Elleda Wilson: Still searching
May 19—Hopefully, things are heating up on the disappearance of Marty Benthin-Evans who, on Feb. 10, 1990, after leaving a wedding reception in Knappa, drove off in a 1984 brown Ford truck. The truck vanished that day, as well.
Her sister, Linda Benthin-Wierup (pictured), and the family, have been looking for her ever since. One possible explanation was that she might have gone off the road into Brownsmead Slough.
In 2020, Adventures With Purpose, "a search and recovery dive team dedicated to helping families of missing loved ones," arrived on the scene in Brownsmead and talked with Linda. Viewers and family friends had alerted the volunteer group about Marty's disappearance by sending them a link to a KOIN 6 story.
Unfortunately, their search in the slough (which has 2.1 million views on YouTube) was inconclusive. "Visibility is terrible," the diver said, "you can only see about 3 inches." The crew was frustrated, but "we've not given up, and we're going to continue this."
And here we are, two years later. Last week, Adventures With Purpose came to Oregon again, and found the car and remains of 77-year-old former Cornelius mayor Ralph Brown, who disappeared a year ago.
They came to see Linda, too, and plan to return to find Marty. Fingers crossed.
