Ash Kelley

Yeah.

Right.

they got back to the Sheridan later that morning back in Texas they discovered Mark's bed was empty it didn't look like it had been slept in and there was nothing in the room to indicate that he returned exhausted though from their night of partying and searching they went to bed hoping that when they woke back up he would be back

remember this is the 80s like we're not all super well informed in how to respond to a situation like this and honestly I think what you were just saying as men they just weren't thinking they're not thinking like yeah because they're not conditioned to think like this and again remember like back then it's not like they were listening to true crime podcasts or watching documentaries on the dateline and seeing this kind of shit happening all the time exactly this was not something that anybody was thinking about no you know

But here's the thing.

When they woke up several hours later, Mark still wasn't back.

And they decided that under the circumstances, it didn't seem wise just to keep waiting for him to show back up.

So that afternoon, March 15th, they all together went to the South Padre Island Police Department and they filed a missing persons report, including every relevant detail that they could remember from the night before.

Now, during spring break, the usually quiet South Padre community had learned to brace itself for an increase in everything that comes with the increase in the number of visitors, from hotel bookings to also reports of criminal activity.

So Mark wasn't necessarily the first person to be reported missing during spring break.

He wasn't even the first person actually reported missing that week.

That's wild.

Yeah.

Spring break scares the shit out of me.

I never was allowed to go on spring break.

I never was either.

And I will not allow my children to go on spring break.

And I know that there's like all these things that you say before you have kids that you're not.

You're like, I'm not going to do this and I'm not going to do that.

That's one I know I will be standing 10 toes down on.