Part 3:
Marc James Warren Allen was a 13-year-old boy living in Des Moines who vanished on March 29, 1986, just one day before Easter. According to accounts from that morning, he told his mother he was going for a short walk to a friend’s house nearby — a route he knew well and had taken before. It was supposed to be a quick trip. He never made it to his destination, and from that point forward, no confirmed sightings of him were ever reported.
In the early years after his disappearance, some media reports mistakenly suggested he had been delivering newspapers, likely because of similarities to other missing children’s cases in the area. Later information indicated that detail may not have been accurate. Investigators have never publicly confirmed evidence pointing to what happened, and no physical clues or verified leads have been released that explain how or why he vanished.
The case remains open today. Records from the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation still list him among the state’s long-term missing persons, a sign that authorities have never closed the investigation. Despite the passage of decades, there have been no widely reported breakthroughs or announcements suggesting a resolution.
Marc’s disappearance is often discussed alongside two other well-known Iowa cases from the same era: Johnny Gosch, who disappeared in 1982 while on his paper route in West Des Moines, and Eugene Martin, who vanished under somewhat similar circumstances in 1984. The three cases share eerie similarities — young boys, early hours, familiar neighborhoods — yet law enforcement has never confirmed any direct connection among them.
Today, Marc Allen’s case stands as one of Iowa’s enduring mysteries: a brief walk on an ordinary day that somehow turned into a disappearance with no answers, no witnesses, and no clear explanation.
