Mark Dennis case question

[justins5256]

Mark Dennis was an army medic who was supposedly killed in Vietnam in the late sixties but his parents thought he was still being held as a POW. This belief was based largely on the fact that Mark's family located a photograph of a soldier whom they believed was Mark (photo was taken after his alleged "death"). Mark's father also had a conversation with an anonymous man at a bar who claimed that he met Mark in a POW camp. Here is what throws me: I was watching the original broadcast of this episode. I seem to recall seeing a Lifetime version mentioning that the information the man at the bar gave to Mark's parents turned out to be fraudulent (the actor in the re-enactment kind of looked like John Lithgow). There was no mention of this in my copy of the NBC broadcast. Was this information added later as an "update", or am I thinking of another case? I'm guessing the latter; as there have been quite a few UM stories about POWs/MIAs and the details are usually similar.

[DarkDante]

Yeah it was part of an update they did after the fact. It was his brother Jerry Dennis who met the guy in the bar who gave the Dennis family fictional information about Mark.

My question is how did he know that Mark was very religious so that he told them that the individual he knew was called "preacher"...he must have been either

1) very lucky
2) picked up on a part of the conversation
3) Jerry Dennis is just a victim of his own delusions and simply misremembered the statement.

Actually i think that whole segment (and I got it on tape) really was the "creation" of Jerry Dennis. I'm certain Mark Dennis was killed in Vietnam the way the army said he was and Jerry Dennis over the years unable to accept his brother's death has created a sort of "alternate fiction" to describe how the events took place involving POWs and will use any kind of flimsy clue or false hope to bolster his claim.

I'm surprised that UM even took this case, he made a grand fool out of himself in this segment even to the point of saying that he didn't believe his brother was dead after UM hired an independant medical examiner to examine the remains of Mark Dennis and that examiner determined the remains were in fact Mark's.

The whole Mark Dennis segment is just propaganda by one man unwilling to accept his brother is dead.

[justins5256]

Thank you.

[marlins3]

Wasn't there an update on thsi case where the bones were exhumed. Mark Dennis' doctor examined the bones and found the sternum structure and spinal column to be identical to Mark Dennis. Please correct me if I'm wrong (there is no update on the volume 17 of Crystaldawn's compilations.

[Cori aka ChrisSCrush]

If they exhumed bones, did they keep any material which could be subjected to DNA testing?

[justins5256]

wasn't there anu update on thsi case where the bones were exhumed. Mark Dennis' doctor examined the bones and found the sternum structure and spinal column to be identical to Mark dennis. Please correct me if I'm wrong (there is no update on the volume 17 of Crystaldawn's compilations.

I don't remember off hand. I have the Lifetime version of this recorded on video tape somewhere. I'll check it out and report back.

[kamy]

So anyone know of an update to this story? Was DNA ever tested to conclusively prove that the remains were Mark Dennis? The story told how several factors were tested, but not once did I hear that DNA was tested. Why not do this immediately to rule out or prove it is Mark Dennis? Good story, very intriguing.

Kamy