lost in parks and in any park, and it happens where people go missing and they die. There's only a handful of people that have gone missing

that have not been found why or what happened to them in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. And one of the things that this TikTok says is she says they're known for abducting children and entire families. If entire families were going missing and were never found or their bones of entire families were found, there would be some type of word about it. And then just from the Dennis Martin case, there were 1,400 people searching this park. And most of them were military personnel. if they had come across a group of these cannibalistic people that were living off the land in the park and were abducting and consuming children and families, that would have been noted. That would have been found and that would have been stopped.

There wouldn't have been a huge military presence there and they found this group of people and then they just left them alone. I just find it very, very unlikely that that could have been a possibility. and I think that the possibility of Dennis Martin being abducted by someone else, which is what I think is most likely what happened to him or him getting lost in the woods and him being eaten or dying in the storm because it did get colder that night. He could have died of hypothermia being that wet or he could have gotten an attack by an animal. I think that those are way more likely than this huge conspiracy theory that cannibals ate him. I, a thousand percent agree with that. I mean, there are cannibalistic cultures in parts of the world from what I've read and studied, which was a while ago in college, I took one elective.

And it was called magic, witchcraft, and religion throughout the world. And it was a really interesting class. And I learned a lot. And part of it was about cultures that do practice cannibalism. but it's done in a way that is way different than abducting people and consuming them as a main staple of their diet. That's not how it's done. I can't even, in my mind, weigh it as an option. And it kind of almost feels a little disrespectful to the family to even consider that. he still has family that's alive and they have not publicly talked about this since 1969 and then suddenly his case resurfaces and thousands of people are talking about him being eaten by cannibals

and it's just so outrageous and I'm sure it's just a hurtful way to come back into this story especially with no evidence or any type of information that would actually make any of this a viable, true, possible story to come out of left field and start this whole thing about him must be really hard for the family. And I agree. I thought it was really disrespectful. And on the other end, if we're wrong here, if I'm wrong here, and I miss some huge part of the research and you're listening to this and you're like, no, it's true. There are cannibals. I have firsthand experience. Message me. Talk to me. I want to know. I want to talk to you. like we'll go further into this conversation.

If you have any real experience, I don't want to hear a story of a story of a story that you heard from someone or a experience you saw on Reddit or a TikTok you saw. Like I need, I want like real concrete information. A real eyewitness, like, you know, like if a cannibal has tried to eat you, let me know. Because I'm sorry for everyone who's listening.

listening to this and they're like, we're going to hear about all the cannibals and the Smoky Mountains. And I'm here telling you, I really don't think that they're real. But if you're listening to this and you think I'm completely wrong, because you have first-hand experience, SHS, let us know. Yeah, if you have some hills have eyes type of experience, let a girl know. But other than that, I think we can kind of just tie this in a neat little bow and store it under the this does not exist category. Because I mean, and I don't want to harp on it because we have talked about it for a while, but just like you said, having the case run cold for so many

years and it kind of getting just filed away in the back and put on the back burner of, you know, time goes on, more cases emerge. You have to focus your attention. You have to focus your on other things, especially with no leads or no more new information. And then all of a sudden, you get this total resurgence of interest in the case. You're like, what's happening? Was there another, did somebody come across some skeletal remains? What's going on? And then just imagine you're the family member watching this TikTok. I don't know. Just be careful with what you put out on the internet and you never know who's going to see it, how it's going to be interpreted. And obviously, I don't want to pick on her either because, like you said, there are tons of different articles

with by many different people saying a bunch of different things that don't match up with the incident report and all of the details that were reported by the park service that are out there floating around on the internet. And it's a lot of people could be hurt by that or be put to down by that or whatever. So I'll stop talking about it, but it is true. And if anything does come from this TikTok, I hope it maybe it'll draw attention to get closure on this case that has taken so long. And my hope is that someday the family does get closure and does find out what happened to Dennis. I don't think it is this theory about cannibals. Yeah. That's all the information that I have for this story and thank you all for listening for this long. This was definitely a story that really caught

my eye, especially because of all of the misinformation out there. And feel free to do your own research. If you want to read the incident report, you can go online and Google it. It'll be right, it'll come right up on the National Park website and you can read all 86 pages for yourself. It will be a lot more in detail of what happened for the incident report because they talk about how many troops are out there. They talk about in detail every single day of the entire investigation. So you can read that more in detail if you like. It is on there. And I will be posting the link on our Patreon. I will post photos from the case on the Patreon as well. And all of my show notes will be posted there too. So if you don't have Patreon and you are interested in joining,

you can go onto our Instagram at National Park After Dark and you can click the link and it'll bring you straight to our Patreon. Another way to find that link is go to NPADPodcast.com and you can click on the Patreon tab and that will also bring you to that link as well. And you can catch up with us on our Instagram, which is National Park After Dark. We do have a Facebook group as well, National Park After Dark. And you can always send us an email, get in touch with us that way, send in a listener story at NPAD podcast at gmail.com. So that is it for this week. We hope you all enjoyed and enjoy the view. But watch your back. See you next week.

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