Mark Himebaugh
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My name is Sarah Turney, and this is Voices for Justice.

Today, I am discussing the case of Mark Heimbaugh. Mark was only 11 years old when he went missing from Middle Township, New Jersey in 1991. It's as if Mark vanished into thin air.

Although there are many witness statements about Mark's whereabouts that day, the only physical clue found was Mark's left shoe abandoned on the beach. Mark's mother Maureen is begging the public to keep sharing his case and is hopeful that new DNA testing will finally bring her answers. This is the case of Mark Heimbaugh.

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Mark Heimbach was born on May 23, 1980, to his parents Jody and Maureen. Mark is their second son. Mark's brother Matthew is just about a year older. When Mark went missing, the family lived in the Delhaven neighborhood in Middle Township, New Jersey. Middle Township is a very small town off the Delaware Bay that had a population of about 1,000 people in the 90s. Their home was just about a block from the beach.

By all accounts, Mark loved where he lived. He also knew the area very well. Mark was a very curious child and was given the nickname Curious George. He was always outside in the neighborhood, at the beach building forts, or laying on his roof looking at the stars. He loved being outdoors. And his TV hero was MacGyver, so he was always trying to craft something.

Mark had big dreams of being in the military one day. He also knew sign language and would move bugs or animals out of the way of traffic so they wouldn't be harmed. All around, he seemed like just a very sweet, curious, and caring kid. But he did have some behavioral issues. During his early school years, Mark would often have emotional outbursts during class and at home.

He would do things like tear up his homework if his handwriting wasn't as neat as he liked. He'd be upset if his dinner plate wasn't in order. He'd go from totally fine to throwing tables and chairs.

His parents had extensive testing done, and Mark was eventually classified as emotionally disturbed, and he was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder. He was eventually put on a very low dose of Prozac to help curb his outbursts. The family also regularly attended counseling together and separately. But there was more going on behind the scenes. Mark's parents, Jodi and Maureen, didn't have a great relationship.

By 1990, Maureen filed for divorce. Richard McHale, a very outspoken detective who worked on Mark's case and wrote the book titled Where Is Mark? The Abduction of Mark Heimbaugh, says the final straw for Maureen was when Jody was accused of sexually abusing children in his family. It seems pretty likely that Mark's behavioral problems might have been rooted in some deeper issues.

Fortunately, Mark had some amazing teachers at his school, and by the 4th and 5th grade, his behavior had improved a lot. According to Maureen, when Jodi moved out of the house in March of 1991, things got even better. Now, it seems Mark's brother Matthew had a great relationship with Jodi, even singing with him in the local barbershop quartet Jodi was a part of, while Mark almost never wanted to go with his father for their scheduled weekend visits.

But the weekend before Mark went missing, he decided he would go with his father. Jody Heimbaugh picked up his sons on Friday, November 22, 1991, and brought them back to his home about 20 minutes away. Jody lived in an apartment above a store in an outdoor shopping center. One of the first detectives on the case described this area as looking like Main Street at Disneyland, just filled with picturesque shops.

It's said the reason Mark really wanted to go with his father that weekend was to shop for a birthday present for his mom. And he did. He would end up buying her a troll doll that he would later wrap, but ultimately never be able to give to his mother. Jodi told investigators that there was nothing out of the ordinary about this visit. However, Maureen has said that the one thing she found odd was the fact that Jodi hugged Mark when he dropped him off.

She said that she hadn't seen Jody hug Mark in years. He was just never affectionate with him. But on that day, he gave Mark a big hug before leaving. Jody would later tell investigators that this was false, and his goodbye to Mark that day was the same as it was after any other visit. The boys returned home on Sunday, November 24th, and on Monday, the 25th, both boys go to school as scheduled.

That day, Matthew stayed after school for tryouts and to practice for an upcoming play he was performing in. Mark went home on the school bus like normal. On the bus, he speaks with a friend and makes plans to hang out over the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend. At about 2.30 p.m., Mark gets home, but no one's there, so he just starts watching TV. A few minutes later, his mother walks in the door with her arms full of groceries.

Mark helps her grab the rest from the car, and Maureen begins making dinner as they discuss their plans for the night. Later in the evening, they plan to stop by Mark's favorite teacher, Mrs. Kubiak's house for a visit. The reason for this was kind of twofold. Mark really loved Mrs. Kubiak, but Maureen would also be doing some housework for her for extra cash. That night, Maureen was cooking Matthew and Mark's favorite dish, fried chicken and mashed potatoes with gravy.

But just as she began to start dinner, they get a knock at the door. It's their neighbor, Ann Woolery. She asks Maureen if she could give her a ride down the street to pick up her car that had recently been repaired. It shouldn't take longer than ten minutes tops. Maureen agrees and stops making dinner. But just as the women were getting ready to leave, they look out the window and see a huge cloud of smoke. A large brush fire had broken out.

Mark climbed up a large antenna of his father's in his backyard to get a better look at the fire. And he could tell it wasn't far. So he asks his mom if he can run over and check it out. Maureen agrees and tells Mark that she'll be back in 10 minutes. So Mark puts on his winter jacket over his U.S. Navy sweatshirt and makes his way over to the fire.

Not only was Middletownship a very small community, but Mark Heimbaugh had bright red hair and freckles, so he was very easy to recognize.

Several witnesses would later come forward to say that they saw Mark walk through the neighborhood at this time. Most accounts just discuss how they simply saw Mark at and around the fire. One of the more notable witness statements comes from married couple Josh and Sarah Morgan. Now, it's important to note that because of this fire, vehicles were being diverted off the main road through Mark's neighborhood, and this caused a lot of traffic.

Not only was this diversion slowing down traffic, but people wanted to see the fire. So Josh and Sarah Morgan are in a long line of cars waiting to see the fire, before making a U-turn back the other way. This is when they see Mark coming up the street from behind them. Behind the Morgan Chevy Blazer is a light-colored Ford Escort station wagon with a luggage rack.

And there's two men inside. As Mark walks by the station wagon, the man in the passenger seat opens his door, stands by the car, and says something to Mark.

Now, Sarah and Josh have no idea what he says, and it's a brief interaction before Mark continues walking. But Sarah Morgan says her motherly instincts just took over. She didn't recognize these guys, and she just had a bad feeling. So she made note of what these guys and the car looked like just in case. But ultimately, she calmed down and figured that the men were probably just asking Mark about the fire.

After that interaction, the car pulls out of line and does a U-turn back in the other direction. From here, it appears Mark walked back towards his house. However, officials were later able to determine that Mark likely never went back inside the house, and likely just saw that his mother wasn't home yet and continued walking around his neighborhood.

At about 3.45 p.m., Mark is seen at the Cape Cod County Park South by park attendant Ron Petit. He remembers it was right about this time because he was emptying his last trash can of the day, and he didn't want to stay late that day. He also remembered seeing Mark at the park often with his girlfriend, which I know, they're 11, but by all accounts, they did call each other boyfriend and girlfriend. But today, Mark was with a different girl.

She was younger than Mark, with short, blondish hair. Ron Petit didn't recognize her. But he doesn't think much of it, and hurries to get his work done so he can go home. This would be the last confirmed sighting of Mark. This is also about the same time Maureen Heimbaugh returns home, and she's not happy. The road closure and traffic turned what should have been a quick 10-minute errand into almost an hour of sitting in traffic.

But Maureen gets home and calls out for Mark. She obviously doesn't get an answer. But she doesn't panic. Mark was always out and about in the neighborhood. Plus, she was making his favorite dish, and they were seeing his favorite teacher that night. She figured he'd be home soon. So she starts cooking. Just as she finishes dinner, she gets a call. It's Matthew. He stopped at a friend's house after school, and asks if she can come pick him up.

Maureen asks Matthew if Mark is with him, and Matthew says no. So Maureen figures she will just look for Mark as she drives to pick Matthew up. By now, traffic is cleared, so it's just a short trip to and from this friend's house. But they don't see Mark. When they get home, Maureen is getting worried. But again, figures Mark probably just lost track of time and he'd be home any minute. So they eat dinner before it gets cold.

After dinner, Maureen decides it's time to go look for Mark again. She drives around the neighborhood and checks in with some of his friends, but no one knows where he is. By 6pm, Maureen calls the police to report him missing. She tells Matthew to call his father, but he doesn't answer. He was scheduled to sing with his barbershop quartet that night, so they weren't surprised.

Sergeant Skip Peek is the first to respond to the call. Before going to the house, he decides to drive through the neighborhood to see if he spots Mark and can just bring him home before taking an official report. But that doesn't happen. So he gets to the Heimbaugh residence to try to figure out what was going on. Maureen emphasizes that it was very unusual for Mark to not come home, especially since he was looking forward to having his favorite meal and seeing his favorite teacher.

After searching the house, Sergeant Peek makes the call to begin an official search for Mark. More officers were on the scene within five minutes. Within 30 minutes, neighbors were joining in the search effort too, and the Heimbaugh residence became an unofficial command center for the operation. Not long after, the Coast Guard was called in, and there were about 100 people looking for Mark.

Fire trucks positioned themselves around the area with their lights on to create a grid for the helicopters to search, and Sgt. Peake told Marine he was confident they would find Mark. By all accounts, it seems like they responded as quickly as possible and did all they could, though like most cases, there were missteps. And Detective McHale admits that they'd never seen a case like this before.

By 9pm, over 200 people were looking for Mark, which if you think about it is pretty incredible. That's literally 20% of the population of Middle Township. Just after 9pm, a group searching for Mark walk into the Heimbaugh residence and announce that they found a shoe on the beach about a block away.

They show it to Maureen, and she knows immediately that it was Mark's. It was a worn-in white LA gear sneaker, with blue-gray trim and red and white laces. Mark liked the shoes because they looked patriotic. They were also a hand-me-down from his brother Matthew. So when authority showed Matthew the shoe, he recognized it immediately, down to a familiar tear on it.

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Now, let's talk about some of the missteps here. To be fair, this was 1991. DNA technology wasn't what it is today. But a ton of people touched that shoe. On top of that, the area where the shoe was found was never taped off as a possible crime scene. And neither was the Heimbaugh residence.

But, of course, they went back to the beach to investigate further. Now, here's where things get really weird. When they went back to look at footprints in the sand, there was only one set. It was clear that there was only one person walking on the beach, and there was no struggle. The shoe looked like it just fell off his left foot. The trail then continued with a sock print on the left and the same shoe print on the right.

until the track became just sock prints. Now, I want to add some context here. Remember, Mark was very particular about things. The way he ate, the way he wrote. He was diagnosed with OCD. So this shocked his mother. She couldn't imagine Mark walking with just one shoe along the beach. But it's also worth noting that Mark had recently had a cast removed from his left foot after he fractured it.

so some theorize that the shoe could have been hurting his foot and he simply removed it. But that still doesn't explain why he just left the shoe in the sand. The tracks were fresh enough that the tide didn't wash them away, but they were there long enough that the wind blew some sand into them. Dogs were brought in to track Mark sent, and they were able to follow it about a half mile until the sand reached the pavement at Roosevelt Boulevard.

This leads investigators to believe Mark likely got into a vehicle at the street. It's also worth noting here that we have many witness statements that track Mark's movements around this neighborhood, but no one came forward to say that they saw Mark travel from the park he was last seen at with that little girl to this area at the beach. By 9.30pm, Jody Heimbaugh gets to the house. There are now 250 people looking for his son.

According to Detective McHale's statement, Jody Heimbaugh didn't stay long, and when officers went to speak with him, he'd already left, saying he had to work in the morning. By 8 a.m. the next morning on now Tuesday, November 26th, the Middle Township Police Department set up a mobile command center inside of a converted school bus, and the search continued as did the interviews.

Mark's girlfriend tells officers that she'd seen Jody Heimbach drag Mark by his hair and slam him up against a wall. She also says she believes Mark's father could have done something to him. She then tells them that she and Mark had been followed by a vehicle about two weeks prior. She described the car as tan with four doors and a New Jersey license plate. She said that she and Mark saw the car parked and felt they were being watched.

She added that Mark had seen the same car follow his school bus home. On this same day, officers interview Jody Heimbaugh at the print shop where he worked. Jody tells them that when Mark went missing, he was performing two shows with his barbershop quartet not far from his home. And his alibi checks out. They ask Jody why he left the house so quickly the night before. And he says he felt very unwelcome and uncomfortable there.

They also ask him why he's at work and not out looking for Mark. Jody explains that his driver's license was revoked due to an issue with his insurance, so he didn't want to make the drive again. They ask to search Jody's apartment, and he complies. As far as I could find, nothing of interest or incriminating was found in that search. Then, around 4pm, authorities get a very strange tip.

a married couple living in the neighborhood knock on the door of the mobile command unit saying they have information they tell officers that on sunday the day before mark went missing they were walking their dog along the beach and they saw mark's shoe in the sand they just left the shoe assuming someone lost it and they didn't think much of it until they saw mark was missing they tried to tell police monday night but everyone assumed they must have been mistaken

Then they saw the shoe on the news, and they knew it was Mark's and that they had to try to tell authorities again. They admit that seeing Mark's shoe abandoned on the beach the day before he went missing doesn't make any sense. When officials show them the actual shoe, they confirm that they are 100% confident that that is the shoe they saw on the beach. At this point, it's just a confusing witness statement, but it will be relevant to a theory I'm going to discuss later on.

Unfortunately, as more interviews are conducted and the investigation continues, things don't get any less confusing. According to Detective McHale, when authorities went to question the therapist that was counseling Mark and the entire family, the therapist told them Jody Heimbaugh once stated he contacted a minister about exercising the demons out of Mark.

The therapist also stated he didn't believe Mark would have just run away. Maybe a few years ago, but not now. He also expressed concern that Jody Heimbaugh could be involved directly or indirectly through a group of people who exploit children. Part of the reasoning for this were the allegations of sexual abuse towards minors in his family. And also the fact that Jody Heimbaugh had a lot of electronics.

like a personal computer and a CB radio complete with an antenna that was taller than his home. That was the antenna Mark climbed to see the fire. Again, this was 1991. These things weren't unheard of, but they weren't very common. In fact, I found a report stating that less than 23% of American households had a computer in 1993, two years after Mark went missing.

It wasn't until the year 2000 that more families owned a computer than not. Again, it's not insane that Jody Heimbaugh owned a computer. It just wasn't very common. At this point, authorities escalate Mark's case from a missing child to an abducted child. Pretty much immediately, Mark's story was everywhere.

His family establishes a full-blown non-profit organization called the Friends of Mark Heimbaugh and managed to solicit a donation of 20 billboards for Mark. His story was featured on milk cartons across America, the TV show America's Most Wanted, and heavyweight contender Riddick Bowe wears a robe with Mark's face on it at his next fight.

pledging to donate $15,000 to the reward fund in front of millions of viewers.

He's also taken up the crusade to try to find the whereabouts of an 11-year-old boy who has been missing from nearby Cape May County here in New Jersey. The young man's name, 11 years old, Mark Heimbaugh. He's been missing for 17 days now without a trace. Not long after this fight, the police announced that with the help of the FBI, they have a suspect. But they refused to name him. All they say is he's 50 years old.

lives in Cape May County, has a criminal record, and is not linked to the family. At this time, police also release a sketch of the little girl Mark was last seen with at the park, pleading for anyone with information to come forward.

As far as I could find, this suspect and this lead doesn't really go anywhere. And police are still seeking information about the little girl. It wouldn't be until two years after Mark went missing that police would get one of their biggest breaks in this case. On Valentine's Day 1993, a sex worker named Daniel Call was picked up by one of his regular clients, Thomas Buttcavage.

This was in Haverford Township, just outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. During their encounter, Buttcavage showed him a video of himself raping a young boy who resembled Mark. Call outright asked if the boy was Mark, and Buttcavage replied that he was. When Call asked what he did with him, he said that like the other kids he assaulted, he disposed of Mark.

He then asked Daniel Call for his help in abducting more children. Daniel Call went to the police the next day to tell them what he'd heard. Not long after, authorities executed a search warrant for Thomas Buttcabbage's apartment, but they didn't find the tape or anything else to link him to Mark's abduction. In the end, he was arrested for possession of marijuana. When he was questioned, he denied even knowing Mark.

But he admitted that he did fantasize about abducting and raping young boys like Mark. Ultimately, they just couldn't make any charges stick.

However, not only was Buttcavage arrested five years later in 1998 and eventually convicted of sexually assaulting three male minors and creating child pornography, his mugshot is nearly identical to a sketch that was released in 1993 shortly before Daniel Call came forward.

This sketch comes from the statements of Josh and Sarah Morgan, the couple that saw Mark speaking to a strange man outside of that Ford Escort station wagon on the day he went missing. It's worth noting here that a sketch was made of the driver as well, but authorities have never been able to make a match. Now, I'm not exaggerating when I say the sketch of the man talking to Mark and Thomas Buttcabbage's mugshot are nearly identical.

Detective McHale has stated that it literally looks like someone used Thomas Buttcavage's mugshot to draw the sketch. Both men had shoulder-length dark hair parted down the middle. Both had large, square, thick glasses. And they have very similar facial features. On top of that, the man from the sketch has never come forward. Now, again, Thomas Buttcavage has never been charged with anything in relation to Mark.

But the resemblance is uncanny. On top of Daniel Call swearing for years that he saw Thomas Buttcavage assault Mark in that video, and on top of this insane resemblance to the sketch of the strange man seen talking to Mark on the day he went missing, Detective McHale says they've established a link between Thomas Buttcavage and Jody Heimbaugh.

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When authorities searched Thomas Butcavage's apartment in 1993 looking for this alleged tape of him sexually assaulting Mark, they come up with basically nothing. Like I said, he was only arrested for possession of marijuana. But they did find one thing, one small thing that led them to something bigger, a connection to Mark's father, Jody Heimbaugh.

During this search, they find a personal check addressed to a man named David Cranston. They discover that like this man who gave them the tip about Buttcavage, David was also a sex worker. Now stay with me here, I promise it's worth it. David says he met Thomas Buttcavage at a bookstore in Philadelphia in 1991. David and Thomas have sex with a man named Greg.

Greg was dating a man named Peter. When authorities looked into Peter, they learned that Peter's father was a member of a barbershop quartet, the same barbershop quartet that Jody Heimbaugh sang in. It's not the most direct connection, but it's a connection. And it ties into a theory that Detective McHale indirectly poses in his book about Mark.

Remember the shoe on the beach? And the couple that swears they saw it the day before Mark went missing? Remember that despite several witnesses being able to track Mark's movements that day, no one saw him walk from the park to the beach where that shoe was found? And remember that little girl with Mark at the park that no one could identify? Well, the idea is that they could all be connected.

That maybe Mark was supposed to be taken on Sunday. The shoe was dropped, but the plan changed for some reason. That maybe the shoe on the beach in general was to throw police off their trail. This is something Maureen Heimbau believes as well. And maybe the little girl was a decoy to get Mark into a vehicle with someone.

I mean, the only people that haven't been identified in this case are that little girl, the driver of the Ford Escort, and the passenger that looks an awful lot like Thomas Buttcavage. In a town of a thousand people where 20% of the population was involved in the search for Mark, why is it that no one can identify these people? Why hasn't anyone come forward to say, yes, that was me, I was asking Mark about the fire?

Or yes, that was my daughter. She was playing at the park that day. Mark's story was everywhere, and so were these sketches. Something about these three people just doesn't add up.

According to Detective McHale, it's more than just intuition and this connection to Thomas Buttcavage that makes him wonder if this was all a part of a larger pedophilia ring. He claims that just a few years ago, witnesses came forward with some damning allegations against Jody Heimbaugh. Now, for legal reasons, I do want to say that these are just allegations.

Jody Heimbaugh has never been charged with anything in relation to Mark's case, or anything in relation to the allegations that he sexually abused children in his family or anyone else. I also want to say that as far as I could find, these allegations are only in this book written by Detective McHale that came out just a few months ago.

But he stated time and time again on social media that all of this information in the book comes directly from the investigation. So because I was able to find that yes, he did work on this case, and he has also done interviews with Mark's mother promoting this book, I'm going to trust that he's being truthful about these witness statements.

One woman states she met Jody Heimbaugh in 1995. After getting to know each other, he confessed to her that authorities would never find Mark's body, and that he was focused on making money from the Friends of Mark Heimbaugh Foundation. Another witness that came forward recently is Mark's girlfriend.

I didn't name her in this episode because I haven't seen her come forward with her story publicly. This woman is also a survivor, and I don't feel right telling her story in detail, so I won't. But as it relates to Mark, she states that since the age of six, both she and Mark were being sex-trafficked by Jodi Heimbaugh.

and just moments before jody came to pick mark up for that visit before he went missing mark was discussing plans to gather information from his father's apartment that way he could go to police and tell them everything then mark disappeared

although his girlfriend didn't come forward with this information as a child by no means do i blame her for that and i hope none of you do either she immediately told detectives that she thought jody could be involved and that is more than we can expect from a child who is being abused and likely terrified

In 1998, the year Mark was supposed to graduate high school, his girlfriend wrote and published a poem for Mark in their yearbook. It seems very clear that she never forgot about Mark.

The thing is, I can't in good faith say that that woman didn't experience what she says she did. I will not invalidate her experience like that. I mean, that is a huge allegation. And to be honest, what I read in that book was incredibly descriptive. Uncomfortably descriptive. So either she did tell this story in extreme detail, or Detective McHale made it all up, which I have to hope isn't the case.

And again, with Mark's mother participating in interviews promoting the book, I just don't think that's what's going on. But I do think it's only fair to present other theories in this case that don't involve Jody Heimbaugh. The first is the theory that Thomas Buttcavage could have just worked alone in abducting and killing Mark.

Next is a random stranger abduction, that maybe Mark was at the beach, had a mood swing over his shoes, taking one off and possibly throwing the other in the ocean. Then a stranger saw Mark shoeless and offered him a ride. There was also a couple in the neighborhood that was charged with child endangerment after it was discovered that they were making their granddaughter sleep in a closet. Some theorize they harmed Mark, though it seems like a stretch.

Of course, there's always the possibility that Mark just ran away. Though I'd say of all the theories, it seems the least likely. Last, you might have heard of an anonymous phone call made in 2010 in the middle of the night. This came from a man claiming he knew who killed Mark. But according to Detective McHale, that was apparently just a sick act of revenge against the person they were accusing.

This is an older case. Mark went missing over 30 years ago. But there are some new developments. With the release of this book, Maureen and Detective McHale announce that Othram Labs has offered to test the shoe found on the beach. They know the odds aren't in their favor, but they're hoping they might just get lucky and find some DNA. When Mark's mother is asked what she thinks happened to Mark, she doesn't really lean one way or the other.

She basically just says she doesn't know, but she hopes he will come home someday. Maureen refuses to move from the house she lived in with her family, and she has kept the same phone number for over 30 years now. She still has the troll doll he bought her for her birthday. She still has Mark's medication, and she still maintains his bedroom, just waiting for him to come home.

She admits it's a slim chance that he will, but as his mother, she won't give up hope. Before we get to our call to action, I want to play a clip of Maureen Heimbach reading a poem she wrote for Mark just a few years after he went missing. A poem to Mark, my son, who disappeared on November 25th, 1991. My hero.

Three years have passed since that sad day. You viewed a fire and went away. 'Twas not your choice but some strange fate. I miss you so, but I still wait. I wait for you. I'm staying strong. I know you'd want me to hold on. You disappeared one winter day, so near the playground where you play. One sneaker was the only find, a part of you found left behind.

My hopes, my dreams, my plans for you, all shattered by the loss of you. A loss so very hard to bear. I look for you, but you're not there.

I miss your smile, your laugh, your gentle hugs, your love of nature, animals, and bugs. You love them all and the great outdoors. I long for you to have much more. Eleven years was all we had. I cherish them, but I'm still sad. I cry for you. I miss you so. Oh, why, my Mark, did you have to go?

Holidays are not the same. You're not here. There's so much pain. This world sometimes is so unfair. We all have our cross to bear. My love for you will never cease. You've given me an inner peace, an inner peace, a special strength that tells me you're okay. I know you're either safe out there or in heaven far away.

And answer yes, I must have one to end this pain, my little one. I love and miss you. Mom, Mark is and always will be my hero. That brings me right to our call to action. I can tell you, older cases like Mark's typically don't get as many downloads as newer cases. But I hope that when I tell you witnesses are coming forward after decades to help Mark, you realize that he's still loved.

I hope that hearing his mother speak makes you feel something. That's why I play those heart-wrenching clips. It's not to make you sad. It's to make you feel for these people in hopes that you will take action. Because Mark's story may just be an old case you think will never be solved. But Maureen still has hope. She is still showing up for interviews. And she looks at Mark's picture in her home every single day.

So please share Mark's story. Please share his picture. There is still hope. Mark Heimbach went missing from Middle Township, New Jersey on November 25th, 1991. He was 11 years old at the time, with red hair, blue eyes, and a lot of freckles. He was 4 feet tall and weighed 85 pounds. Mark is a white male.

He was last seen at the Cape Cod County Park South at approximately 3.45pm. Anyone with information is urged to contact their local FBI office. You can also submit a tip anonymously online at tips.fbi.gov. But as always, thank you, I love you, and I'll talk to you next time.

Voices for Justice is hosted and produced by me, Sarah Turney. For more information about the podcast, to suggest a case, to see resources used for this episode, and to find out more about how to help the cases I discuss, visit VoicesForJusticePodcast.com. And if you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to rate and review the show in your podcast player.

It really does help more people find the podcast and these cases in need of justice. Welcome to the Voices for Justice secret after show. This case was incredibly tough. It's over 30 years old, and a lot of new information was just released in that book. Mark's mother is still doing interviews begging for the public to help find her son. I wanted to cover Mark's story because I feel for Maureen.

After 30 years, she is still hopeful that they will finally find out what happened to her son. Now, I also want to give you a warning about this book. There are parts that are extremely graphic, and I have to say that I have some issues with the way that it was written. I'm not going to go into detail, but it's just extremely uncomfortable, and it reads almost like a sex novel. I don't know what else to say about it.

I do think Detective McHale has good intentions with releasing this book. I just wanted to give you that warning. It literally made me sob. I had to stop. I had to come back to it because I just couldn't read it. It made me sick to my stomach. So before you go out there and buy the book, just know that.

Now, in switching to some lighter news, you guys saw last week that I was gone, and I can finally tell you I went to Disneyland. Yes, I am an actual child. I love Disneyland. When I go there, basically the whole world melts away, and all I see is Disney, and that is exactly what I need before this trial coming up. Also, you probably saw online that I did get engaged at Disneyland. Yeah.

Our man, watchman, did it right in front of the castle because he knows what a nerd I am, and I said yes. So I am now officially engaged. It's very exciting. It's a lot. There's a lot of emotion. And basically, we aren't doing a lot until after this trial, but I just wanted to confirm it. You probably saw it on social media, and I wanted to tell you guys where I was because I...

I hate that true crime is so scary and so crazy that I can't do something like say, hey guys, I'm going to be off for a week. I'm going to Disneyland because I have these trolls and somebody could show up and harm me or Watchman or the children we were with. So it's really scary and really serious. And I appreciate you guys giving me the flexibility to be more vague. But yeah,

But yeah, we did go to Disneyland. It was a great time. The kids had a great time. And again, it's exactly what I needed. So thank you again for giving me some grace with having time off.

I also want to say that if you guys are a member of the Patreon family, it has been requested that Watchman do an interview with me. So that will be coming hopefully sooner rather than later. We're going to sit down. We're going to answer some of your questions and just talk about the engagement. I thought it would be a fun little add-on for Patreon. If you guys aren't a member...

Here's my shameless plug. It is only five dollars a month and I donate all the proceeds of Patreon at this point. It's basically just for me to help these cases. So if you are looking for extra content like, you know, things about my engagement or the extra bonus episodes slash mini-sodes I do there each month, it's a great way to show.

to support the show and also support these cases. So again, you can find that over at Patreon. So yeah, I just wanted to plug that because I feel like I don't do that enough and it really does help me help these cases. But as always, thank you for tolerating me. I love you and I'll talk to you next time.