TN TN - Dennis Martin, 6, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, 14 June 1969

[cenazoic]

then how do they ever find out if someone turned in a tip or if he has been found?

Well, that’s the rub. If the family hasn’t submitted DNA, then it would be very difficult to confirm any matches. Presumably potential matches could be excluded based on other factors like age or sex. That assumes Dennis didn’t make it to adulthood, of course.

the John Doe DNA wasn't viable. I want to assume this will all be handled,

Can you clarify what you mean by ‘handled’ in this context? If you mean something like ‘they’ll try extracting it again sometime”, I’d think it would be dependent upon why the sample wasn’t viable to begin with (too little? too degraded? Something else?)

With DNA - my limited and perhaps incorrect understanding of NamUs is that they can sort of auto- exclude based on DNA, assuming a missing person and an unidentified person both have DNA submitted to NamUs.

That said, even when people have submitted matches that turn out to be correct, they a) usually don’t get any sort of acknowledgement and b) it’s often a long time later that the match is made public. If it’s not a match, if they’re lucky, the case manager might provide a tidbit of previously unknown info - like, this person has been excluded, even though they don’t appear on the exclusions list in NamUs.

how long would this take?

I don’t want to be discouraging here, but I wouldn’t expect quick results for anything. And by ‘quick’ I mean say, less than a year. ‘how long does it take’ isn’t something we can answer, but it’s likely somewhere in the range of ‘a long time’, sorry to say.

 

[bloobutterfly]

Clarification- The ME with the doe told me the DNA was not available, as in something was wrong with it and would work on it. I assume ME has some way of trying to attain a viable sample. The case is old though, so I am hopeful, but not sure if it's possible to fix the problem they are having. The other person corresponding from Dennis' side said they do not have DNA to compare to the doe, and would "think" about how to proceed. Umm. If I was in the Martin family, and I saw the response to this inquiry, I would be furious. Also, the person answering the phone listed as the agency contact had never heard of this case, because it is so old, I am assuming. They also were surprised to get a call like mine and "didn't even know what to do." So, I mentioned the contact name for the case there and the person knew them. So, I asked to have that case manager call me. The man said he knew him and would give him my message. So, the contact person was known and still reachable. However, he didn't call me, someone else did. Then yet another person messaged the ME. The attitude seemed to me to be, that they would decide or figure out how to proceed. So, my opinion is that if anyone here knows the family personally, that they should let them know about my experience. They need to advocate for themselves and make sure strangers, non-family do not decide what is going to be done about this. Does anyone know them?

 

[bloobutterfly]

The ME, by the way, was very professional and kind.

 

[Caring1]

June 6, 2025

GATLINBURG, Tenn. (WATE) — June 14 will mark 56 years since Dennis Martin disappeared in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The quiet boy from Knoxville was just a few days away from his 7th birthday the last time he was seen.

More than five decades after Dennis Lloyd Martin’s disappearance, 6 News obtained the National Park Service’s case file, which details how the search for the boy was conducted after he vanished from Spence Field.

https://myfox8.com/news/public-safety/missing/6-year-old-boy-still-missing-after-vanishing-in-great-smoky-mountains-in-1969/