152 - The Disappearance of Bryan Hayes and Mark Degner

Twelve year old Mark Degner and his best friend, thirteen year old Bryan Hayes had told several friends they planned to run away. On a cool, Thursday afternoon, they wandered out of their Special Education classrooms and walked off campus, seemingly vanishing.

From the first moment there should have been tremendous concern, the boys suffered from several different issues, both psychological and physical, and required support, attention and their necessary medications. Yet, almost nothing was done. It would take nearly six hours before the first missing person's report was filed, because neither family had been told they'd left school.

A desperate search was launched with family, friends and investigators trying to find the boys but there were few leads. Several sightings were reported, though none could be confirmed. As time began passing, years fell away and soon they were no longer looking for boys, but grown men.

Then, in early 2017, Police and the FBI raided the home of a Jacksonville Beach man, charging him with the 1994 murder of sixteen year old Fred Paul Laster. Investigators began to wonder, had Mark and Bryan chosen to runaway on their own or was it possible that a monster living in the area might have lured them into his trap?

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Music Courtesy of: "Lost Time" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/