Where's Dennis Martin in that link? I know his case is not really considered a "death" but an unexplained dissaperence. A good source. But remember, anyone can edit Wikipedia content, so it's good to have other references when studying the cases.
My thoughts based on Cincinnati Kid's comments above:
1.) I remember that footprint. I think it was found near a river. If memory serves correct, it was found a few days after Dennis vanished. The reports were that it was only one print. It is strange if it was one one print. How someone could just make one print? I would think that there would have to be a path of footprints involved. Unless there were other prints involved and that one print was isolated from the others by being protected by trees or shrubs. It was said that this print resembled a child's shoe print. I am not sure, but I think it was found about three miles away from where Dennis was last seen. Park officials said that their investigation found, "No children in the area."
My take on 'No Children in the Area" may be misguided. There were THOUSANDS of people who walked the Smokey Mountains in the search for Dennis Martin. Presumably young people, middle-aged people, even elderly people. I know that that very afternoon, the grandfather in the family, I think Clyde was his name, when he found out that Dennis did not come back with the other kids, he actually traveled a good half hour going back to the ranger station that first day. Months after the search was called off, Clyde was said, "wore out hiking boots looking for Dennis."
We really don't know if that print was a child's print or an adult with small feet.
2.) Park officials at the time seemed to believe that the scream that Harold Key heard when looking for deer could have been a bobcat scream, which is said to sound terrifying and similar to a child's scream. However, park officials determined that the scream and the unkempt man were found about nine miles away from where Dennis was last seen. Dennis vanished sometimes between 3:30-4:30PM June 14, 1969. The screen and unkempt man were seen after 7PM, about eight to nine miles away from the Martin's campsite. (Too far for Dennis to travel.) Mr. Key it was said did not know about the search for Dennis until he got home. It appears that he would have reported the scream when there otherwise.
3.) Dennis vanished from the Smokey Mountains in June of 1969. Reports say several years later, the ginseng hunter, who found what was alleged to be a child's skull reported it to the head forest ranger. I was told this was 1985, a very long time for someone to withhold information if the story is true. I agree, why wait all these years? Illegal hunting of ginseng is nothing compared to what could have solved the mystery of what happened to Dennis Martin! What's the worst the park officials could have done to the hunter? I think he would certainly be granted immunity from any fines or park violations, by reporting that skull! And I believe if the hunter story is true, that skull is the remains of Dennis Martin. No one else went missing in the Smokey's who was not found alive prior to that time.
The only other thing, is if the skull story is true, how do we know it was a child's skull? The bones were never analyzed
Satch
