Seven-year-old Billy Earl Martin disappeared from the yard of his family home on North Colfax Street in Brazil, Indiana, on the afternoon of August 10, 1957. He had been playing there with his four-year-old brother while a lodger, Harry A. Tex Higgins, sat nearby. Around 3:30 p.m. Billy’s brother went inside crying after an argument; when their mother checked, both Billy and Higgins were gone. Higgins returned to the house around 6:00 p.m. without the boy and later said he last saw Billy about 4:00 p.m. on Depot Street, where he nearly hit him with his car and told him to go home.

Billy was last seen wearing an orange and brown striped t-shirt, blue jeans, and brown sandals. A large search involving hundreds of volunteers, the Indiana Air National Guard, and the Civil Air Patrol searched fields, woods, ponds and nearby strip mine pits but found no trace. Investigators questioned family members and Higgins; polygraph exams reportedly suggested to authorities that Higgins and Billy’s parents might know more than they’d said. Higgins was held for two weeks and released without charge. Billy’s disappearance spawned local theories, including that he might have wandered off and joined a carnival that left town the same day.

The case remains open and unresolved. Did anyone in Brazil, Indiana, in August 1957 see a young boy matching Billy’s description or know what happened that afternoon?