People who just disappeared

She was blackmailing tricks at 14?!

Charlene was very street smart. According to police they knew of at least 100 men she had contact with, some of them convicted rapists and pedos who were invited into their home by Charlene's parents.

The Springfield Three

I'm guessing she was murdered by one of her tricks. There's a seedy side of society that most people (thankfully) never see, which exists in every city.

Op I love reading about missing persons, what other cases fascinate you?

How about this one which has been posted on DL before, Michael Negrete?

He disappeared from the Dykstra Hall dormitory at UCLA in 1999. One theory is that he was killed during or after a gay hookup.

I grew up 50 miles from Springfield and I remember when that happened. My personal opinion is that it was a crime of opportunity. Someone followed the girls home and abducted the three of them at gunpoint.

"She was blackmailing tricks at 14?!"

Now THAT'S a child I could have worked with!

Former child actor Jo Pichler.

He played James Van Der Beek's younger brother in VARSITY BLUES and was the lead in one of my favorite childhood Halloween movies, WHEN GOOD GHOULS GO BAD (co-starring Christopher Lloyd), which I recently rewatched on YouTube after many years. Later, I looked him up and was shocked to discover that he went missing under mysterious circumstances at age 18, three years after he had retired from acting.

[quote]Pichler was last seen on January 5, 2006.[1][2] According to the Charley Project, the friends who last saw him stated he was in good spirits while he was with them.[3]

[quote]His car, a silver 2005 Toyota Corolla, was found on January 9, 2006, at the intersection of Wheaton Way and Sheridan Road. He was reported as officially missing by his family on January 16.

[quote]According to his family's statements to the media at the time, the last outgoing call on Pichler's cell phone was placed at 4:08 a.m., on January 5, to a friend who had said that he had been visiting with Pichler earlier in the day.[3]

[quote]According to the Associated Press, Pichler's family stated that a note found within the car expressed a wish to be a "stronger brother" and asked that personal effects of Pichler's be given to a younger brother, but the family did not characterize this finding as a suicide note.[4][5] Robbie Davis, the lead detective on the case, told the Associated Press that "There's a good indication that it might have been a suicide, but we don't know that," adding that there was no reason to suspect foul play.[4] His body has never been found.

I've always been creeped out by the strange man a witness saw wandering the halls of Michael's dorm in the wee hours. I like vintage cases like the disappearance of Jean Spangler. I believe Kirk Douglas was involved.

I agree r5, there had to have been a gun involved. How else would 3 women be controlled and led out of the home so quietly? He probably took them somewhere and who knows what sick shit he might of done. However, I would argue that it may have been an acquaintance of the mother, which is why the killer was allowed entry into the home so late at night.

It reminds me of Lauria Bible and Ashley Freeman. The parents of Ashley Freeman were both shot in their home and then set on fire in 1999. Both girls, who were having a sleepover at the Freeman house, were missing.

Nobody knew what happened to the girls for years, it was even featured on Unsolved Mysteries.

Eventually, in 2018, a man was arrested for their murders. The girls had been held captive for days in a trailer while three men raped and tortured them. Two of the men had died in the years following. The girls' bodies have never been found.

Springfield has a very seedy underbelly. Lots of meth and sex trafficking.

Brandon Swanson was on the phone with his parents when he suddenly yelled "Oh, shit!" and the call was cut off. No trace of Brandon or his phone have ever been found.

Isn't that most cities r10?

The Brandon Swanson case is really weird.

Literally every man I've ever had sex with.

Ylenia Carrisi was the Italian Vanna White.

She disappeared in New Orleans while staying at a rundown flophouse with a musician she'd met. Later a security guard claimed to see a woman fitting her description jumping into the Mississippi River, but not a trace of her has been found.

Richey Edwards from the band Manic Street Preachers.

Another strange case is Andrew Gosden. 14-year-old boy takes the train to London, confirmed that he went there by CCTV but then completely disappears. He was a nerdy type, not popular. No-one knows why he went to London, it's a mystery.

[quote] The Springfield Three

And Jodi Huisentruit.

Brian Shaffer-Ohio medical student who disappeared in 2006.

Samuel Todd vanished on New Year's Day 1984. He was walking in the vicinity of Mulberry Street and Houston Street in Manhattan when he suddenly jogged ahead of his friends, turned the corner, and was never seen again.

Sometimes I scroll through these profiles.

Every story is tragic in its own unique way.

For example: "Remarks: Shanna is mentally challenged and is described as having the maturity level of a 13-year-old girl. She takes prescription medications for a severe bi-polar disorder."

Patricia Spencer and Pamela Hobley two teenagers who went missing on Halloween 1969 in Michigan.

Have they looked for Charlene in Nice or the Isle of Greece?

Ronald Tammen, aged 19, disappeared from his dorm room in 1953, leaving behind his car and his wallet, and open books on his desk. On the surface, he looked like a pretty perfect, clean-cut college student, but his grades were slipping and there are plenty of signs that his disappearance was fishy. He had requested a blood-typing test at a local coroner’s office a few months before his disappearance, which was highly unusual.

Theories, in the case include the idea that he was involved in mind-control experiments and/or was recruited into the CIA,

The FBI destroyed his fingerprint file in 2002, which is significant as they are only allowed to destroy a file 7 years after a subject is proven to have died. So was Mr Tammen alive until 1995, and what was he doing all of those years?

Maybe he killed himself. It sounds like he was unhappy.

DB Cooper (my favorite unsolved criminal case of all time)

Shelly Miscavige. The wife of Scientology bigwig David Miscavige.

Richard Colvin Cox is the only cadet to ever disappear from West Point. According to his roommate Richard had been meeting up with an old friend named George. Richard said that George made him uncomfortable with his stories of war time atrocities. He was last seen heading to meet the mysterious George for dinner.

I too am fascinated by these stories. This one really bothers me for some reason. Branson was apparently drugged and raped by his male neighbor shortly before he vanished, and he told his father about it (his dad says he knew Branson was gay, and was furious that his son had been assaulted). They apparently never identified this neighbor as a suspect. The circumstances in which he went missing are extremely random. Even weirder, Branson’s cousin Bobbie Jo Stinett, was murdered several years later while pregnant by a woman trying to steal her unborn child. Missouri seems like one weird fucking place.

Lord Lucan

Skidmore,Mo is also where town bully Ken McElroy was gunned down in broad daylight. The whole town was there but no one has confessed to this day.

R32 Not a disappearance - his body and cause of death was found. I love that story though - he was clearly such a cunt that everyone was going to make sure nobody would find the culprit. It's very satisfying!

I know it's not a disappearance but it happened in the same weird town that Branson Perry disappeared from.

Paige Renkoski. Missing since May 1990.

A strange one. I think the car went into the water by accident though.

I've been recently reading about the Moors murderers and it seems like it could be quite easy for someone to take a body somewhere remote and bury it. They still have not found Keith Bennett's body, after all, even though both killers ostensibly were trying to help to find it.

I don't think we'll ever know what happened to Charlene unless someone confesses.

[quote] jumping into the Mississippi River, but not a trace of her has been found.

Well, Old Man River just keeps rolling along, so maybe the Gulf of Mexico would be a good place to start.

The Springfield Three is my #1 missing persons case. It's so sad, creepy and eerie.

Sean Flynn

R29, Richard Colvin Cox was just my type. Apart from that, I have no useful information to impart.

[quote]Skidmore,Mo is also where town bully Ken McElroy was gunned down in broad daylight. The whole town was there but no one has confessed to this day.

[quote][R32] Not a disappearance - his body and cause of death was found. I love that story though - he was clearly such a cunt that everyone was going to make sure nobody would find the culprit. It's very satisfying!

Incidentally, I am reminded of this exchange from THE GOLDEN GIRLS.

SOPHIA: I thought I heard you in here. What are you doing home?

ROSE: She's afraid to have the surgery, because she has a phobia about hospitals.

DOROTHY: And do you know why I have that phobia? Because when I was five years old, I was left alone in the hospital on the day I was having my tonsils taken out.

SOPHIA: I was in Cleveland at your Uncle Mario's funeral.

DOROTHY: Yeah, but Pop wasn't.

SOPHIA: Of course not. He hated your Uncle Mario. Everyone hated your Uncle Mario. That's how he died. Twenty-three stab wounds during a block party and nobody saw a thing.

😂

There was speculation that Richard Colvin Cox was gay, I think at least one guy told the FBI that he'd had sex with Richard

A creepy, slightly vintage disappearance of three young women from a Fort Worth mall.

Johnny Gosch’s disappearance is one of the most famous missing persons cases. I highly recommend the 2014 documentary Who Took Johnny if you’re interested in his story.

My aunt's next-door neighbor - Mari Ann Fowler

^ was wearing diamond rings, diamond earrings, a diamond-encrusted watch, a diamond necklace" That's just asking for it!

A former student of mine (Timmy) went missing in 2013. I taught him c. 2004 when he was around 9. He was indigenous and had been adopted by an older white couple. He was troubled and had a lot of behaviour issues (It was a multi-needs class with about 10 students). He’s never been found.

R32 you seem kind of … retarded

R47 Yep just asking for it, like those fem gay boys who get murdered, right?

Johnny Gosch’s story is insane. His mother swears that he visited her as an adult. I always wondered if the parents killed him, not sex trafficking.

This is not a well known case but I find it extremely unsettling.

Brian Shaffer is another baffling case. He disappeared after re-entering a bar, just before closing time.

R36 that case is interesting, though admittedly all evidence points to their car crashing into the river. I am from Portland and my grandfather grew up in Hood River, so I am familiar with the area. Wintertime in the Columbia Gorge can be brutal, and the river is unforgiving and exceptionally strong. I guess the real question is how the car ended up in the water in the first place, be it through accident or some sort of evil act committed by someone else. It is a creepy story no less.

This disappearance has always creeped me out. Something about the lightbulbs being unscrewed in the apartment hallway makes it especially sinister, even if it was not related.

Claudia Lawrence, a 35-year-old chef who worked at the University of York. She has not been seen or heard from since March 2009. Over the years, several people have been arrested in connection with her disappearance, but no one else has ever been charged. The police believe she was murdered but say there is a "wall of silence" protecting whoever killed her. IRRC, a close friend of Claudia's ended up in a relationship with one of the men who'd been arrested in connection with the case.

r30 "while pregnant by a woman"

Highly unlikely

Jesus Christ, that Johnny Gosch story is freaky, what with his mother claiming he visited her as an adult and then disappeared again.

Watching clips from The Omen + reading this thread just before bed = poor decision-making on my part

I was at UCLA when Negrete disappeared. Wow, you wouldn't have believed the stories that were told about his disappearance. These are the main points, IMO. He left his dorm without his keys or ID wearing flip flops. He was drinking a wine cooler before he went out. There was substantial construction going on at UCLA, particularly Royce Hall which was very near his dorm. The theory I believe is that he realized he didn't bring his keys and tried to get back into the dorm through another location. While he was near Royce Hall, the combination of his wearing flip flops (his family said when he disappeared that he never went barefoot) and his slightly inebriated state caused him to fall into the construction site, killing him. They had cadaver sniffing dogs work the area but found nothing. The popular theory is that his body is somewhere in the foundation of the Hall.

R58 how does one just "fall in" to construction? Please elaborate.

R59, he was in flip flops, he was slightly drunk and he was trying to get into his dorm from the back, which is where Royce Hall was being extensively renovated.

^ There's a similar theory about the Brian Shaffer case - Oops! He fell into a construction site!

Is there a documented case of this happening to any missing person?

I am not sure about construction sites, but there was a case of a young man who got stuck behind a freezer in the grocery store where he worked and nobody found his body for TEN fucking years.

Well, I'm still here! 😽

Okay, but was it like a pit of construction he fell into? Or do you think he just fell backwards onto some rubble and was never found? What sort of construction site are we talking.

It was definitely a pit of construction that is alleged. There was extensive renovations being done on the campus at the time of his disappearance. Royce Hall was being retrofitted as it was seriously damaged in the Northridge Earthquake. As for anything concrete (sorry) anything is simply speculation. They even had sniffing dogs who allegedly tracked his scent to a bus stop on Sunset, but that was later rejected.

Jennifer Kesse in Orlando in the mid-2000s. She lived in a new condo and I think was only one of two people in her building. They were building new units next to her building and the crew was mostly illegals. Jennifer had previously complained to her parents and boyfriend about being catcalled and harassed by the crew. She was abducted one morning as she was approaching her car to go to work. They actually had CCTV footage of a suspect abandoning her car a day or two later, but the camera only took shots every three seconds, and in each shot a fence post concealed his face. Maddening.

R44, I'm also baffled by the Fort Worth 3, as well as the Springfield 3. It's always haunting when a group of people go missing at the same time.

Creepy

Hey, what am I? Chopped Chicken Liver?

Anonymous in Kansas City.

Just for anyone who needs to hear it. (Apologies if someone already made this point)

A 14 year old child doesn't have "tricks", certainly not 100 of them.

A 14 year old child was raped by over 100 men

The Johnny Gosch case is insane. There used to be a few videos on YouTube with a tie in to the Franklin Bank Scandal. Does anyone remember that?

I went on YouTube and the videos are there! Here is the Franklin bank scandal. It’s got everything !

I posted the link above. The Franklin scandal has everything. Kidnapped chicken, satanists, politicians, a teen call boy ring, a black religious figure named Larry King who steals and pimps, check it out.

I read r73 in Stefon's voice.

Kyron Horman. Before the case blew up, I read about it on DL. That kid is smiling in every photo posted. His birth mom and dad seem to hate each other so much that they have problems putting up a unified front on talk shows. Like most, I suspect the step mother but I'm also aware we will never find him.

[quote] Watching clips from The Omen

Why the fuck would anyone “watch clips from The Omen?”

Lars Mittank: a 28 year-old German with a decent job and strong ties to his parents goes on holiday to Bulgaria with a group of friends. While there. he gets into a quarrel with another group of German tourists, and leaves the bar alone. He turns up in the early hours saying he has been attacked. He sees a doctor who tells him he is unfit to travel home, due to an ear injury. Lars insists that his friends go home as planned, while he waits until he is allowed to fly again.

After his friends leave, his behaviour grows erratic, and he calls home saying he is being followed/watched. After a few days he checks out of his hotel and heads to the airport where he meets a doctor to be cleared for his flight. However, during that meeting, he flees the room and the airport, leaving his luggage, wallet and phone behind, and is caught on camera sprinting away into nearby woods, never to be seen again.

I find this story so unsettling. Perhaps he fled in some sort of psychosis, but how is it possible that a foreigner just disappeared completely, despite extensive investigation? Surely someone would have notice him as a foreigner, even if he was living on the streets?

It’s also creepy to think how vulnerable we are when we leave our social settings. I often go on holiday alone, and his story does make me think what on earth would happen if I became mentally ill or was injured…

Great timing R77, I was just getting ready to ask if we had any interesting cases post 2010.

This man is still 'missing' but it's credibly thought that he got drunk and went to sleep in an industrial waste bin which was then collected and emptied. Based on phone records and a bin weighing significantly more than average.

R77 I had just gone to get the link and I come back here and you posted it, you horrible bitch!

So I’m posting mine anyway and pretending you didn’t.

Bonus points — Lars is a hotty.

Charlene Downes wiki entry doesn't mention anything about her parents trafficking her. Curios.

And then there's this:

[QUOTE]The prosecution alleged that the men had discussed disposing of her body by putting it in kebabs sold from the fast food outlet.[6][23]

🤮

Aeryn Gillern, an American (and Mr Gay Austria 2006) whi worked for the UN.disappeared in Vienna on the evening of Monday, October 29, 2007.

His mother received a call on Halloween 2007 that Aeryn was missing. It was believed by Austrian police that he was last seen running naked from the Kaiserbründl sauna in Weihburggasse after an assumed physical altercation where one person allegedly went to the hospital although his last confirmed location was a sauna on Stephansplatz after work. Police have asserted that he may have been suicidal and jumped to his death in the Danube, a hypothesis Gillern's acquaintances do not believe; others, including his mother, argue that the investigation into his disappearance was hampered by police bias against Gillern's sexuality.. The Austrian police changed their statement multiple times, as well as denying the presence of any witnesses, despite a phone call they had received from a couple only a day after Gillern was declared missing. The Austrian police initially refused to investigate the case, saying it was not its duty to investigate the disappearance of non-citizens, and refused to interview Aeryn's mother or any of Aeryn's friends after the investigation was finally launched under pressure from the United Nations and the Austrian Foreign Ministry.

^curious at r81

r77 Wow that was disturbing

This site has much more information about the disappearance of Charlene Downes. Her parents are absolute scum.

R76 - because I haven't seen it in ages and wanted to rewatch the most memorable bits on YouTube, but I couldn't be bothered rewatching the whole film.

[quote]The flamboyant architecture of the building next door may be because it used to be a sex club

What a moronic thing to write.

Fran Hunnicunt

I wonder if Johnny Gosch's mother fabricated the story about him reappearing as an adult in an attempt to revive the police's interest in the case. If a loved one of mine had been missing for all those years, I know I'd be tempted to do something like that out of desperation.

The Carla Rebecca thing reminds me of the movie I just watched “Stir Of Echoes”.

I hate that pic op posted. Cringe.

R89, that's what I have always believed

[quote]Kyron Horman. Before the case blew up, I read about it on DL. That kid is smiling in every photo posted. His birth mom and dad seem to hate each other so much that they have problems putting up a unified front on talk shows. Like most, I suspect the step mother but I'm also aware we will never find him.

I don't even like children but that boy looked so sweet, I couldn't imagine how someone could hurt him. I still hope there will be some karmic justice for that witch of a stepmother someday.

R87 How is it moronic? You don't often see buildings like that in the UK so it makes a lot of sense why it's like that. It's also blackly amusing and sets the scene for that sordid story.

To add to my post about Claudia Lawrence @R55: someone left a photo of Claudia at a Yorkshire beauty spot last year, alongside a note saying "God bless her, she is in the water". It was probably just a local "psychic" (i.e. nutter), though, given that the police don't seem to have unearthed anything as a result.

Claudia apparently had a number of relationships with married men. The general consensus in York is that she was killed by one (or maybe more) of them to silence her. There's a fucked-up rumour that her remains were fed to farm animals.

If you want to fall down an internet rabbit hole, research The Springfield Three. You get sucked right in. It's been more than 30 years now and there are still more questions and no answers.

I don’t see any flamboyant architecture.

Lenny Dirickson was a dairy farmer who disappeared from his farm in 1998. As he was having breakfast with his teenage son, there was a knock on the door.

Lenny answered and spoke briefly to an unidentified man. He told his son that he was going with the man to show him one of his stud horses and never returned.

A waitress claimed to have seen Lenny having breakfast two hours later, with a person who fit the description of the man. Police say Lenny never went to the barn that day where he kept his stud horse.

I think Lenny may have been in the closet and ran off with his lover but who knows.

[quote]I don’t see any flamboyant architecture.

Maybe you're American but in the UK you rarely see plastered two storey buildings with large balconies especially on a residential street like that - it's clearly trying for a tropical climate, exotic feel.

Good theory. That kind of stuff does happen still r60. I remember a few years ago they found a guy in the wall of mall where I live. I guess he had fallen in

“The Burgundy Knickers”

Amelia Earhart

Kyron Horman, mentioned above. Usually, I don't get Mary over little kids, but him wearing glasses got to me. Made him seem more vulnerable and sweeter. How you can kill a little boy in glasses, I don't know. I do think the step-mother is responsible.

The bio mom is weird, IMO. She supposedly got sick and couldn't take care of Kyron when he was alive.

R103, you do remember that when she was pregnant with Kyron, she found out that Kaine was having an affair with Terri. Their marriage was over and the only thing she felt she had was her unborn son.

R104, not trying to be mean, but what's the point of that? If Kyron's bio mom felt the only thing she had was Kyron, she could have spent more time with him. Seems like the dad abrogated his responsibilities to his new wife, Kyron's step-mom, who was resentful.

Does anyone remember the DL threads about Haleigh Cummings? She was a 5 year old little girl in Florida who was staying with her father's 17 year old girlfriend, Misty Croslin, while he was working a night shift. Croslin claimed she woke up during the night and found Haleigh's bed empty and the back door to the trailer propped open with a cinder block. Croslin's story kept changing, and she later claimed her brother and cousin took Haleigh. Everyone involved in this story was charged and sent up the river for drug trafficking prescription drugs. But Haleigh has never been found and no one has ever been charged in connection with her disappearance.

Anyhow, I remember the DL threads about the case were wild. Nancy Grace sunk her fangs into this and provided lots of camp comedy. She would have on the Croslins' grandmother, Flora Hollars (see video at the link), who was all too happy to sell out her grandchildren. Then, there was the time redneck Misty showed up to court in cornrows. And on top of it all, you had the hot rough trade dad, who made mama's mussy wet. It was all something to behold.

R106, yes! I remember that. Nancy Grace had a soft spot for Ronald, the father.

Ronald got released from jail after serving ~12 years for the drug charges.

Teen step-mom Misty Croslin got a 25 year sentence (drug charges), which she's still serving.

Florida must have some weird drug laws to keep Misty in prison that long for a drugs charge.

But, yeah, I do think Misty was involved in the girl's disappearance.

"Haleigh," "Misty" and Florida were all we needed to hear to think WHITE TRASH.

Oh, damn, Ronald got arrested AGAIN right after he got out of prison. Even worse, he lost his trailer trash redneck good looks.

[quote]The 39-year-old was arrested again on Christmas Day on charges of battery on a law enforcement officer, trafficking oxycodone, possession of a controlled substance without a prescription, resisting an officer with violence, obstructing police by depriving means of communication and possession of marijuana and drug equipment possession, according to the Putnam County Sheriff's Office.

R105, she had kidney failure and was having treatment in Canada. Towards, the end, they were sharing custody.

What's cringe about the photo of Charlene? It was taken a few years before her disappearance and it's the photo the media used. She looks like a cute innocent kid in her school uniform.The public is more likely to care about a vulnerable missing child than a teen sex worker. I'm not saying it's right but that's how it is.

R111 she wasn't a sex worker, she was under age and couldn't consent

Lars Mittank - a tourist has some kind of odd mental break. He sprints out of an airport on cctv and is never seen again.

Whatever r112 we get it

Some of you need to read through the thread before posting because some people have already been posted.

This one scares the fuck out of me

I never understood why this case didn’t generate more interest-he was attractive, an aspiring actor living in LA; , seemingly well off, and foul play is suspected.

Sebastian Husted of Centerville, Iowa. Disappeared a few years ago and never brought up again. Rumor is he just skipped town.

This one is beyond puzzling to me

R117, he was cute. Family?

R91 is helping police with their inquiries.

R117 I think he may have committed suicide, he was served with an eviction notice that day. Or else there's more to the story. I'm thinking maybe he wasn't into drugs and shady stuff that caught up to him.

Steven Koecher was last seen on security cameras in Henderson,NV. He parked his car at the end of a cul-de-sac and was never seen again. Nobody knows why he was in the Las Vegas area. Steven had been experiencing financial difficulties and made several mysterious trips through Utah and Nevada.

Apparently Steven Koecher was running drugs and he fucked up.

R30 I remember being creeped out by his story. Where did you hear there was an earlier rape by a neighbor? So weird.

This happened in Flyoverstan. Omaha to be exact. He was to meet up for a ride by the high school and disappeared.

Aww R126 he was cute

In 2017 a cyclist on a charity bike ride disappeared in Scotland. It was a high profile missing persons case.

3 years later a woman went to the police to tell them where the body was. Her boyfriend had knocked over the cyclist when drunk, and returned to the scene with his twin brother. They buried the body and 3 years later the driver confessed to his girlfriend.

12 years in prison for the driver, 5 years for the brother.

That was a disturbing read, r85. Her parents ran a boarding/halfway house for sex offenders on parole... Did the prisons not know where they were sending their newly released offenders?

R128 12 years?!

R98, the gay one was Lenny's brother, Ronnie ("RD"), who was my bf for a year and a friend for many years after that, until he died last year.

A couple months after we began dating, he started staying at my place but became very secretive when coming and going. I asked him about it but he claimed I was the paranoid one.

Then a friend mentioned Lenny's disappearance, and asked me if it was RD's brother. I knew it was, but RD never told me his brother was gone. A confrontation ensued from that. The most I got out of RD was that he was worried his brother's disappearance was drug (distribution) related. I asked RD if he was a participant in this side business - small dairy farming and horse ranching doesn't pay that well - and he denied it. But I began snooping and found a substantial amount of meth and weed in RD's backpack one morning, and I kicked him out and ended our relationship. His excuse was he didn't use (the meth), which I believe, but what a ridiculous excuse!

We began talking again after about a year. RD said he'd gotten completely out of the drug biz and I believe he did because he had changed his life circumstances considerably - job, location, etc. But nobody knows where Lenny ended up, and RD was very broken about it and moved to tears any time anybody ever mentioned Lennie.

Charlie Allen Jr. who was cute AF was bipolar and off his meds. He had a breakdown, ran into the woods half naked on a chilly October night in Dartmouth MA in 2007 and was never seen again.

R126 the Jason Jolkowski case is so bizarre and creepy to me. He disappeared into thin air in an eight-block radius from his house to the high school where he was supposed to meet his coworker for a ride. Geographically and time-wise, it's such a narrow window to vanish into thin air like that. There are some interesting podcast episodes profiling his disappearance—there is an episode of "Unfound" that I remember listening to several years ago where they interviewed his mother.

I've read theories that he was somehow coaxed into a neighbor's house or something while walking and was murdered, which isn't outside the realm of possibility, but it is certainly random. I don't believe the coworker he was supposed to meet has ever been named a suspect. I've always wondered if he was possibly struck by a car and the driving quickly pulled him into the vehicle, though it seems unlikely nobody would have seen this happen; there also would most likely need to be two individuals in that scenario to lift him into a car.

Wow, thanks r131 for your perspective. Have you ever watched Lenny's Unsolved Mysteries segment? They made it seem as though he were some wholesome farmer but hearing he was into drug distribution sheds a new light on things. Is there a theory about why Lenny would've been murdered?

Maura Murray is another one who literally walked off into the night and was never seen again.

I was just going to post about Maura Murray. There's a great documentary series called The Disappearance Of Maura Murray that covers everything about this very eerie and strange case.

Personally, I think some sicko just happened to be driving by, saw her on the side of the road, and forced her into his vehicle. It was a random crime of opportunity. Poor girl.

Roger Ellison went missing in 1981 from Cedaredge, Colorado. He was last seen putting his schoolbooks into his locker, located in the school basement. Roger was a talented skier and had a loving family. One of his teachers, John Pash, has long been a "person of interest". Pash was rumored to have students over at his home. He showed up to a Websleuths thread about Roger and made a series of posts denying any involvement.

One of my Dad's oldest, closest friends simply vanished one day. 30+ years on, he'd be 100 or thereabouts today. Dad always suspected the wife had something to do with the disappearance, but she's long dead and I suppose that mystery will remain unsolved.

Too bad; he was a sweet, kind man.

R134, I'd never watched that episode before, but I'm watching it now.

I think Lenny and RD were wholesome farmers - who ran drugs along I-40 in order to pay the bills and not lose the farm. I am nearly certain that RD was doing that. He would go on various trips to Amarillo and other cities east of OKC into Arkansas, providing various excuses for doing so. I didn't know Lenny personally so I don't know much about his circumstances. And RD didn't share much except I felt there was a lot of guilt accompanying RD's grief over his brother's disappearance; and, RD failed to mention his brother vanished when we were dating - why wouldn't he tell me? And I know RD was selling or running meth in the late 1990s to early 2000s. I feel comfortable talking about this now because Lenny is gone and RD is dead.

RD had a mustache very similar to his brother's, not quite as handle-bar-y. I figure Lenny's pic in this thread was from the 1980s or earlier. RD was one hairy man, with thick curly hair, a thick mustache and occasional beard, and hair all over his body, even his shoulders. RD had the same apple-y cheeks as his brother.

Asha Degree packed a bag and left her home in the middle of the night for unknown reasons. At least three people spotted her walking on the side of a highway in the rain. A trucker turned around to try and pick her up but Asha ran into the woods. Searchers later found some items connected to her in a nearby shed. Her backpack was found a year and a half later at a construction site about 20 miles away from where she was last seen.

Asha is also featured on the FBI page:

Jesse Ross was attending a model UN conference in Chicago. He was last seen at 2:30 AM in the lobby of the Sheraton Office Towers.

R136 I think that she got disoriented in a remote location and died. Drunk and possibly stunned after the car accident. It's much easier to die of exposure when disoriented in the wilderness than people might think. Even if you are only a quarter mile away from a road - without navigation tools you could easily end up wandering in a circle until you die of dehydration.

Maura's life was a mess. This was the second car accident she had caused that day. On top of that Maura had an eating disorder, she had been caught using stolen credit cards, and she was cheating on her boyfriend with her track coach. There was an ugly rumor going around that some football players ran a train on her in the locker room.

r143 that's also a possibility, even though the woods were searched and nothing was found. Two very good friends of mine have done search and rescue for years and they've both told me that you wouldn't believe how "hidden" things can be in a wooded area. The woods conceal so much, you can practically be right next to whatever you're looking for and not see it.

r143 I also meant to add I think that's what happened to Charlie Allen Jr. too. He was disoriented, got hypothermia and died in the woods.

R145 people might look for cover to rest or sleep, or hide if they’re paranoid. She might have been concerned about getting arrested for DUI. Animals can make short work of a body and cadaver dogs are useful but far from extremely effective. Searching for bodies in the wild will always be very difficult to do.

R126 R133 what I’ve never understood about the Jason Jolkowski case is the lack of attention paid to the Catholic connection. We all know the connotations of that, but 20 years ago the Church was still often protected, He was a socially awkward (some say slightly vulnerable) good Catholic guy who recent to vanishing developed an interest in going to a local seminary, That just doesn’t develop out of the blue without someone influencing him. Who was that?

He was 19 and 6’1”, so I don’t think it’s very likely he was physically captured by someone or even stuck by a car then carried away. He went with somewhere on his own volition likely with someone he knew, I’d like to think the walk between his home and the school was an intended scenario to vanish and start a new life, and he is now alive and well, but it’s more likely he connected with someone wanting to bring him harm.

[quote]and she was cheating on her boyfriend with her track coach.

My God, she was Blanche Devereaux!

BLANCHE: Whenever I have something hard to say, I just say it fast -- like back in high school, when I wanted to break up with Carl Dugan, the captain of the football team. Well, I was very nervous, so I Just spit it right out: "Carl, I'm dumping you for Coach Wilkins!"

😂

OP? The I Heart Podcast Network is for you.

R148

Were you a Catholic boy or young man that strongly considered the seminary? You don’t have to have “someone’ advising you, you do not need a priestly friend or a mentor,

So many weird things about the Asha Degree case, but I believe she was killed within hours of leaving her home.

The Springfield Three will always fascinate me. It's like the women simply vaporized.

[quote]The Springfield Three will always fascinate me. It's like the women simply vaporized.

If the Springfield Three happened today it would be very solvable. There are cameras everywhere now - traffic light cameras, security cameras at homes and businesses that face the street, etc. - The vehicle that was used to abduct the women would be caught on multiple cameras and easily identified. Unfortunately, it was a different world 30+ years ago.

One of the truckers who saw Asha broadcast it over the CB. In hindsight not a wise thing to do as anyone could have picked her up.

[quote]Brian Shaffer-Ohio medical student who disappeared in 2006.

This is the "mysterious disappearance" case that always sends me down an Internet rabbit hole. He was seen on security video entering the bar but never seen leaving it. His friend who was with him that night refused to take a lie detector test. His father was killed in a freak accident a few years later. Some law enforcement officials said they though he might still be alive, but never revealed what made them think that. New information has never come to light and, at this point, I don't think that it ever will.

The building was remodeled into office space so we know Brian wasn't in there.

R157 The Ugly Tuna Saloona! I feel bad saying this but I would have orally pleasured Brian in their restrooms had I Met Him there, he was very cute.

Brian Shaffer is such a mystery. What the hell happened to him?

It's disconcerting how many people have vanished off the face of the Earth in public places with lots of people around.

"Charlie Allen, who changed his name to Neo Babson Maximus shortly before he went missing"

What the hell???

How did you bitches get to 160 and not mention James Riddle Hoffa?

Nobody ever had a more apt middle name.

R161 I don't find gangland crimes at all interesting, not people mixed up with drugs etc. Their disappearances don't seem at all mysterious

r160 he was mentally ill and off his meds.

Yeah, there's really no mystery to Hoffa, beyond "what did the mob do with his body?"

I think they probably tossed Jimmy Hoffa into the Detroit River.

Steven Clark left his parents outside a men’s room, went in to piss, and disappeared off the face of the Earth. This happened in the UK in the early 90s.

ElderLez.

She's posted in the "dead to me" thread, R167. She's fine. But doesn't send her love.

This cutie’s remains have just been found. Missing since 2000

People were pretty cruel about Beth Holloway, Natalie’s mother. I remember when Natalie first went missing, people treated Beth like a screetchy pain in the ass for looking for her daughter.

The Beaumont children disappeared from Glenelg Beach near Adelaide.

Jimmy Hoffa's body was most likely quickly dissolved in an acid-filled barrel. The liquid was then disposed of down the drain, and that was the end of it.

Brian Shaffer's case is interesting because he left the bar alright, probably via the back door. He got into an argument with his best friend, who rightly lawyered up -that in itself isn't suspicious- so I assume he just wanted to go somewhere else and ditch his friends. Most likely he was met with foul play, his body thrown in a dumpster or the river.

Daniell Imbo and Richard Petrone were last seen on the evening of February 19, 2005. They joined another couple for drinks at Abeline's bar and restaurant located at 429 South Street in Philadelphia. Witnesses stated that the couple left the bar at about 11:45 p.m. en route to Imbo's New Jersey home. They were last seen walking on South Street toward Petrone's parked vehicle, a 2001 Dodge pick-up truck. No one has seen the couple or the truck since.

Edward Dubbs left his office in Manhatten on June 6, 1981. Usually he would take a train to his home in Connecticut but no one reported seeing him. When he didn't show up for work the next day his employer contacted the police. Dubbs's partner said he went to the train station as usual that day, but couldn't find Dubbs. He checked another train station, gave up and went home, assuming Dubbs had stayed in New York. Dubbs has never been heard from again.

^that’s interesting. He lived in my hometown. I moved there in 1984 but never heard of this case. I wonder who the girlfriend was, maybe I knew her…

^boyfriend.

Dubbs was gay and his partner was twenty years younger. According to the Charley project Dubbs had been trying to end the relationship which makes the boyfriend sound very suspicious.

Deanie Peters. She was at a wrestling thing at the school for her brother and said she was going to the bathroom and never was seen again. I was the same age (junior high) when she disappeared.

r178 again here's a link to a story

R176 r177 thanks, I don’t know where I got girlfriend from, I thought I read ‘her’ in that link, but upon second viewing, I didn’t.

Hmm, yes, that is very suspicious. Now I really want to know who the boyfriend was. A decade ago I could’ve asked some people from there, but they’re dead now. (From natural causes).

It was the 80s so the cops probably dismissed Edward's disappearance as "fag drama" and didn't look into the boyfriend any further.

I can believe that. The cops there were dicks. They had high salaries in a town without a lot of crime. When Helle Crafts went missing in 1986, the cops wouldn’t investigate, saying she’ll turn up despite her family, friends, and the private investigator she had hired to look into her husband’s possible cheating telling them something was wrong and to check the husband.

Turns out the husband murdered her, froze her, chopped her up, and then wood chipped her into the river. The husband was a part time volunteer cop in town, so that probably had something to do with the police not wanting to investigate.

I had never heard about the Edward Sprenkle Dubbs case. I wish shows like Disappeared would take on lesser known missing person cases.

The Helle Crafts murder was a HUGE story in CT back in the 80s. And it also was the source of many absolutely tasteless jokes.

Yup, I remember the bumper stickers with a picture of a woodchipper on it and the phrase ‘Divorce, Connecticut Style’ being popular in the tristate area.

And out on the sandbar in the river where Crafts chipped her, someone stuck a mailbox on a long pole and wrote Crafts on the side. People would take it down, but it reappeared for years. The last I saw it was the mid 90’s. I never liked that. Her murder wasn’t funny. :(

None of them are, r185, but I take your point.

I used to believe that an illegal abortion was plausible in the Joan Risch disappearance. But there was a book written about the case called "A Kitchen Painted in Blood" which completely changed my mind. The author uncovered new information about Joan's family which makes it very likely her uncle was involved.

After Joan's parents died she was adopted by her aunt and uncle. Shortly before her disappearance the couple had separated. During this time Joan told her aunt that she had been molested by her uncle. Nobody in the family doubted what Joan said was true and her aunt was refusing to reconcile with her husband. About two weeks after that Joan disappeared.

The captain, his wife and daughter, and the entire crew of the [italic]Mary Celeste[/italic] found abandoned off the Azores 150 years ago.

Lots of theories, no answers.

I thought r187 was talking about this disappearance after an illegal abortion. I believe the letter stating Judith Hyams died after the abortion and was disposed of in Biscayne Bay but those decades later phone calls saying she was alive in Omaha are curious.

The Unsolved Mysteries segment about Hyams starts at 34:50

This thread is utterly repulsive thx to op’s stupid pic

Robert Anthony Spellman is alive; he’s Jeremy Allen White.

I watch “Disappeared” on the ID channel.

[quote] Unfortunately, it was a different world 30+ years ago

It was a better world 30 years ago.

There are plenty of unsolved murders regardless of technology. Humans are still involved so there will always be mistakes, bad luck, refusals to cooperate; but, I know tech is helpful as you said.

A few of these are definitely suicides, death by exposure, and accidents. Some of the foul play ones have suspects but no hard evidence. It will be like this forever.

It’s really hard (for me anyway) to wrap my head around that life is so random for all life on earth. Two people can take a step off a curb and one will die. A dog gets saved in China, but others are left behind. Or a deserving human wins the lottery and a horrible politician chokes on a cheeseburger.

This story sounds so odd.

Welsh woman travels to Antwerp and then goes missing. Police find a body but can’t identify it despite unique tattoo.

30 years later a family member recognises the tattoo.

Did police in Wales and Belgium not liaise with each other at the time?!?

R173 Imbo & Petrone are a puzzling case. No one in the Philly area can figure out where or how the truck could have gone into either the Delaware or Schuylkill rivers. Foul play seems crazy too, disappearing a vehicle and two bodies in the middle of the city.

Another Pennsylvania case is one of my favorites:

What do you think happened to Ray, r196?

R197 The fact that he had Googled “how to destroy a hard drive”, along with his work-issued laptop & removed hard drive being found in the river near where his car was found makes me think he disappeared willingly. On the other hand, it’s hard to disappear your own body if you commit suicide. Possible evidence of foul play is present in his car, where the driver’s seat was slid back for a person taller than Gricar; cigarette ash was found in the ashtray, and Gricar didn’t smoke or allow anyone to smoke in his car.

Then on top of all that, it’s possible he had CIA connections in the 1970s. I don’t really know what to think.

None on my shift or small unit at the time but co workers none the less. I had a few coworkers just up and disappear.

One got up in the night likely to make a head call and was never seen again. They did find some of his teeth in the morning.

Another was on his way into work and took a wrong turn and just kind of floated away. Never seen again. Over 50 years not a trace,

Happened to a few more over the years.

Where the hell did you work, R199?

R199 it sure as fuck was not office work or sales :-)

The Jodi Huisentruit (sp?) story is very strange. She was obviously abducted, probably by a stalker, but no one ever found any clues.

I think Jodi Huisentruit was killed by her friend John Vansice. He was much older than her and wanted a romantic relationship with her. IIRC, he named his boat after her.

Yuba County Five

R204 This is a super-weird and creepy case, thanks for the revisit.

A few similarities to the Dyatlov Pass incident.

Dyatlov Pass? Never heard of it

Tyler Davis disappeared while walking back to his hotel. He was on the phone with his wife and said he would be there in five minutes. He never arrived and hasn't been seen again.

This one is really creepy. Some think Phoenix Coldon had a secret life. Her car was left abandoned in east St. Louis and was towed and impounded but nobody contacted the owner of the car her mother. They only found out it was there because a friend told them. An acquaintance said she saw her on a flight from Las Vegas after her disappearance

Leah Roberts was a young woman who disappeared while on a road trip in Washington State. Her car was found crashed in the woods, and the crash was staged to look like an accident.

Crazy story:

[quote] Bobby Dunbar was an American boy whose disappearance at the age of four and apparent return were widely reported in newspapers across the United States in 1912 and 1913. After eight months of nationwide searching, investigators believed that they had found the child in Mississippi, in the hands of William Cantwell Walters of Barnesville, North Carolina. Dunbar's parents claimed the boy as their missing son. However, both Walters and a woman named Julia Anderson insisted that the boy with him was Anderson's son Bruce. Julia Anderson could not afford a lawyer, and the court eventually ruled in favor of the Dunbars. Percy and Lessie Dunbar retained custody of the child, who proceeded to live out the remainder of his life as Bobby Dunbar.

[quote] In 2004, DNA profiling established in retrospect that the boy found with Walters and "returned" to the Dunbars as Bobby had not been a blood relative of the Dunbar family. This makes most believe that the boy was in fact Bruce Anderson and had been wrongly identified by Dunbar's parents. Julia Anderson had no means to contest the Dunbars' decision but always maintained the child was her son. However, this does not solve what happened to the true Bobby Dunbar, who is presumed dead in absentia.

The Ghost of Bobby Dunbar:

Did you work at the Bates Motel, r199?

I'm interested in the WTC 9/11 case. On whether or not this woman was a victim in the towers.

Three women disappeared from Indiana Dunes State Park in 1966.

my husband

George Santos.

^^^^ too much of a stunt queen to avoid the limelight for long.

I'm guessing she'll be back this evening or tomorrow (if she's eating her sorrow tonight) latest.

MARGARET

R199 “worked” for the mafia

bump

Etan Patz. I lived in South Florida when he disappeared and it was such big news a police officer came to our school to talk about it and to give us a lecture on "stranger danger."

Adam Walsh. I know they found his head but not the rest of his body.

Susan Powell, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, Madeleine McCann.

If you're suspected of a crime the smart thing to do is get a lawyer and never take a polygraph.

R221 didn't someone confess to dumping little Etan in the garbage?

We had a local missing kid story where I grew up. His bones were found buried in the woods more than 20 years later but whomever did it was never caught or was a cause of death determined. Daniel Hohenstein was his name I think.

"whoever did it," not "whomever did it," R224.

R61, then they wouldn’t be missing.

R223 Pedro Hernandez confessed to it, and the NYPD said they are sifting through mounds of garbage, but he still hasn't been found.

R137, Handsome as a movie star.

Ted Bundy's victims often vanished right after being seen with and by others. Maybe some in this thread met up with him.

I am very interested in the Sneha Philips case, the story of a beautiful young doctor who vanished from the face of the earth on 9/11. She lived near the towers and it is possibly that she ran to them and then was killed the collapse of the buildings. But she was also kind of a fuckup who was having very serious problems showing up for work and spent many nights in lesbian nightclubs. She claimed that she hung out in the middle of the night with lesbian strangers was to paint with them and hang out without getting hit on (by men). She was seen in bed with a woman by a family member. She was married to another doctor, a man with whom she was having marital problems.

I suppose she might well have been killed in the Towers, but her life was such a disaster you can imagine the husband killing her or her running away. I can’t imagine that she had enough street smarts to keep a completely hidden identity for the last 22 Years. Her family got no money from 9/11 payouts because, by the time the city accepted that she was a victim, all the money had been given out and there was nothing left.

I just find there is something about this case that is very creepy, and I can’t help thinking that she may have been murdered on 9/10 or 9/11.

There was also the Juan Lafuente case. He commuted from Poughkeepsie to NYC for work. His workplace was 8 blocks from WTC. His family believes he was a 9/11 victim.

I wish I could make people disappear

I knew a girl who just disappeared. But the we thought she died.

Lucy just wanted to disappear but Gary talked her out of it.

Rosario Gonzalez, who disappeared while working at the Miami Grand Prix racetrack in 1984. She was believed to be a victim of Christopher Wilder, a millionaire serial killer from Australia.

....

Bump

On Reddit there's a thread right now about a gay black man who went missing in Fort Worth Texas.

His name was Eodis (Tre') Harris

[quote]Have they looked for Charlene in Nice or the Isle of Greece?

For that matter, have they checked the cabins?

R230, I remember reading about Sneha Philip years ago and thinking what a complex situation it was. It's not as though non-terrorist crime somehow paused in Manhattan on the 10th and 11th of September 2001. Yes, she may have rushed to the WTC to help and been killed, but also it's entirely possible she was the victim of an unrelated murder/manslaughter. If so, then the killer has gone undetected for twenty-three years because the police were understandably distracted in the aftermath of her disappearance, and her family were so convinced that she was killed during the collapse of the Towers.

I just Googled her and was surprised to see that there's an active subreddit (last updated only three days ago!) dedicated to her disappearance. There really is a sub for everything.

Christopher Thompkins was surveying a wooded area with a four man crew when he vanished.All they found was a work boot hanging from a barbed wire fence. In a patch of grass next to the boot were his work tools, a blue fiber from his work pants, and twelve cents. Five months later a farmer found his other boot about 900 yards from where he disappeared.

Wooo! 👻 I hear a bump in the night...it's spooky season!😳

Her look was so beautiful.

Donald J. Trump. Slunk way after being soundly trounced in a September 2024 debate with Kamala Harris, never to be heard from again.

Jeremy Bright, who disappeared from an Oregon fair/carnival in 1986. It recently had a thread here.

We can only hope r245

The Phoenix Coldon disappearance is creepy

New evidence in the Asha Degree case. Authorities matched DNA from a hair on Asha's shirt to the suspect's daughter.

R11 wow that’s eerie as fuck.

Lorde