- 20 hours ago
- #runawaytrain25
- #missingkids
- #soulasylum
How a song about depression became a music video that brought hope to so many families.
#runawaytrain25 #missingkids #soulasylum
Runaway Train 25: https://www.runawaytrain25.com/
Australian & Germany Version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHEDrLI-gP0&list=WL&index=97
UK Version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9B6tpyDCtFs
#runawaytrain25 #missingkids #soulasylum
Runaway Train 25: https://www.runawaytrain25.com/
Australian & Germany Version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHEDrLI-gP0&list=WL&index=97
UK Version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9B6tpyDCtFs
Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
00:00Hello and welcome to the Dark Mystery Lounge.
00:03We're going to take a look at another method to help aid in finding missing children, music videos.
00:09Specifically, the Runaway Train music video by the alternative band Soul Asylum.
00:14I've always wondered what happened to these kids featured in the video.
00:18Were they found? And if so, how many of them?
00:21Let's take a look and find out.
00:23For anyone who remembers MTV and VH1 back in the 80s, and especially in the 90s,
00:33there were no shortage of rock, grunge, and alternative bands dominating the airwaves.
00:38Soul Asylum is an alternative rock band from Minnesota.
00:41The song Runaway Train was the third single from the album Gravedancers Union.
00:46Lead singer and songwriter Dave Perner wrote the song after a nervous breakdown
00:51and went into a deep depression when he thought he was losing his hearing.
00:55It took four years and a lot of rough drafts of the song, but once Dave finished the rough draft,
01:00he knew he had something.
01:02All he needed now was a music video to go with it.
01:05Video director Tony Kaye thought Runaway Train was going to be a huge hit regardless of what he filmed,
01:11but he always tried to create music videos that have a social relevance to them.
01:16On the way home from his office in Los Angeles, he saw a poster by the side of the road of a milk carton with a missing kid's face on it.
01:24He thought, that's it.
01:25Tony pitched the idea to Dave Perner that he wanted to make a music video featuring the faces of runaway or missing children.
01:32Dave and the rest of the band agreed.
01:35Columbia Records was a little reluctant, but agreed as well.
01:38The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children sent them faces of kids they wanted in the video.
01:44The video for the United States version began with a fade to black screen with big white block text reading,
01:51there are over one million youth lost in the streets of America.
01:55While the UK version begins with, 100,000 youth are lost in the streets of Britain.
02:01The next scene shows a drawing of an adolescent girl and a Dave Perner voiceover saying that the drawing is by a girl who had run away more than 110 times since the age of four,
02:13that she had been abused by her father and her father blamed her for the abuse.
02:17The scene was often omitted when the video was shown, a common practice when videos had additional footage before or after a song.
02:26After Dave spoke, the video continued with various shots of the band playing the song and Perner singing.
02:33During the verses, three concrete scenes are shown interspersed among the other images of the video.
02:39During the first verse, a child is shown witnessing his grandfather beating and eventually killing his grandmother before fleeing in fear.
02:48During the second verse, a young teenager is pimped as a prostitute and initially purchased by the aforementioned abuser.
02:55Later, she is dragged into a van by a gang. Afterwards, she is picked up by paramedics and taken to the hospital after getting beaten up.
03:03During the coda of the song, a small baby is snatched from his stroller by an older woman, with his mother running after the kidnapper's car.
03:11During the choruses, pictures of missing children would appear on screen.
03:16After each picture was shown, their full name would appear in large capital letters on the screen, along with the year they had been missing since.
03:24After the video, in the ending also not regularly shown, Perner says in front of the camera,
03:30If you've seen one of these kids, or you are one of them, please call this number, with the following screen showing a number one could contact.
03:38MTV cut this part out because they did not want to have the video confused with being a public service announcement.
03:45After a number of children were found, the video would be re-edited and the kids that were found were replaced with new faces.
03:52In all, there were three versions for the U.S.
03:55There was a U.K. version that was shown on VH1 in its full length, two versions in Australia, and at least one version in Germany.
04:04The song reached number five on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and climbed to the top position in the Canadian RPM Top Single Chart, earning a gold sales certification from the Recording Industry Association of America and selling 600,000 copies in the U.S.
04:21The song helped bring Gravedancers Union to a multi-platinum level and won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Song in 1994.
04:36Even though the record company was very supportive, after the video was first shown on MTV in June 1993, they called Tony Kaye saying,
04:45No kids have come back, can we replace the faces with shots of the band?
04:50Tony said, No, wait. Not long after that, the first kid came back, then another, then another.
04:57The first kid to come home was 16-year-old Elizabeth Wiles, who was just shy of turning 14 when she ran away with her 18-year-old boyfriend.
05:06They hitchhiked from Lamar, Arkansas to San Diego, California.
05:10One day, she was watching the Runaway Train video on MTV and saw her face on the screen.
05:16She got so scared that she couldn't even look at the rest of the video, but as fear went away, she became homesick.
05:22She missed her family and friends. She even missed going to school, but didn't want to go home in fear that her boyfriend would get in trouble.
05:30She finally phoned her mother saying she wants to come home.
05:33Five weeks later, she flew home to her mother.
05:36She finally got her GED and is now married and living in Nashville, working as a real estate broker and as a licensed contractor.
05:44According to Tony Kaye, out of the 36 missing children that were featured on the video, 26 of them were found.
05:51In 2006, guitarist Dan Murphy stated in an interview with Pasadena Weekly that some of the cases featured in the video had ended in tragedy.
06:01Quote, some weren't the best scenarios.
06:04I met a fireman on the East Coast whose daughter was in the end of the video, and he'd been in a bitter custody battle with his wife over her, Murphy said.
06:12It turned out the girl hadn't run away, but was killed and buried in her backyard by her mother.
06:18Then on tour, another girl told us laughingly, you ruined my life, because she saw herself on the video at her boyfriend's house, and it led her being forced back into a bad home situation.
06:30Unquote.
06:31One case that ended in tragedy was 14-year-old Curtis Hunsinger, who disappeared from his home in Blue Lake, California on May 19, 1990.
06:41At first, police considered him as a runaway, but as the years passed, police began to suspect foul play in his case.
06:4853-year-old Stephen Daniel Hash, a friend of Curtis's family, was charged with voluntary manslaughter in Curtis's case on December 2008.
06:58He attempted to plead guilty, but the judge refused to let him.
07:02Stephen led police to Curtis's body, which was entangled in tree roots, in a shallow grave on the outskirts of Blue Lake.
07:09He was sentenced to 11 years in prison.
07:12Another case that ended in tragedy was 14-year-old Andrea Bowman.
07:17Andrea Bowman was born Alexis Miranda Badger on June 23, 1974, in New Orleans, Louisiana.
07:24She was put up for adoption at five months old.
07:28The Bowman family adopted the little girl at 21 months old and renamed her Andrea.
07:33In late 1988, Andrea raised concerns with staff at her high school when she expressed fearfulness of going home from school.
07:41Staff at the school involved police, who interviewed Andrea, during which she claimed that her adoptive father was molesting her.
07:48The social worker returned Andrea to her family's residence and confronted them about Andrea's allegations.
07:55Dennis and his then-wife both refused the allegations, claiming that Andrea's rebelliousness had been sparked by her family's recent disclosure that she had been adopted as an infant.
08:06Shortly after this incident, the Bowmans relocated to a mobile home in a rural area of Allegan County.
08:13This was the last place Andrea Bowman was seen.
08:16Her family reported her missing.
08:18Dennis Bowman claimed she had stolen money from him before running away.
08:22Following the report of Andrea missing, her family relocated from the property where they had resided.
08:29In the intervening months, Andrea's adoptive mother made several calls to police, in which she stated she had been told of numerous sightings of Andrea, though these could not be substantiated.
08:40Dennis Bowman's criminal record was brought to the attention of police after Andrea's disappearance.
08:46In 1980, Dennis pled guilty to the assault of a woman he delivered into a wooded area in western Michigan.
08:53In 1998, Dennis was arrested for breaking and entering into the home of a co-worker to steal items, including women's lingerie.
09:02Finally, in November 2019, Dennis was arrested for the murder of 25-year-old Kathleen Doyle in Norfolk, Virginia, which occurred on September 11, 1980.
09:13In early February 2020, it was reported that Dennis, incarcerated while pending trial for the murder of Kathleen Doyle, confessed to police that he had murdered his adoptive daughter Andrea.
09:25Several days later, it was announced that the skeletal remains had been recovered from under a thin layer of concrete at the mobile home where Andrea was last seen.
09:35DNA testing confirmed that the remains were in fact Andrea.
09:39He was sentenced to two life sentences for killing Kathleen Doyle.
09:43On December 22, 2021, Dennis pled no contest to second-degree murder in the death of 14-year-old Andrea in Allegan County Circuit Court.
09:54He was sentenced to an additional 35 to 50 years in prison for Andrea's murder.
09:59Unfortunately, out of the 36 kids featured on the Runaway Train video, there are 10 kids that are still missing to this day.
10:08On April 20, 1990, 17-year-old Christopher Kersey from Eagan, Minnesota, stayed home from school indicating that he was sick.
10:27When his parents returned home later that day, their blue 1988 Dodge Caravan was missing.
10:33They found a note from Christopher stating that he would be back by 6 p.m. unless he got lost, which was unusual as the word lost was underlined twice on the note.
10:43The family received a letter from Duluth, Minnesota on April 21, 1990, saying that Christopher had lied about being sick in order to gain usage of the van and go to not even I know where.
10:56The note further stated that he intended to end his life and apologized for this to his loved ones.
11:02Christopher had his father's 20-gauge shotgun with him, although he had not taken any ammunition.
11:08Authorities have speculated that he may have discarded the gun, but they are not certain of that.
11:13The van was located abandoned two days later, on April 22, 1990, near Grand Rapids, Minnesota.
11:20After his disappearance, posters were distributed and extensive searches were made in an attempt to find him.
11:27In 2004, an anonymous letter was received by Eagan Police Department suggesting they should stop trying to find Christopher and he would return home when he is ready.
11:37The police were unable to authenticate who the letter was from.
11:41New, age-progressed photos of Christopher were created and missing persons posters were distributed with those photos.
11:48Christopher's case remains unsolved and many agencies classified him as a runaway.
11:53His parents still live in the house where they lived in 1990 and have kept the same phone number.
11:59Police believe it's likely he took his own life and that his body has not been found yet.
12:04Fifteen-year-old Martha Dunn was last seen in Dangerfield, Texas, on September 5, 1990.
12:10She had been visiting relatives in Oklahoma when her parents brought her home to Texas on September 4 to start the school year.
12:18Martha was unhappy and argued with her parents.
12:21The last time they saw her was around 2.20pm.
12:24At approximately 10pm, she spoke on the phone with her boyfriend, 17-year-old Eric Owens.
12:30The next day, both Martha and Eric were gone.
12:33The theory was that Martha and Eric were traveling to Hayworth, Oklahoma where Eric's aunt lived at the time.
12:40There were several reported sightings of the two there.
12:43Another theory was that they were headed to Kansas where Eric's mom lives.
12:47But neither of these theories could be confirmed.
12:50On September 30, Martha's father got a call from a friend in Durant, Oklahoma.
12:55The friend said that he'd seen Martha and Eric together and they were dirty and hungry.
13:00And he'd cleaned them up and gave them food.
13:02When police went to Durant to investigate the report, they could not find them.
13:06Eric and Martha were both heavily involved in drugs at the time they went missing.
13:11It's possible their disappearances were drug related.
13:14However, there is no evidence of foul play and police continue to believe they left on their own accord.
13:20Both cases remain unsolved.
13:22On February 1, 1990, 13-year-old Andrea Durham was last seen at her family's home at Royale Apartments in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.
13:32She shared the home with her mother and older sister.
13:35Her mother and sister left, asking her to vacuum while they were gone.
13:40When Andrea's family returned to their home two hours later, they found it unlocked with no indication of forced entry.
13:47Andrea's purse, clothes, makeup, and all other personal belongings were undisturbed inside.
13:54The vacuum cleaner standing upright in the living room.
13:57Normally, Andrea would put the vacuum away once she was done.
14:01Police initially thought that Andrea simply ran away for a possible non-family abduction because she recently changed schools and moved to a new apartment and she was unhappy about it.
14:12She also got into trouble with the law.
14:14She acted as a lookout for other children while they stole money out of vehicles in a restaurant parking lot.
14:20She was sentenced to community service for her role in the offense and her sister stated she wasn't worried about it.
14:27All the charges against her have now been voided.
14:30Police have investigated the possibility that Andrea's disappearance was connected to Mark Reby and William Alex Wells III, who are suspected of having kidnapped and murdered a woman in Santa Rosa County, Florida in 1989.
14:45So far, they have not found any link between Andrea and the suspects, but the possibility has not been ruled out.
14:52Investigators believe Andrea remained in the area for a short time after she disappeared.
14:58But if she was on the streets, she probably did not survive long.
15:02Many rumors have circulated about her disappearance, but none have been substantiated.
15:07She remains missing and her case is unsolved to this day.
15:1114-year-old Willa May Benoit was last seen at her family's home in Creole, Louisiana on July 23, 1992.
15:21She had just been released from the hospital after a shoulder injury and was under heavy sedation at the time.
15:27She has never been heard from again.
15:29Authorities initially classified her as a runaway, but her family never believed that she left on her own accord.
15:36Willa May may have traveled to Florida after her disappearance.
15:40Her case remains unsolved and few details are available.
15:4417-year-old Byron Page was last seen at a bus stop at Overhill and Slauson Streets in Los Angeles, California on January 29, 1992.
15:56He was planning to visit a music warehouse and video store 20 miles away in West Hollywood, California.
16:03He was a regular patron of the store.
16:06Byron never arrived home and has not been seen again.
16:09Employees at the store did not recall him entering the business that day.
16:14Byron wasn't having any problems prior to his disappearance.
16:17In fact, he was very happy with his life and looking forward to getting his driver's license.
16:22He was an excellent student with a perfect attendance record and he had been accepted at several schools within the University of California system.
16:31Foul play is suspected in his disappearance, which remains unsolved.
16:3616-year-old Kimberly Doss was living in Houston, Texas at the time of her disappearance.
16:41On September 27, 1982, she was seen at a Greyhound bus station in Davenport, Iowa.
16:48She'd taken the bus from Houston to Davenport to visit her father, but she never arrived at her father's house.
16:54Her family never heard from her again.
16:56Thursday's Child, a charitable organization that helps assist homeless or at-risk teenagers, claimed they made contact with Kimberly in 1984, two years after her disappearance.
17:08They stated that Kimberly was working as a prostitute on Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California under a pimp named James Wiseman.
17:17She had straight, bleach blonde hair and was using the name Kimberly Gardner.
17:22The woman Thursday's child worker saw was approximately four inches taller than Kimberly was reported to be.
17:29However, and Kimberly's mother did not believe the Hollywood woman was her daughter.
17:35So no investigative action was taken at the time.
17:38Several years passed before investigators decided Kimberly Gardner and Kimberly Doss were probably the same person.
17:46By that time, Gardner was no longer in Hollywood.
17:49She has never been seen since and has not been definitively identified as Kimberly Doss.
17:5515-year-old Dwayne Fotchman disappeared from downtown Lincoln City, Oregon, on July 22, 1986.
18:04Authorities believe he left of his own accord.
18:07Few details are available in his case.
18:0917-year-old John Langeau was last seen leaving his family's home in Pottsville, Pennsylvania.
18:16At approximately midnight on January 1, 1988, he got into an argument with his girlfriend about where they were going to celebrate the new year and they parted ways.
18:27Later, while John was drinking with his friends at his home, there was an altercation and the police were called.
18:33John said, screw this, I'm out of here.
18:36He got into a car with other people, possibly to go to a bush party or to go to the store.
18:42He never returned home and has not been heard from since.
18:46John was a senior at Pottsville Area High School in 1988.
18:50He was well-liked by his classmates and close to his family.
18:54He got average grades in school and enjoyed breakdancing.
18:57Although one acquaintance said he had become introverted and sullen in the year prior to his disappearance.
19:04His loved ones do not think he would have run away from home.
19:08He left behind his cherished Adidas sneakers and since his disappearance, his social security number has not been used.
19:16His case remains unsolved.
19:18He is missing under unclear circumstances.
19:21Eleven-year-old Patrick Betts disappeared from his hometown of Upland, California on January 20th, 1988.
19:30He told his mother that he was going with a friend to a basketball game at Upland High School.
19:36There was a basketball game that evening, but it was being played in Chino, California, not in Upland.
19:43Patrick and his friend went to the Pizza Chalet on Foothill Boulevard and Euclid Avenue in Upland at 9pm.
19:52They had visited the establishment earlier that day as well.
19:56He and his friend played video games there and then Patrick left to walk home.
20:00A witness saw him leave with an unidentified adolescent male.
20:04Patrick's parents waited up all night for him to come home, but he never arrived.
20:09They reported him missing early the next morning.
20:13Police initially thought Patrick had run away from home due to a court case.
20:18He'd gotten into an altercation with another child at Sierra Vista Elementary School
20:23and was required to go to juvenile court about it.
20:26However, his parents never believed this would have caused him to run,
20:30particularly without his favorite blanket, which he always slept with.
20:35Shortly after Patrick's disappearance, the owners of the Pizza Chalet closed the restaurant and left town.
20:41There were rumors that they had returned to their country of origin.
20:45There is no evidence that they had any knowledge of what happened to Patrick.
20:49His case remains unsolved.
20:51The one picture everyone remembers from all three U.S. versions of the runaway train video was the baby at the end.
20:59Two-year-old Thomas Gibson was last seen playing in the front yard of his family's home in rural Azalea, Oregon,
21:07at approximately 11.30 a.m. on March 18, 1991.
21:13He hasn't been seen since.
21:15Thomas' father, Larry Gibson, then a Douglas County deputy sheriff,
21:19told authorities he took a jog around the family's property in Azalea during the late morning hours of his son's disappearance.
21:27Larry carried a handgun with him to shoot stray cats, many of which had been living on the property.
21:33Larry claimed he shot at a cat near the area where Thomas was playing, but missed the animal.
21:39He then continued on his jog and learned his son was missing after returning to the house approximately 45 minutes later.
21:47The family summoned law enforcement later in the day to search the property.
21:52Larry was told not to report to work at the sheriff's office, but apparently dressed in his uniform and left the property for approximately 25 minutes during the investigation.
22:03He stated that his four-year-old daughter witnessed an unidentified couple pull up to the driveway and abduct Thomas.
22:10Larry said he was checking a local rest area for signs of Thomas and the couple.
22:16While members of the community searched for Thomas, Larry sat at home.
22:20At one point, he told the searchers to give up and go home because it was snowing.
22:25Authorities believed that Larry shot at a stray cat and killed the animal as a deceased cat was located on the Gibsons' property near Thomas' last known location.
22:36Investigators believed that the bullet traveled through the cat and struck Thomas as he played, killing him.
22:42They theorized that Larry noticed Thomas' body after returning from his jog and buried the child in an effort to conceal the crime.
22:51Larry denied this scenario and maintained his innocence throughout the investigation.
22:56He resigned from the sheriff's office and moved back to his native state of Montana after his son's disappearance.
23:03He and his wife separated in 1994 and she took their three other children and moved back to Oregon.
23:10Larry's estranged wife and his daughter later changed their story to authorities and said that his daughter witnessed her father hitting Thomas.
23:18Larry then put the child's body in a black plastic garbage bag, put the bag in the back of his patrol car, and drove away.
23:26He was charged with murder in Thomas' case in 1994.
23:31Prosecutors argued that Larry had a history of abusing his children and was under stress at the time of Thomas' disappearance as he had to care for the children while his wife was taking college classes.
23:43They theorized that if he did not accidentally shoot his son, Larry lost his temper and beat the child to death.
23:50Larry was ultimately convicted of second-degree manslaughter in 1995, although he continues to deny any involvement.
23:58He was released from prison in 1996 and has since published a website appealing for information on the whereabouts of his son.
24:07Thomas has never been located.
24:09His case remains classified as a non-family abduction.
24:13Unfortunately, the kids in the UK version, the majority of them are still missing.
24:29Two of the kids featured, Vicki Hamilton and Dina McNichol, who each went missing in 1991.
24:36Their remains were found in 2007 at a house in Margate.
24:40Serial killer and convicted sex offender Peter Tobin was convicted for both murders.
24:47The version shown in Australia showed a number of young backpacking tourists whose families were looking for them.
24:59Many of those shown in the Australian version were confirmed victims of serial killer Ivan Milet, who was arrested in 1994, not long after the Australian video was released.
25:11Ivan Milet was sentenced to seven consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.
25:16All of the victims were killed by Ivan after picking them up while they were hitchhiking.
25:22They were found in makeshift graves covered with branches and leaves at Belango State Forest between September of 1992 and November of 1993.
25:33Some victims were stabbed multiple times, another was shot in the face ten times, and another one was decapitated.
25:39The victims were Victorian couple 19-year-old Deborah Everest and James Gibson, German traveler Simone Schmidl, age 21, German couple Gabor Neugebauer, age 21, and Anja Habschied, age 20, British backpackers Caroline Clark, age 21, and Joanne Walters, age 22.
26:03No one really knows why Ivan murdered those backpackers, and he has never confessed to the courts.
26:09Ivan passed away on October 27, 2019, from esophageal cancer at the age of 74.
26:17In May of 2019, almost 25 years after Soul Asylum's Runaway Train video aired, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, NCMEC, collaborated with Jamie N. Commons, Skylar Gray, and Gallant to make a pop remix of Runaway Train, called Runaway Train 25.
26:44The video starts off with, each year, there are over 400,000 reports of missing children in the U.S.
26:52Using geolocation technology, the video will show you missing children in your area from the NCMEC database and updates itself regularly.
27:03You can also search for missing children in your area based on your zip code.
27:08The music video was such a hit that it received a nomination for Best Music Video with a social message at the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards and is considered the milk carton of the 21st century.
27:22According to the NCMEC, 61% of recovered children reported to NCMEC are found in the state in which they were missing.
27:32If you would like to see the video and the missing children in your area, go to RunawayTrain25.com or click on the link in the description below.
27:43After watching the video, share the video on social media with the hashtag RunawayTrain25 and hashtag MissingKids.
27:52If you recognize any of the kids featured in the video, please call 1-800-THE-LOST or 1-800-843-5678.
28:02Remember, it only takes one person to find a missing kid.
28:09To be honest, some of the faces from the original video still haunt me to this day.
28:14By the way, if I didn't talk about a specific person in the video, it was because I couldn't find any information on them.
28:21Which I assume means that they were found alive.
28:24As for the 10 children that are still missing, the odds of finding them alive are usually pretty slim.
28:30But hopefully those cases will be resolved so those families can finally have some closure.
28:35The German version of that video, I couldn't find any information on any of them.
28:40I will link the video down below.
28:42If anyone happens to know what happened to them, let me know and I can make an update video.
28:47I've always been curious as to what happened to them. Hopefully they were found.
28:51I still listen to Runaway Train and it is a really good song, but it's not my favorite.
28:56I like the song, Somebody to Shove. It's just really catchy.
29:00If you found this video interesting, please smash that like button.
29:04And if you really like what I do, subscribe, will ya?
29:07And when you do, don't forget to tickle that little bell icon so that you don't miss the next episode.
29:12You never know who I will cover next.
29:14Thank you for hanging out with me in the Dark Mystery Lounge.
29:17This is Phoenix signing out. Have a good evening and stay safe.
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