Mark Steven Scott

• Missing Since 04/20/1972
• Missing From Houston, Texas
• Classification Non-Family Abduction
• Sex Male
• Race White
• Date of Birth 07/26/1954 (69)
• Age 17 years old
• Height and Weight 5'11 - 6'0, 160 - 175 pounds
• Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian male. Brown hair, blue eyes.

Details of Disappearance

Mark was last seen in Houston, Texas on April 20, 1972. He left home to spend time with local neighborhood friends and never returned.

After his disappearance, his family got a postcard sent from Austin, Texas, which said Mark was doing well, had a job that paid $3 an hour, and would come home when he had made enough money to pay a lawyer who had helped free him on a previous charge of carrying a weapon. Mark never did return home, however, and never contacted his family again.

Elmer Wayne Henley Jr. and David Owen Brooks, the teenage accomplices of serial killer Dean Arnold Corll, subsequently admitted to luring Mark to Corll's home in the 900 block of Schuler Street. The next morning, he was strangled to death. Henley stated his body was buried at High Island Beach along with those of seven victims of Corll.

Corll, nicknamed the "Candy Man," was responsible for the sexual assault and murder of at least 28 teenage boys and young men in Houston, Texas between 1970 and 1973. He paid Henley and Brooks $200 per person, each, to lure neighborhood boys to his home to be tortured and killed. Photos of all three are posted with this case summary. The victims would often be forced to write letters to their families prior to their deaths, claiming they had run away from home.

In August 1973, Henley shot Corll to death, then called the police and confessed to helping him kidnap and murder his victims. He and Brooks led authorities to three burial sites: seventeen bodies were found at a rented boat shed, four were buried in the woods near Lake Sam Rayburn, and six were found at High Island Beach. In 1983, the body of a seventh victim was found buried very close to the beach.

Authorities initially believed Mark's remains were in the boat shed. A comparison test using DNA from Mark's mother, performed in 1993, indicated a high probability that one of the bodies was of a person related to her. However, this body had dark brown hair and two extracted molars, while Mark had lighter hair and no missing teeth. Henley insisted the body had been misidentified. He was right: in 2011, a more accurate DNA test showed the remains were those of another victim, Steven Kent Sickman.

It's theorized that Corll may have had more victims than has been proven. One boy, Norman Prater, a sixteen-year-old who has been missing since 1973, has been suggested as a possible victim, but this remains a matter of speculation.

Henley and Brooks were convicted for their roles in Corll's crimes. Henley was sentenced to six consecutive terms of 99 years in prison and remains incarcerated. Brooks was convicted of one count of murder and sentenced to life in prison. He died in 2020, at the age of 65.

Ever since Hurricane Ike struck the area in 2008, the section of High Island Beach where Corll's known victims were buried has been submerged below sea level. Mark's remains have never been found, but he is presumed deceased.