The views and opinions expressed in Cold and Missing are exclusively those of the hosts. All parties mentioned are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Cold and Missing also contains adult themes and languages. Listener discretion is advised. I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin-Sulkowski. And I'm your co-host, Eli Sulkowski. And this is Cold and Missing, where we cover cold cases and missing person cases. Hello everyone and welcome back to Cold and Missing.
I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin-Sulkowski. And I'll just be coming to you solo today. I do want to apologize kind of at the top. I know this episode is coming out later in the day than we normally do. I had a horrible migraine for the past couple days, so I tried to record and it just wasn't sounding right. Again, part of respecting these stories is I want to make sure I'm always giving my best.
So we are feeling better now, so I'm able to record and just get this episode out a little bit later in the day than I normally would. So today we are covering a missing person case. And I just wanted to give a bit of a content warning at the top that this case does involve a child. There are mentions of sexual abuse and child abuse. So today we are covering the missing person case of Marlon Santos. And this takes place in November of 1998 in Worcester, Massachusetts.
But first a little bit about Marlon. Marlon Devine Santos is only five months old in November of 1998. He was born June 5th of that year and he would be 25 years old today. Marlon's parents had a whirlwind romance while they were both seeking treatment for their addiction. The romance didn't last and by the time Marlon's mother, Dina Santos, gave birth, the couple had separated. Shortly after Marlon's birth, Dina began seeking help for her addiction and seeking out space in a shelter.
It's unclear when DSS, or the Department of Social Services, stepped in, but by August Marlon was placed in the home of Yolanda and Jose Castillo as a foster child. Yolanda and Jose had hosted around 50 foster children and when Marlon joined them they had two other foster kids, a three-year-old and a 24-month-year-old. And then they had three of their own children who were 11, 12, and 17. So now a timeline of events.
On Thursday, November 5th, 1998. Early in the afternoon, Yolanda needs to leave the house to go pick up her two middle schoolers. The babies were asleep, according to Yolanda, so she decides to leave them in the home alone while she makes the trip to get her kids. The trip took about 45 minutes. Jose was out of town, having gone to New York for a few days. Yolanda left the house unlocked while she was out and when she returned, between 1.30 and 2 p.m., she finds that Marlon is gone.
Neighbors said that normally Jose watched the children as he had a more flexible work schedule, and they also say that on that day they see Yolanda outside searching the bushes. Instead of calling the police right away, Yolanda waits until Saturday night, November 7th, over 48 hours after Marlon went missing. She drove to the Bronx, New York that day to pick up Jose and then they go to the police station that night.
Yolanda told police that she waited so long because she didn't want to go to the police without her husband and was worried about her own children getting taken away. Dina, Marlon's mother, is heartbroken and pleading on local news. She says, quote, how DSS can have these people as foster parents, telling me I can't take care of my son, but they give them to these people that can't do nothing either. They're telling me that I can't take care of my son, but they don't know where he is, end quote.
On Sunday, November 9th, 1998, the Castillos, who are Pentecostal preachers, still hold service Sunday morning and neighbors say that parishioners are dropped off at the Castillo home that day as well. On Monday, November 10th, Worcester police captain Paul Campbell has three theories on what happened to Marlon. Either he was kidnapped, he was sold, or there was a tragic accident and Marlon is dead. He says, quote, those are your only three options that I can see, end quote.
Police execute search warrants on the Castillo home and their two vehicles they have in their possession, a brown Dodge caravan and a large passenger van that belonged to the church. Captain Paul Campbell says, quote, we've had sniffing dogs at the house. We have not had any indication that there is a deceased individual in the residence or on the property, end quote. Police lieutenant John McLaren says that Yolanda and Jose have stopped cooperating with the police and have lawyered up.
DSS says they are assisting the police in their search for Marlon. DSS spokesperson Lorraine Carley says, quote, we have no idea what happened here. I think at this point there are definitely more questions than there are answers, end quote. The other two foster children that were staying with the Castillos are removed from the home and placed elsewhere. Police say that the Castillos never knocked on their door when looking for Marlon.
As word got out of Marlon's disappearance, Marlon's father rushed to help the police. William Kehanek tells the media that DSS never tried to find him when they took custody away from Dina. He says that, quote, of course I would have taken the baby, end quote. On Wednesday, November 11th, Marlon has been missing for six days at this point. Police say that they are focusing on the Castillos.
There have been reports of abuse and neglect filed against them, but all have been unfounded, according to DSS. The DSS spokesperson Lorraine Carley says, quote, if you look back at the history of this foster home, we don't see any smoking gun. We don't know what happened here, end quote. Police are treating the case as an abduction or homicide at this point.
The detective on the case says, quote, we're investigating a possible homicide because of the inconsistencies in the details provided by the foster parents, end quote. While Dina was initially ruled out as a suspect, police become suspicious of her as she stops cooperating with police and retains a lawyer. The public is in outrage over the missing baby. Representative Mari J. Parenti says, quote, how did we do this? How did we lose a baby? We need to recruit foster homes under less stress.
If the parents had no way to pick up her own children after school, they had a problem, end quote. On Thursday, November 12th, Marlon has been missing for a week and police are hopeful that he is still alive. Detective John McLernan says, quote, at this point in the investigation, we believe that the baby has been abducted as opposed to being murdered. We're encouraged by that, end quote.
The New York City police are also assisting in the case since Jose had been there the day that Marlon went missing. Jose's lawyer says that as soon as he got to New York City, he left for Wisconsin and was not actually in the city that long. The Castellos still hold church services three times a week. Jose says, quote, I'm not going to stop preaching for anything. I'm a pastor, end quote.
However, at the Thursday night service, Jose leaves shortly before the service starts and his brother, Manuel, steps in. He tells the congregation that Jose had important business to attend to. As attention on the case grows, the public outrage is loud. The public want to know why a seemingly devoted foster mother would leave three very young children home in an unlocked house. And why did she wait over 48 hours to report him missing to the police?
The public also want to know why Dina, who had been so public in begging for her son's safety and return, would suddenly stop cooperating and retain a lawyer. On Friday, November 13th, just over one week Marlon has been missing, Jose breaks his silence and declares himself innocent. He says, quote, once everything clears up in this case, people will know the things they have said about me are not true. In due time, God will put everything into place, end quote.
The public critique of the DSS system is also very loud at this time. It has come to light that Jose had federal trafficking drug charges that the DSS was not aware of. The DSS counters that the current law only allows for them to run a criminal background check in the state of Massachusetts. And since the drug trafficking charges were in Florida, they would have had no way of knowing about it. On Sunday, November 15th, Marlon has been missing for 10 days.
And after saying he would never stop preaching, Jose doesn't show up to church and his brother has no idea where he is. As the investigation continues, and it's been almost two weeks since Marlon has disappeared, the police start acting with more caution in regards to letting information out about this case.
The local media obtained search warrants that the police had conducted the week before and find that the police had collected, as evidence, a sample from a youth-sized mattress, a pillow, a pillowcase, a white cotton blanket, and they take swabs from the front porch to determine if it's blood. The results for this analysis are never made public. On December 2nd, 1998, it's been almost a month that Marlon has been missing, but police still feel confident that he is alive.
Police are handling it as a disappearance case at this point, but are hesitant to call it an abduction. Police captain Paul Campbell cryptically says, quote, depends on how you would use the word abducted, end quote. Police do believe that the baby was either sold or given away in New York City and are still working with the NYPD for help in the case. Jose maintains that he was not truly in New York City, but left for Wisconsin as soon as he got there.
On Wednesday, December 16th, it's been almost six weeks that Marlon has been missing, and the Castellos' biological children are removed from their home following an abuse and neglect report. However, they are returned to the home two days later, and only the 17-year-old remains in foster care. On Monday, December 28th, Marlon has been missing for almost two months. Jose Castillo is charged with child rape and molestation.
While looking for Marlon, police speak to former foster children of the Castellos and uncover these allegations. After these allegations surface, DSS try to find all of the other children that had stayed in their home to see if there are any more charges that should be filed. And then the case goes quiet for a little bit. It's not until Tuesday, October 26th, 1999, almost a year since his disappearance, that his case surfaces in the media again.
The next update in Marlon's case comes nearly a year later, on Tuesday, October 26th, 1999. Police received a credible tip that Marlon was buried near the Huachacet Reservoir, and police take the next week to search the reservoir and the surrounding area. According to the police, they were acting on a tip that Marlon had been suffocated and buried in plastic in this area. While police are searching, they find pieces of clothing, plastic, a diaper, and a baby blanket.
These items are sent for analysis to try to link back to baby Marlon. Police spend days searching this area and even bring in ground-penetrating radar to search a specific plot of land, but all that's found are those items that I just mentioned.
On December 2nd, 1999, so it's been over a month since the police conducted their very large search, and over a year that Marlon has been missing, the analysis of the items found during the search failed to find any organic matter that could be tested for DNA. So ultimately, they can't link any of the items found during their search to Marlon. We do know that sometime in the year 2000, a grand jury is held in Marlon's case, but no one is indicted.
The next update in Marlon's case comes nearly seven years later, so this is April 15th, 2005, and Marlon has been missing for around seven years. Jose had reached a plea deal and pleads guilty to assaulting a foster child and he is sentenced to six months in jail. But other than that, there have been no updates in this case. So if you know anything about the disappearance of Marlon Santos or his whereabouts today, please call the Worcester Police at 508-799-8466.
And the sources for the timeline today come from The Telegram and Gazette, The Daily Item, The Boston Globe, Portland Press Herald, The Day, Aethol Daily News, The Recorder, News Press, and The Sun Journal. So that is the case of Marlon Santos. And my first reaction as I started researching this case was really anger, for lack of a better word. I just couldn't wrap my head around leaving a three-year-old, a child that's only 24 months and then five months old, alone in an unlocked house.
I mean, just leaving them alone is crazy, but you know, that three-year-old was also old enough to probably open a door and get outside if they wanted to. So this could have been a very tragic case no matter what. But the fact that the youngest, Marlon, went missing is just wildly irresponsible to me, wildly irresponsible that they were left alone for 45 minutes. And you know, I was trying to find some compassion. Maybe they didn't have a car that could accommodate all of the children.
So maybe that's why Yolanda had to make this decision to leave the babies alone. But in my research, it says that they had, you know, a Dodge Care van, which is a minivan. So there would have been enough seats for, you know, three car seats and then two other children to sit. Like there would have been that space. And they also had a passenger van at their disposal that the church that they ran technically owned. So that would have had more than enough seats.
So I just, I don't understand how you reached that conclusion of leaving these babies alone by themselves in an unlocked house. And then furthermore, I don't understand why it took over 48 hours for the police to become aware that Marlon was missing. You know, we've all heard that the first 48 hours are the most important in solving a homicide.
And I think the same can also be said for a missing person, that the sooner you can get on the trail and the sooner you can start tracking the child, the less time they have to get away from, you know, kind of the epicenter of where it happened. So the fact that Yolanda waited over 48 hours, but then she also left Massachusetts to drive to the Bronx, New York to pick up Jose and then come back, according to police that was around a 10 hour trip.
So she makes this 10 hour trip while a baby is missing that's in her care that, you know, that's her charge, and then goes to police. I just find it all wildly irresponsible. And it really makes me angry that they made those decisions. Because ultimately, it seems like they were just really selfish decisions. Like she didn't want to be hassled with waking the babies, getting them in a car seat.
And then, you know, she didn't want to go to the police without her husband and for her children to be taken away. I don't understand why she was never, you know, charged with, you know, neglect or child abuse because I would say that leaving three babies alone is neglect in my book. I don't know exactly what the laws in Massachusetts said at that time. But it's just crazy to me that no legal repercussions were really brought against Yolanda and Jose.
We know eventually Jose is arrested for child rape and molestation allegations and he does plead guilty to assault of a foster child. But nothing really happens to Yolanda except that they take away the foster kids that were in her care. And we do know that they briefly take away her biological children and only the 17-year-old remains in foster care.
So there's just, I have a lot of questions there and obviously we don't get to the details and I want to be like conscious of protecting the children in this case. So I just don't, I don't know how somebody does this. I really don't. It's just wild. It's wild to me. It's wild. It's very interesting to me that in the beginning, you know, those first few months after Marlon is missing, the police really do seem sure that he's alive still, which is really encouraging.
They believe that he was either given away or sold. That's kind of what I picked up through all the reporting and through the quotes from the police. So if that were the case, by all accounts, Marlon would still be alive today. He would be 25 years old and he would have possibly grown up in the New York City area. We do know that the Worcester police work with the NYPD because they do believe that something happened while Jose was in New York.
And if that's the case, then Marlon was missing long before November 5th because we know that Jose goes to the Bronx on October 31st. So that would have meant that Marlon was missing for nearly a week by the time that he was reported to police as being missing. Now it does seem like it shifts a little bit, you know, the next year when Worcester police start conducting these searches near the reservoir.
And at that time, they believe that Marlon had been suffocated and buried in plastic, which is a lot different than being sold or given away in New York City. I am curious if the police still think that the items found at the reservoir during that search are related to the case at all. We know that they are unable at that time to find organic matter to test for DNA, so they couldn't conclusively link it back to Marlon at that time.
But I wonder if today if those items are still in their possession, if that is something that they maybe could retest with testing being more sensitive. I wonder if there's any hope in retesting that evidence to see if any of that was connected to Marlon. But police seem to think that it was a very credible tip, and it really shifted the way they talked about Marlon's disappearance.
The police captain Paul Campbell did say that there was a small glimmer of hope that Marlon was still alive, but it seems that they really thought that he was buried somewhere near there. And you know, they bring out all of the big guns, so to speak, in this search. They have the ground penetrating radar, they have sniffer dogs, they had over 75 officers out there searching, so it was a very extensive search, but they still didn't recover Marlon at all.
So I do wonder if that is a reality, if that is really what happened to him, or if he was sold or given away. But with that, I would just wonder how Yolanda and Jose, you know, if they did sell Marlon or give him away, I just wonder how they thought they were going to get away with it.
They obviously had, they had around 50 foster children before Marlon, so they knew that, you know, there's caseworkers that will come and see them and visit the home, and DSS would come and check the home from time to time. And in November, in the first few weeks of November, there was actually going to be a hearing about if Dina should regain custody of Marlon.
So it was going to come to light one way or the other that Marlon was not there, not that any baby should just be given away, but Marlon was certainly not theirs to be doing that with. So just lots of questions in this case, and it's ultimately just extremely tragic all the way around. You know, Jose ended up not being a good foster father. He was taking advantage of the children placed in his care.
And if it's any indication of the treatment of the children, how they just left these three babies, I don't think it would be hard to venture that children were probably left alone a lot then if she felt comfortable enough to leave three babies alone for 45 minutes. I would, I don't think it's unreasonable to think that that was not her first time doing that.
My future hopes in this case, you know, I just, I deeply hope that Marlon was given to a family that really wanted a baby and he was well taken care of and raised as one of their own. I think that's the best case scenario, short of his mother and father getting custody of him. But you know, the alternative is that he was killed in either purposefully or some accident and then it was all covered up.
So truly, I hope that if he couldn't be with his parents who both really wanted him and were, you know, working on overcoming their addiction and wanting to get him back, I hope that he was raised in a very loving home where they adored him. And you know, with, you know, the DNA tests that you can do at home now, you know, the 23andMe, the Ancestry.com, like all of that stuff.
I wouldn't be surprised if later down the line, if Marlon does do a test with his family and he realizes that maybe he's not related to the people that he thought. I mean, that would be very tragic and I imagine like soul crushing to Marlon. But I think that could be an outcome in this case to find out where he is and what happened to him is if he does a DNA test at home that leads him to uncover the truth about who he really is.
And again, I don't want to like put that lightly because that would be devastating to find out, you know, in your 20s or 30s that the people you called family your whole life weren't actually your family and that you had been sold or given away when your mother and father really wanted you. That would be difficult and I don't want to understate that. But I think that could be a way that this case closes as well.
But again, if you know anything about the disappearance of Marlon Santos or his whereabouts today, please call the Worcester police at 508-799-8466. And again, I just want to remind all our listeners that if you're not following us on Instagram, I always post updates if an episode is going to be late or come out on a different day. Today I had it up in our stories that the episode was coming out later on Thursday. So please follow us there.
We'll also be posting the baby pictures that I was able to find of Marlon. So we'll have those up as well. You can also head over to our website www.coldandmissing.com where we have transcripts of all our podcast episodes. So if you or someone you love is hard of hearing, you can follow along with the podcast there. And if you could just give us a minute, rate and review us if you're an Apple podcast, leaving us a written review helps others find this podcast.
So if you are passionate about cold cases and missing people, an easy way to advocate is just to leave a review of this podcast that helps others find it and helps beat that algorithm machine that we all know about. So if you could take a second to do that before you go to your next podcast, I would so greatly appreciate it. But that is truly all I have for you this week. Thank you for listening to Cold and Missing. I'm Allie McLaughlin-Sylkowski. Have a great week and stay safe, y'all!