1984 | The Day Eugene Martin Disappeared

On Sunday morning, August 12, 1984, thirteen-year-old Eugene Wade Martin left his home in Des Moines, Iowa, to deliver the Sunday paper. He was five days away from his fourteenth birthday. He was saving money for the fair and a bicycle.

But somewhere along the way, Eugene's paper route stopped.

His newspapers were found. But Eugene was gone.

Less than two years earlier, another Des Moines Register carrier, Johnny Gosch, had vanished from his own Sunday morning route. So when Eugene disappeared, the fear in Des Moines shifted. What had once seemed like an ordinary childhood job now felt exposed, vulnerable, and dangerous.

In this episode of SEQUESTERED, we trace the morning Eugene disappeared, the witnesses who may have seen him speaking with an unknown man, the flood of tips that followed, and the massive search that covered neighborhoods, riverbanks, wooded areas, and nearly seventy square miles. We also look at what Eugene's disappearance did to his family; the phone calls, the license plates, the Apple II computer filled with names, and the long vigil of parents who never stopped looking.

If you have any information about the disappearance of Eugene Wade Martin, please contact the Des Moines Police Department at 515-283-4811, the FBI Iowa office at 515-223-4278, or the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST / 1-800-843-5678. NCMEC case number: 601815. Official contact details are listed by NCMEC, and Eugene is also listed with the Iowa Missing Person Information Clearinghouse.

Photos, source material, and additional case information are available at sequesteredpod.com.