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]

Originally Posted by marlins3

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

[WishfulDreamer]

This is a really old thread, but apparently DNA proved that the remains really did belong to Mark. A sad case all around

[RobinW]

I had never seen this case before and just watched it for the very first time. My initial impression was that this was one of the most blatantly obvious examples of a family just refusing to accept their loved one's death. The version I saw had an update at the end of the segment where the military got in touch with UM and pretty much debunked all the family's evidence that Mark could have survived the helicopter crash. A forensic analyst compared Mark's X-rays with X-rays for the burned remains which were returned to his family and determined they were a match. Case closed, right?

However, I then did a search on this case and it looks like DNA testing was finally performed on the remains in 2014 and proved that they did NOT belong to Mark Dennis!
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/s...ains/27349359/

So I'm not sure what to believe now. But I think it's more likely that this whole thing might have just been some sloppy mix-up by the military rather than a deliberate cover-up. Amusingly enough, even though his name wasn't mentioned during the UM segment, Mark Dennis happens to be the name of the mysterious caller from the Don Kemp case. So maybe Mark survived Vietnam and moved into a trailer in Wyoming...

[Todd Mueller]

Originally Posted by RobinW

I had never seen this case before and just watched it for the very first time. My initial impression was that this was one of the most blatantly obvious examples of a family just refusing to accept their loved one's death. The version I saw had an update at the end of the segment where the military got in touch with UM and pretty much debunked all the family's evidence that Mark could have survived the helicopter crash. A forensic analyst compared Mark's X-rays with X-rays for the burned remains which were returned to his family and determined they were a match. Case closed, right?

However, I then did a search on this case and it looks like DNA testing was finally performed on the remains in 2014 and proved that they did NOT belong to Mark Dennis!
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/s...ains/27349359/

So I'm not sure what to believe now. But I think it's more likely that this whole thing might have just been some sloppy mix-up by the military rather than a deliberate cover-up. Amusingly enough, even though his name wasn't mentioned during the UM segment, Mark Dennis happens to be the name of the mysterious caller from the Don Kemp case. So maybe Mark survived Vietnam and moved into a trailer in Wyoming...

This is insane. From the family appearing to be grasping at straws, to the "witness" John King (who turned out to be a fraud), to the DNA proving the remains are not Mark... Wowza.

So the family was right all along. The only question is whether this was just a mix-up or whether it was a cover-up. And the question still remains: what the hell really happened to Mark Dennis?

[RobinW]

Originally Posted by Todd Mueller

This is insane. From the family appearing to be grasping at straws, to the "witness" John King (who turned out to be a fraud), to the DNA proving the remains are not Mark... Wowza.

So the family was right all along. The only question is whether this was just a mix-up or whether it was a cover-up. And the question still remains: what the hell really happened to Mark Dennis?

Very glad this episode is available for viewing again on Amazon Prime, as it's one of the more obscure segments and it's quite unexpectedly become an unsolved mystery again in recent years.

Here's another article about the case from 2015. It looks like the Navy formally apologized to the Dennis family for making a mistake:
http://www.9news.com/news/local/viet...ains/132390811

[hostedbyrobertstack]

I had never seen this case and as I was watching today, I was shocked to see he was from Miamisburg, OH, which is the city next to mine. Had never heard of this case prior, very odd. I can tell you, the reenactment where his house is definitely is not in Ohio...I wish it looked like suburban Los Angeles, with that sunshine and blue skies!

[WishfulDreamer]

Originally Posted by RobinW

I had never seen this case before and just watched it for the very first time. My initial impression was that this was one of the most blatantly obvious examples of a family just refusing to accept their loved one's death. The version I saw had an update at the end of the segment where the military got in touch with UM and pretty much debunked all the family's evidence that Mark could have survived the helicopter crash. A forensic analyst compared Mark's X-rays with X-rays for the burned remains which were returned to his family and determined they were a match. Case closed, right?

However, I then did a search on this case and it looks like DNA testing was finally performed on the remains in 2014 and proved that they did NOT belong to Mark Dennis!
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/s...ains/27349359/

So I'm not sure what to believe now. But I think it's more likely that this whole thing might have just been some sloppy mix-up by the military rather than a deliberate cover-up. Amusingly enough, even though his name wasn't mentioned during the UM segment, Mark Dennis happens to be the name of the mysterious caller from the Don Kemp case. So maybe Mark survived Vietnam and moved into a trailer in Wyoming...

Whoa, I had no idea about this! Glad they finally apologized to the family, but too bad it will likely never be solved.

[MegtheEgg86]

Whoa.

Count me in as someone who thinks this was likely an ID error rather than a deliberate coverup. Under the circumstances, it was unfortunately probably pretty likely to occur. It amazes me that the armed forces is as good as it actually is at recovery and identification during combat, considering thousands of service men and women correctly ID'd and returned home over the past century alone.

[asmitty]

Originally Posted by MegtheEgg86

Whoa.

Count me in as someone who thinks this was likely an ID error rather than a deliberate coverup. Under the circumstances, it was unfortunately probably pretty likely to occur. It amazes me that the armed forces is as good as it actually is at recovery and identification during combat, considering thousands of service men and women correctly ID'd and returned home over the past century alone.

Agreed. I think the only thing that the military could be accused of here is making a mistake and being stubborn about investigating a challenge to the official decision. There was just no stake I can see in trying to cover-up Mark's death. Also, you had a set of unidentified remains in a helicopter full of the rest of the men in his unit, so it was an easy mistake to make.

I was very interested to find out yesterday that the DNA test proved it wasn't him. I had always thought this was a case of the family wanting something that just wasn't true. The one piece of evidence I feel lends the most credence (and always has) to the family is the testimony from the other medic who told Mark's friend Steve the story that he didn't think Mark was on the chopper in the first place.

I have a strong feeling Mark still perished in Vietnam during the war. I think the family's hope that he survived into the 80s and might still come home was overly optimistic.