

Vanished In A Heartbeat
Episode 16
A young boy plays a harmless prank on his family and vanishes forever. Five siblings are engulfed in a Christmas Eve house fire that leaves no bodies and conflicting clues. And one family’s son disappears, only to turn up several months later with a different name, a different face, and different DNA.
What do these three true crime tales from the Gothic South have in common? There is a single heartbreaking thread running through each: children who were there one second and then gone forever the next.
In this episode:
- The baffling 1969 disappearance of Dennis Martin who never returned while playing a joke on his father in Tennessee’s Great Smoky Mountains National Park
- The Christmas Eve house fire and vanishing of the five Sodder Family Children in rural West Virginia
- The possible kidnapping of Bobby Dunbar in Louisiana’s Saint Landry Parish and his contested return as an entirely different boy
Listener discretion advised for graphic true crime content.
Music courtesy of Geoff Harvey, Pixabay.
Suggested Episodes
A Death So Unhinged
This collection of true tales from the Gothic South has a single thread running through each: bizarre death scenes that, even decades later, left investigators scratching their heads with more questions than answers.
The Killer Next Door
A true tale from the Gothic South that asks one very important question: what would drive a man kill the girl of his dreams?
Deadly Dames I
Six true tales from the Gothic South with a single thread running through: woman who said “Til death do us part” and truly meant it.

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Haunts & Hollows: True Tales Of The Gothic South
Haunts & Hollows: True Tales Of The Gothic South is where true crime meets Southern folklore. Every other week, mystery author Liam Ashe digs past the haunted plantations, urban legends, and moss-draped cemeteries to uncover the real, often much darker history behind them. Lower the lights, lock the doors, and settle in. Tonight, the truth may just be stranger than the legend.
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