In late summer 1981 two-year-old Mark Steven Martin, known as Markie, disappeared with his mother Carolyn after leaving the Madison Heights/Hazel Park, Michigan, area on August 31. The family was traveling in a black 1978 Pontiac Grand Prix, Michigan plate SSC512, reportedly bound for San Antonio, Texas, where the father said a job awaited him. Concern grew when Carolyn and Mark did not arrive or make contact with relatives.

Several months later the father returned to Michigan alone. He told Madison Heights police he had left Carolyn and the toddler beside a freeway somewhere near Toledo, Ohio, but did not give a precise location. No confirmed sightings, contacts, shelter stays, or evidence identifying their whereabouts have been made public. The Pontiac was sold in 1982 and later titled in Minnesota; investigators have not publicly linked any recovered evidence to Carolyn or Mark.

DNA from Carolyn’s relatives has been entered in national databases in hopes of a future match. Does anyone have information about the family’s trip, the Pontiac with plate SSC512, or sightings near Toledo in late 1981?