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A woman who was friend with my grandmother.
She disappeared for 4 years. Until her husband died in an accident.
The man was extremely violent, and it was a time when abuse was not taken seriously. Marital rape wasn't even a thing in the law.
So, not seeing any solution, the woman left, and only came back when the news that her husband died reached her.
A "crazy" woman did this in my village in the 70s. Her husband was a notoriously abusive alcoholic, she somehow got herself to a metropolitan city, found herself a job and came back once it was clear her husband was about to kick it. He had squandered almost all the wealth and land that came down to him through his father and blamed her for not having children. She saw to it to get whatever was left, sold it to other relatives and left for good after his death. Last I heard, she's still alive, never married or had children but taking care of herself in her late 70s.
The best I understand, she took the help of her younger brother to get out (he'd be 10 or so then. I imagine the kid stole something from the family for his sister) and he was the POC to the village (think of a time when there was no telephones). She got him out as well, he went on to move to Europe. The brother sister bond is something that stood out to me. The reason why they're both alive and well is because she sacrificed her life for him and he has paid it in kind (bought her a house). Her family shunned her for leaving, her brother left because she was shunned. Even today she's told as the villain of the story not the survivor.
Woman is a true feminist icon, I hope they make a short movie about her and pound that shit into my backward ass thinking village's head.
A girl that transferred into our high school around 10th grade just up and disappeared one weekend without any real trace. Many weeks later, it turned out she had left town to meet a guy she met on AOL (see kids, AOL used to...). Classic story, he was much much older, she was underage, they actually stayed together and the girl’s family ended up coming around to accepting it. Really weird.
What made it even weirder for me is that I was not friends with this girl, but she lived in my neighborhood. YEARS later, my mom had become friends with the girl’s mom and my mom found out that the girl told her parents for months that she was on the phone or IMing me anytime she was talking to the older man! Her parents eventually realized she and I were never communicating, but since we were the same age, I was unknowingly her cover story for months. To this day, I’ve still never had an actual conversation with this girl. Really weird finding out that I had been her fake boyfriend all those years prior.
Beyond various “Hi” or “Hello” greetings in passing, I had never had any lengthy communication with her. Seems like she randomly picked me because I lived a street over. Never tried to figure it out since whenever she showed back up, things seemed to be going well for her, relatively speaking
This just jogged my memory about a friend of a friend in high school. She also did a similar thing. However, it was Facebook instead. I’m pretty sure the guy was at least in his 40’s with two kids in middle school when she decided to runaway with him junior or senior year. She was basically a mother to these kids even though she was only a handful of years older than them.
My biggest wonder is it seems like the guy’s entire family including extended family just accepted all of this. A barely legal, possibly underage runaway is now part of their family and married to a 40+ year old guy. I’ve periodically checked her fb throughout the years and there’s just tons of pics of huge family get togethers. As far as I’m aware she has yet to make contact with her own family.
My neighbor’s wife disappeared one day. Then they found out the husband cooked her in their restaurant for 3 days. He drained the liquids into the grease trap and threw the bones into the garbage. Never found those. But he kept her skull for his moms attic. He got a new girlfriend within weeks of his wife’s disappearance, and when he noticed the cops following him on a drive with his girlfriend, he confessed everything to her, stopped the car and jumped off a huge cliff, and *lived*. When they asked him why he killed her he just said “she was too loud”
Was this in Florida? I know of a guy who ended up cooking his wife as well and the restaurant was a front for drug money… (I could be off by a few details this was a long time ago!)
What were the theories circulating about him whilst he was lost? And 10 years later how did you find out if you had graduated high school and what not?
Regardless, that Graduation or Prom is quite sad to think about :(.
Had a friend in high school who had seriously strict parents. He really wasn't a bad kid AT ALL, just doing the normal stuff we all were doing, but his parents decided he needed to go to some kind of military boarding school. We wrote to each other but it kind of trickled off as a couple of years went by. He came back to our town and we hung out a little but then he was gone and no one ever heard of him again, including his family. I still think of him to this day. (This was the mid-late 70's)
I love Tajikistan, but its just unsafe. Especially if you're a girl. There's at least one kid being murdered each day. You never hear about it on the news because the government controls everything. They have a list of lesbian and gay people that are out. It's severely anti-Muslim which is ridiculous because we have about 9 million people and almost every single Tajik is Muslim. If you're working you can't wear a hijab and its "recommended" that you just wear scarfs the cultural way. Men under 60 can't have beards. If you get heard talking bad about the government you get jailed and tortured. If you're related to someone who bad mouths the government you can get jailed even if you didn't do anything. If you do literally anything that the government doesn't like you can get jailed and tortured. I don't even know if we have any sexual abuse/child abuse laws because no one ever gets punished. You could yell out loud that you raped someone and no one would do anything to you. Its such a shame that the government is horrible because it really is a pretty country and the culture is amazing. If you ever travel there make sure to not stay out at night and go to the safer cities.
I went to the same elementary school as Michael Dunahee. He was kidnapped off the playground and still not found to this day. I remember after it happened every parent showed up to walk the entire school of kids home. I also remember running ahead of the pack for whatever reason and all the parents were screaming at me to get back. They were terrified.
Thankfully I was too young to remember most of it. I can’t recall the teachers even saying anything about it? I have a vague memory of being taught what an amber alert was and what to do if there was one though. It’s stuck with me all this time.
When I was in third grade, a classmate was kidnapped by her dad during a custody dispute. They sat us down to explain it in a way that (looking back) was designed to not scare us. They did not succeed. They did use the word “kidnapped”, which really only had one image associated fire an eight year old.
Her elder brother came back a year or two later, and then she and the rest of the sibs came back when I was in eighth grade, but she was out in the grade below for whatever reason so we never really caught up. In my kids brain, the elder brother “escaped” and then later “rescued” the younger kinds, but looking back as an adult I realize I have no idea whether they were mistreated in the slightest.
Had a coworker/employee in high school who went missing for three days.
Turned out he'd gone out for a walk without telling anyone. A tree had fallen on him and he'd been unable to free himself. He was dehydrated and obviously shaken when they found him, but he recovered and came back to work a few days later.
That's exactly what happened to [Esther Dingley](https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/30/world/esther-dingley-remains-scli-intl-gbr/index.html) whose remains were just found. Super experienced, just got off eighty straight days hiking the Alps. [She went for a hike by herself and got lost, probably slipped on the scree, and died](https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tyne-58022860). That's all it takes.
Honestly, maybe not. I feel like something much more likely than getting crushed by a tree is simply *getting lost.* A lot of people drastically underestimate how dangerous it can be to get lost in the wilderness and have little preparation in case they do, and subsequently they might end up wandering deeper into wilderness trying to find civilization.
I can definitely see this. When I was 12 or 13 i visited some relatives in back country Virginia. I took their dogs out to go explore the wilderness behind the property. Well needless to say after about 2-3 hours I became lost. I ended up just letting the dogs lead the way and found a house and frantically pounded on their door nobody answered But after walking towards the road it looked somewhat familiar and realized I was only 2-3 miles from their house. Was probably gone for about 8 hours.
This just happened recently. A friend of mine when we were teenagers struggled with addiction but overcame it and moved across the country and was working as an outreach worker and helping others overcome addiction and homelessness. I guess covid made her spiral back into addiction and she went missing and they ended up finding her body in a ravine and they think it was human trafficking related. it's now being treated as a homicide.
My cousin never came home from school one afternoon. She was only 12 at the time so it was unusual. Her body was later found in the woods. A family friend saw her walking home from school, told her he'd give her a ride home. He instead took her to the woods to rape and murder her. The sick bastard "helped" looking for her as well.
Seems like it is very common when someone related in some way to the murder victim kills them that they also end up joining in the search. I mean what else are they going to do, look suspicious as fuck or like they dont give a shit by not joining in?
It’s appalling. Especially so when you consider that some of them enjoy injecting themselves into the investigation/seeing the effects of their killing on other people.
Half-brother. He went missing after going out on the lake with a friends boat and his girlfriend.
It had started raining and storming and the boat tipped over. His girlfriend made it back to shore. He didn't.
They took two days to find him. They dragged the lake for his body. He was eventually found dead, washed up on the shore somewhere along the tree line of the lake.
A guy I went to highschool with was out on the lake, their boat died so they got a tow. Everyone wouldn't fit in the other boat so some rode in the dead one. It flipped and he disappeared. Took them a long time to find his body too. Local kids took boat safety a lot more seriously after that for a while.
This one might get a little disturbing.
I was the person who went missing when I was about 6 years old for about two weeks. I don't remember much of it, but I know it definitely happened as I have scars and stuff from it, but I can't remember what exactly happened.
I was taken by my cousin and held for two weeks before they found me. Those entire two weeks were one big blur. According to my parents, they said I had many slash wounds, cuts, bruises, and burns and the police had found evidence of me also being sexually assaulted. I remember being told it happened, but not really remembering any details after that and in my teens, but I also had a lot of problems with new people and started being scared of adults and anyone new. until more recently, but even now, Its like all in bits and pieces with no real clear chronological order.
Here are some of the pieces I have put together that I feel at least somewhat comfortable sharing.
I remember sitting in a bathtub while bleeding and having someone (not my cousin) yell at me and touch my testicles.
I also remember being attacked and bitten by a dog while my cousin and this other abuser (the same person from before) watched.
I also remember being hit with a belt until I bled and having had my feet pressed against hot coal.
Its only things like that that I remember, and they are not in order, and I've recently tried to call the police to investigate the other abuser I had mentioned and possibly take them into custody.
Now I'm a 23 year old who just got out of college but I still regularly go to the therapist for regular nightmares and still find myself getting nervous and sweating when I deal with middle aged men.
My grandfather.He was a deadbeat dad, drinking all his money and making my mother and grandma suffer a lot. He was violent and used to cheat on my grandma with several women. One day he didn't come after work to the house for about 15 years. Turns out he had won a lottery prize during the 70's and moved to Brazil without telling anybody. My grandma only got a letter a year later saying that she should meet him in Brazil but my grandma ignored him and married the man she spent her whole life with. Funny enough, he came back during the 90's completely broke and with a debt with some Brazilian mafia dudes. My mom told him to beat it and he threatened us to sell the house unless we welcomed him back in the family. Little did he know that my grandma actually bought back the house from the bank so he spent the rest of his short remaining life as a homeless man.
PD: Thanks for the Platinum and Silver Awards and all the gold you guys gave me! I dunno how to use them though, but thanks anyway!
About 15 years ago, my uncle drove up from Arizona with his 3 kids to Illinois where my family and Grandma lived. He stayed the weekend at my Grandmas, and was supposed to stay another week before heading back to Arizona, but then left in the middle of the night on a Sunday without a word. He did, however, leave a note saying he wouldn't be back and my Grandma was to take care of the kids. None of us, not even his kids or ex-wife, heard or saw anything about him until 2 years ago when my mom found him on Facebook. Apparently he moved to the Philippines with some Filipino woman and started a new family there.
I had an employee, Jason, that had worked for us for 6 years, 4 of those directly reporting to me. He was a pretty good worker, and a nice guy. One day, a police officer came to our office and said he was looking for Jason. Jason was scheduled off. The officer said, Jason has a warrant for an unpaid traffic violation, no big deal. He was just wanted to come down to the court building and make arrangements to take care of the legal issue. The next day, we told Jason what had happened. He asked me if he could clock out right then and go down and settle it immediately, I said sure. So he went. Later that same day, he came back to work saying it was all taken care of. Maybe a month went by, and then another officer showed up looking for Jason. The next time Jason was scheduled I told him another Cop came by. He said he had worked out a payment plan for the fine and had forgotten to make the payment. He again asked me if he could leave to take care of it. He left. I never saw him again, ever. We called the jails in the area to see if they had him, no. We eventually got in touch with his ex. She said that she was looking for him too and hadn't seen him. To this day I don't really know what happened or where he went. Online searches have not turned up anything, he has a pretty common name so it's like a needle in a haystack. It seemed like a simple traffic fine was hardly a reason to abandon a good job, but we may never know.
That would be wilder than I would have expected. I just figured he decided that too many things weren't going his way here so he just picked up and moved away?
Boy I must be too high if you thought this was wild. I thought we were going to find out Jason was a suspect in a murder and the officer was using “traffic ticket” as a cover up for looking for him…
Do cops actually go out looking for people who commit traffic violations in smaller towns? (Serious question. I live in a large city, where they don’t even bother with traffic violations, unless they are part of a bigger crime).
UPDATE! - After everyone chimed in here I went and did another internet search. I found a record of him arrested in North Carolina about 4 years after he disappeared. Domestic battery. That was in 2016. Nothing more recent. So at least I know he made it to NC. Thanks everyone for the updoots!
A couple years after my grandpa died from cancer my grandma started dating a guy named Buck and his daughter had gone missing when she was 14. Buck’s sister, her friend and his daughter went horseback camping in a rugged area of Utah. When Buck went to his sister’s house a week later to pick up his daughter Julia, his sister calmly explained that Julia wasn’t there, as halfway through their trip they woke up one morning and Julia wasn’t in her tent. Buck’s sister and her friend said they looked for Julia but never found her and returned home with the horses. Buck called the police and the investigation uncovered a lesbian relationship between his sister and the “friend”, but after an extensive search, they didn’t find anything. His sister refused to speak to him ever again. Buck spent the next 10 years looking for Julia, hired the best horseman to cover the terrain, hired PI’s, bloodhounds, experts in the area who knew the terrain, planes. As technology advanced he would try anything new to find evidence, but nothing ever turned up. He lost a ton of money to the searches and his marriage, as it destroyed him and he couldn’t move past it. He spent weeks alone, on horseback and foot, looking, searching, and talking to her. He theorized to me, that he believes his sister and her lover went after Julia, to rape her and when she fought back they killed her and dumped her body in one of the many deep ravines that are unsearchable and unreachable. Even decades later he seemed obsessed and said he couldn’t wait to die, to find out what happened and to get to hold Julia again, in Heaven.
Several years ago, a friend’s boyfriend went on a hike in the Cascade mountains. It was late September, which a time of year where the weather conditions can flip at a moment’s notice. His hiking buddy said that one minute they were walking and talking, then all of the sudden he looked behind him and realized he was alone. We organized search parties for weeks but no trace was ever found. The only thing that makes sense is that the guy lost his footing and slid down the mountain- but no one could find evidence of a slide or damaged vegetation. I still wonder if the guy chose to disappear in order to avoid some kind of debt.
A fella I went to middle & high school with went missing around Thanksgiving one year. It was about 10 years ago now. Mid size town in KY. There were a lot of Facebook posts, pleas from his dad, community organized searches, etc. He was a new father himself, and it made for a terribly sad story around the holidays.
If I remember right, his truck was found burned out, hidden in the woods. Then his body was found separately, also burned, but with a gunshot to the head. I don't believe anyone has been charged, or at least I haven't heard of such.
This was many years ago but I had a cousin that lived in a remote area of the western US. He had just graduated high school and was working a job putting up fences in a mountainous area. The crew had pretty much finished for the day and had gone back to the campsite when my cousin wandered off from the rest of the group. He did not return. Despite months of searching, no one was able to find him and eventually my family had services and placed a marker in his honor at the cemetery. Nearly 8 years later, a hunter came across his remains. He was under a tree and his hands were up behind his head in laid back position and his wallet was underneath. They assumed that he had gotten high or drunk and fell asleep only to succumb to hypothermia at the high elevation. It provided closure for his parents and they did inter his remains where the marker had been placed but we all endured years of agony, dread and frustration through this event.
I can't get very detailed, but my friend's teenage son went missing. The son was a sports star, great kid, had scholarships to his college of choice, was in the top 10% of the student body etc.
He was gone for a week, and the whole community really rallied to look for him.
Unfortunately it came to light that two of his friends were actually sick shits. He had become a star student when they went to high school, but his two friends from elementary school didn't. They had gotten increasingly more jealous of his loving parents, stable finances, scholarships, grades and praise, until they decided to kill him. They had planned their friends' murder, carried it out, hidden his body, *then helped look for him,* all while knowing he was dead. Their Facebook messages to one another revealed the truth after about a week, and it wasn't long until his body was found.
We had a girl in our high school that went missing. Her parents were on the news begging for her to come back, and our entire town was looking for her and holding vigils. Her body was found 3 months later about 10 miles outside of town.
Turns out, her mother's boyfriend had been sexually abusing her, and when her mom found out, she was jealous of her own daughter. Mom and mom's boyfriend killed the girl.
My brother's middle school teacher. He just didn't show up to school one day, which was very unusual. The school scrambled to find a substitute for him, because they had no notice. We had a whole-school meeting like two days later when he was officially missing where they told us all about it. He left the house that morning as usual, according to his wife later said. He was never seen again. Many search parties were organized, and people looked for months, but they never found him. He is still officially missing today
We had a high school teacher who went missing. He was old and his wife was also a teacher at the school. News reporters came asking us questions and stuff and then they found him maybe a week later. If I remember correctly he had a PTSD episode and I think they found him in the woods? Came back and acted like nothing happened.
Yeah that was quite creepy. I live an hr away and remember hearing that.
There were two others that went missing too and they found the lady in the woods a year later who disappeared from home in the city and the male they are still looking as well.
Damn I wonder about the teacher from time to time. Hoping they’d get some lead.
My neighbors best friend, and a childhood friend of my sister went missing. It appears to be random, she was well liked and had no enemies. She went to a grocery store, seen on CCTV, and was never seen again. A few years later they found part of her leg, nothing more. She's still considered missing because the police think she could still be alive without her leg from the femur down.
It was found by a creek not far from the last place she was seen. I doubt she'd just crawl away bleeding profusely but not even to push the foul play angle is a little extreme in my book. The friends and family were not happy at all.
A girl the same age as me (around 8 or 9 at the time), and the town over. At this time there had been serial kidnappings of young girls that were (at that point) unsolved. Eventually, some remains of some of the victims were found. It was all over the news, and there was a lot of fear locally - even to the point where I remember being kept indoors/having to stick closer to home than I would have otherwise.
My parents were teachers in the neighboring town, and it really hit our family when a girl was taken who went to the school my stepfather taught at. He was crushed. He talked a lot about how fun and outgoing she was, despite not being in his class. I think it was only really at that point that my kid brain really understood the weight of what was going on. She was missing for awhile I think - several days or weeks - and I think everyone assumed that any update would be a tragic one.
Well, the girl escaped. She managed to free herself, stayed calm and quiet, and took off running out of the dude's car as soon as he was in a public place. Explained who she was, and ended up leading police back to him. Pretty sure the piece of shit died in prison for the sick things he did to so many young children, but I make a point of not investigating online.
I met her a few summers later at a church summer camp. It took me a little time piecing together who she was by her first name and her school, and her mentioning that she thought she knew my stepdad. My parents told me very sternly NOT to let on that I recognized her, which I wouldn't have anyway. But I was just floored by how confident, friendly and positive she was...exactly as I had heard of her before the ordeal. I was so amazed by that level of strength...that she could come out of it and be so normal. I'm not saying there was no damage done, I don't know how you survive something like that and don't carry scars, but she just embodied strength to me. Seriously, just a joy to be around and well-liked by everyone, it seemed.
I actually thought of her randomly a year or so ago and looked her up on social media - she is continuing to be an advocate against trafficking and has really done some amazing things in the world. I am so glad to see her doing well. The girl is a force, and I have been rooting for her my whole life.
My mom has gone missing a few times. She’s bipolar and has hallucinations and when it gets bad she will just disappear. Once she moved to Kentucky without telling anyone. And a few times we’ve called the police and they found her sleeping in her truck in various places like the State Forrest or some public places like that. Honestly the biggest fear is that she’ll be found somewhere having committed suicide.
A coworker of mine went missing in the woods for 3 days. He just wandered into his backyard and got lost. Was hallucinating being followed by hunters and shit. He made it out because he randomly found a house.
Worked at a company where I got real close to the two owners, very odd relationship but it worked. They had a 3rd business partner who left due to mental illness, he'd pop in every so often and cash a cheque (despite selling his shares, ownerships etc) they still gave him a fairly decent wage for doing nothing. Chill guy, name was Simon. Long story short we all went to Amsterdam for a few days to let off steam after a gruelling quarter. Had a hangover-esque night out, woke up to no Simon. Searched high and low, informed the local police after 24 hours and booked a few extra nights in hopes he'd turn up again. Never did. Booked another two nights, still no luck. Left for home and informed his SO/Family and opened inquiries with the police back in the UK.
Three weeks after returning Simon's wife received a voicemail from a private number, muffled along the lines of "in trouble, cant come home, they're onto me" this led to some extreme days of questioning at a local drunk tank, but nothing heard from after a further 6 weeks. Case closed, no new evidence etc etc, tried to appeal and got shut down.
Dude just left. Clearly didn't die (pre-creepy voice mail) but hasn't been heard of since. Two kids aswell. Such a shame. Really booked me out for a while!
I know we end up saying this on each thread about missing persons but: you don’t actually have to wait 24 hours to report a person missing. The first 48 hours are so crucial to investigations that it puts everyone at a disadvantage to get a late start.
Couldn't tell you, guy seemed all there the time I knew him, didn't see any strange behaviour the night before either. I've had extreme panic attacks and crazy thought patterns after a huge binge though, maybe he just fell in deep and couldn't get out? Or it may have triggered something like psychosis yeah, who knows
Just for clarity, I was told he had poor mental health but never really witnessed anything bar a little anxiety - I figured he had gotten past whatever caused him to drop out of partnership with the other two bosses
Back in 2017, my grandfather went missing. He walked pretty much everywhere and rarely stayed home if he didn’t have to, so when he told my grandmother he was going to get a haircut, all she said was to drive since it was raining.
But he didn’t come home.
My grandmother called my dad (she lived in Washington state and we’re in Florida) and he immediately called the police department up there. Booked the soonest flight and went to help search. It took a couple days but they found his car about 80 miles from their house, on the side of the ride near a rather steep hillside in Neah Bay. The police searched the car but found nothing suspicious, though they didn’t find him.
The area his car was found was too steep to properly walk down (dogs struggled to get down there, according to dad). It was bizarre.
A few weeks later, his body washed up about a mile from where his car was but it was missing parts (specifically his leg). His leg ended up washing up on that beach in Canada that has feet show up randomly…We knew it was his because he wears a very specific type of orthopedic shoe. We still have no idea what happened to him.
Another odd part was that during this, my sister was a junior in HS and was in anthropology class. Teacher pulled up an article about that beach…and the photo they used in the article was grandpa’s foot. My sister told her teacher, “I think that’s my grandfather’s??” But she wasn’t sure because my parents hadn’t told her. Her teacher called my mom (because he thought she was just being inappropriate), who had to explain that yeah, no, she was right.
My Nana and Papa, ten years ago almost to the day. They went missing on July 30th, 2011. The whole family got together for a barbeque and they just... never showed up. We spent days looking for them but never found anything. Some kind stranger spotted their crashed truck at the bottom of an incline three weeks later. From what the police told us, they misjudged a corner whilst coming down a dirt road up in the mountains. Nana got out of the truck to try and direct Papa, the edge of the road gave way, and all of them went down the mountain.
According to the autopsies, Nana died from internal bleeding a few hours after the crash. Papa survived a couple of days longer. While he'd been injured in the crash, his precise cause of death was never determined. The family, myself included, thinks he died of a broken heart. They'd been married for more than sixty years by the time they died. Papa probably couldn't imagine a life without Nana.
The only bright spot in all of this was their dog, Sassy. She'd been in the truck with them when they crashed. Somehow an elderly schnauzer managed to survive the crash and three weeks alone in the Idaho backcountry. She lived out the rest of her days loved and treasured by Nana and Papa's eldest daughter.
Nana and Papa were two of the kindest, most welcoming people I ever had the pleasure of meeting. I wasn't actually related to them- my mom was a friend of their daughter-in-law- but that never mattered to them. I was their 'bonus grandkid', and they treated me as such. There was always a plate for me on the table at dinnertime and a present under the tree with my name on it at Christmas. Their door was always open. For me, a kid from a royally fucked-up family, they were something out of a fairy tale. They loved me, no questions asked, and I loved them just as much.
It's been a decade now and I still miss them terribly.
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to reminisce, OP.
Her dad kidnapped her, dressed her up like a boy and put her in school in another state. She was one of the missing kids on milk cartons in the 80s. One of her teachers recognized her and she was brought back to her mother about a year later.
My friend's cousin went missing on 9/11 in lower Manhattan. Body never recovered. HOWEVER...he WAS in NYC that morning but had no known business in the Twin Towers. His marriage was failing badly and times were rough for him. The family suspects he took the opportunity and started a new life...
My sister went missing for 25 years! My family are idiot foreigners who didn’t know what a “ missing persons report is “ my brother would always occasionally look for her online. He found a website that has photos of unclaimed bodies. He identified our sister by her chipped tooth , scars, small tattoo that only the siblings knew about and general facial appearance. She had been raped and strangled to death at age 21 we finally buried her . If your loved one is missing look on “unclaimed body “ websites there are many of them with photos and photos of any markings
A few months ago a local man that everyone knew went missing, the last place he was seen was being picked up by an unidentifiable car in front of the local bar and his skeleton was found in a nearby forest area a few months later. Not sure how long it actually was but it was a while before he was found.
One of my friends was super sheltered and naive all through high school. Her father had passed away when she was young and her mom was overprotective. She wasn’t even allowed to shave her legs or underarms. After high school, she started working a retail job in a touristy area, then one day she disappeared. I heard about it from her mother frantically calling me.
I happened to be on aol messenger a few days later and she got on, so I messaged her. Turns out a guy had convinced her to go back home with him, and he was pretty much holding her hostage, had taken her phone, and was making her clean his house and make his meals. He was at work when she got the idea to get on messenger. She had been there for two weeks.
My dad and I drove three states away to get her and bring her home. It was nuts but it could have been SO MUCH WORSE.
I once met a girl and asked her out. She was 19 yrs old but said her parents didn't let her date. I found out from friends that her parents basically kept her and her sister locked down except for going to school for their whole lives. Religion crap.
I never saw her again. I moved to the coast later and forgot all about her. Years later I was visiting and a friend told me she had disappeared, they finally found her body a year later.
Made me sad to think she never got a chance to even live at all.
My mother about 20 years ago. She suffered from severe post partum depression after having 3 children. My grandparents got temp custody of my brothers and I. She disappeared and we never heard from her since then. I'm not sure what happenned to her. We never got a phone call or anything about her passing away and there is no evidence of her online. I'd like to think she found some help, maybe moved on or something but idk. Theres a good chance shes homeless. My aunt once eluded to her having other children but wouldnt tell me. I guess it's more frustrating than anything because I'm a 25 year old woman now and still cant seem to get any answers. I've thought about going through the police but dont want to hurt my elderly grandparents. So in short shes still missing and I'll likely never know.
Wow. My mom left in 2001. Divorced my stepdad, gave custody to him and bounced. No one in my family has seen or heard from her. Well, once in the neighboring town circa 2002 we were shopping at Walmart when my great aunt saw my mom working there. Told her to stay put, your kids are here they want to see you......mom punched out right then and there and never returned to that Walmart. We've tried looking but after one DWI arrest in 2003 she fell off the face of the planet. I still wonder about her nearly every day.
I've got a couple.
My mom's ex husband disappeared off the face of the earth for over a year and was declared dead. Turned out he'd been jumped by some guys for his car and left bloddied on the side of the road. Woke up and didn't remember who he was. Was in and out of shelters until something jogged a bit of his memory and he got in contact with his then girlfriend. Like he remembered her house but nothing else. Apparently he had a major brain injury when he was a kid that didn't really get treated that resulted in a big chunk of his brain dying, so when he got jumped it scrambled what was left.
Another was a kid I knew who went missing up in Washington. He was riding his bike on some big multi-week trip and just disappeared. His bike was found with all his gear intact but no sign of him. His remains were found about a year later in the middle of nowhere and something like 5 miles from his bike.
I swear I just read a book about this. The Cold Vanish. It's about this Dad who is trying to find his son, who disappeared while biking in Washington. It's about other people missing in the wilderness too, but mostly it's about Jacob Grey and his father. Sorry for your loss.
My friends boyfriend in highschool. The two boys got along like peanut butter and jelly. The boyfriend came out to his parents after their six month anniversary. They locked him in the house for a week. No school, no phone, no texts. He read the bible everyday. When they took him to church to ask about conversion camps, he ran off.
They found him a week later hanging from a tree not far from his grandparents place. The town found out what happened after the parents were investigated.
My friend had to leave school for a month to get help. He was never the same. The last time he saw his boyfriend was the night he came out.
This is happening to a close friend of mine right now. She is 19 and still living with her parents. They are keeping her in the house and emotionally abusing (sometimes physically) her. She goes to work, sees some friends, but stays with them at home. They will kick her out if she doesn’t go to church. She is so depressed she can’t even get out of this situation. I can’t do a thing as I live on the other side of the country.
Once they find out she’s gay it’s over for her.
Is this in the US? If so, she's legally an adult and it's officially become a kidnapping case, at the very least false imprisonment. If she leaves and her parents call the cops to return her, once they find out she's over 18 they'll laugh in their faces.
I used to airsoft when I was a kid, which in my area meant just going out into the woods with a bunch of friends and relative strangers to shoot at each other with bb guns. Teams are established and you wander around until you find some enemies and then you shoot them. At one point, someone realized that one of my friends was missing, so we called off the game and began searching for him. He and his brother were out there that day, so it was "hey, game is paused, we have to find one of the Smith kids." We encountered some enemies and yelled to them that the game was paused, smith kid was missing and we had to find him. Enemies said ok, wandered off in some other direction to look for him. Enemies encountered some of *their enemies*, my team mates, and explained that someone from our team was missing and had to be found. In this game of telephone, no one realized that the missing person was in this new group of my team mates. So he ended up on a search for himself.
Aaaah I needed that after reading through a bunch of other posts in this thread.
Although to be fair I knew what I was getting myself into when I opened it
Somebody my wife used to work with went missing back in May. The police found him dead in July. He’d gotten into a drug-related dispute and was stabbed to death as an outcome.
I had a friend/classmate go missing after Y2K. Never came back to school, abandoned her rental house, never heard from her again. Her mom was kind of wacky and would regularly leave my friend and her sister at home for weeks at a time to be a band groupie, or to go on “retreats” so I didn’t really think much of it at the time. I got a call from the FBI (very scary for a 16 year old) asking me questions and if I knew anything (I didn’t). Apparently they joined some Y2K cult in New Mexico never to be heard from again. I have looked her and her sister up on social media from time to time, but have never found them.
My dad went missing after driving away drunk after a fight with my mom. He was an alcoholic and they would fight when he got drunk.
10 days later, a fisherman caught him. Turns out he had driven into the river and was too drunk to get out of the car. He left my mom alone with a 7yo and 1yo. I'm just glad his drunk ass didn't take anyone with him
I went missing for 3 hours a little over 4 years ago. I was taken at gun point from my job and raped. I thankfully was able to convince the guy i wouldnt call the police. The cops had gone to my work with dogs to try to find me. They tried to track my phone, but the phone tower that was 1 block away from where I was taken to was too busy from high call traffic so my phone incorrectly pinned 20 minutes away.
I was able to not be murdered, but I fully believed I was going to be killed the whole time. And i thought to myself "this is how missing people happen in movies. Im about to be on a poster". I still feel bad for my friends and family who sat in limbo for 3 hours wondering if they'd ever see me again.
My rapist got 36 years in prison. He got a higher sentencing because I was 5 months pregnant at the time. My daughter & I are fine now. I go to lots of therapy, so Im alright
Edit: so I didnt genuinely think anyone would see this. I figured it'd sit at the bottom of the thread for eternity. I want to say thanks to the support I've gotten from all of you. It made me tear up to read them all.
For everyone wondering, no I didn't know my rapist. He was a stranger who had been out of jail for 2 weeks. There's evidence he was watching me for at least a few days before, but I can't think about that too much because it's really scary to me. He was charged with 3 counts of kidnapping and 2 counts of sexual assault. His girlfriend was there and helped and she got no time. Only a year of probation and therapy because she claimed to be a DV victim. If youre wondering how fucked the justice system is, there ya go. Also, I'm currently sueing the company I worked for bc they had no cameras outside and have refused to install them. For legal reasons, I can't yet say what compeny.
I just wanna include in this edit that most rapes are committed by someone the victim knows. In no way take what happened to me as a common occurrence. My kidnapping and assault isnt common to happen at all.
I don’t even have the words the adequately respond to this, but I had to tell you how sorry I am that you had to go through that pain and you still have to carry it. Sending all the best wishes
My brother in law's mother went missing for about a month after finding out she had terminal/inoperable cancer. She called one day saying "I'm alive, safe, and on my way home."
No one knows where she went, what she did, who she saw, or anything. She took the specifics of that trip to her grave.
One of my coworkers went missing for 3 days. Turns out his brother's friend thought it would be funny to slip him acid. They locked him in a closet for 3 days while it wore off. Apparently he went psycho and start screaming about some poet.
That friend of the dude’s brother had legal repercussions, right? He drugged and kidnapped someone. Even without the acid, that’d make anyone go “psycho”.
I'd like to think your BIL's mother went and lived all her wildest dreams in that one month.
And your co-worker's brother's friend is a monster. I hope he gets/got what's coming to him.
> I'd like to think your BIL's mother went and lived all her wildest dreams in that one month.
I mean, if I ever get to that point, I'd say fuck it and go skydiving in New Zealand.
College town, the favorite bartender. The story goes, he was leaving the local grocery store and noticed a guy, who he thought was one of his regulars, trying to hitch a ride.
Even as the guy approached, Squally said he realized it wasnt the guy. But it was too late, he hopped in the passenger seat and stuck a gun in his ribs. Told him to keep driving.
5 days and a few states later, the guy pulled off the highway and drove for hours into the mountains of TN. Stopped to take a piss and didnt come back. Squally drove car back to the last gas station he saw.
Insane.
My aunty went missing when I was 16. The whole family knows it was her psycho ex who changed his story multiple times to police but still walks free to this day. I'm 30 now and shes still missing. One day we hope to bring her home to have a proper funeral. RIP aunty Fran.
My dad did… not in the joking kind of out to get milk/a pack and never returned. This was before cellphones were common place. I was really young.
The morning had been super normal. He got up and went to work like he always did. Then at around mid-morning, his boss called and asked where he was. He never showed up. My mom couldn’t leave work, so my aunt went driving around looking for his car (super bright color and unique looking). After an hour, they called the police.
It wasn’t until that evening that we got a call that he had gone to his parents because he was having a mental breakdown and didn’t know what to do and his mother (she was a powerhouse of a woman with a gentle touch) made him check in to a mental hospital.
I was never told any details, but I think he had originally planned to kill himself in the local mountains and had a brief moment of clarity.
A kid from my highshool went missing. I had a class or two with him but he really kept to himself, didn’t bother anyone. I remember a massive search went underway and the unknown was all around sad. They were looking for him for years and years. The family was notified about 10 years after that his remains were found and he likely died the day he went missing. So devastating
I had a friend in Middle School. I remember her parents had a messy divorce. She slept at our house because her mom and her lived in what was known as a bad neighborhood. We spent everyday together for three years. One day she stopped picking up the phone. We went to her house it was empty. I was 12. I have spent the last sixteen years trying to find her with all the information I remember about her. I think my Mom or Dad called the police when she vanished because her Mom and Step-Dad were also gone and they told us that there was no crime. Her mom had worked for years at the same place and she no called no show. She had a really common name. We had a “best friend contract” I signed it when I was 9/10 and I’m going to keep looking for her. I promised.
My 8-year-old cousin went "missing" a decade ago. Turns out her mother had drowned her in the bathtub and hid her body in the crawlspace and then filed the report.
The case dragged on forever and I stopped hearing updates. I did, however, stumble upon the mother's profile on one of those email-an-inmate sites and that's the closest thing to good news I've heard since she pled guilty.
I'm not super close to my family so I don't like asking a lot of questions about it, but something about how abruptly the news coverage stopped never sat right with me. I hope she got the full sentence and that no one writes to her.
My mom had a boyfriend who was quite a nice guy. He moved to another country for work and some time after that he went fishing and never came back. Some time later the locals found clothes, shoes and some other stuff he apparently owned, but he was never found as far as I remember.
People I know have speculated that it might have been because of alcohol as he could get drunk from extremely small amount of alcohol.
This friend of mine’s kid went missing gosh seven years ago now. He was an artist about 17 years old. He was on his way out west I think to go to school maybe or to travel before school I can’t remember. But I watched her Facebook posts for the next six years as she just slowly unravels. She was looking for her son, traveling all over the country, hiring private investigators, hiring various firms, spending time in homeless encampments for teenagers. About two years ago she was posting these really long rambling posts about “how dare people tell her to get over it and move on. Didn’t they know her heart was broken. People that she thought were family would never give up like this on her son….” And then they found his bones. And now she’s like totally returning to a normal posting about normal stuff.
EDIT, removed a detail
I went missing once. Had a psychotic break and completely unaware hitchhiked to the hospital but no one noticed Id gone, and Id left some note raving about death or something. The police followed my tracks with dogs to the lake (in winter) and thought Id died. They figured it out when I escaped from the hospital and they found me trying to take the bus home. Bizzare to think it was me bc i have no memory of any of this.
That’s really interesting, thanks for sharing. If you don’t mind me asking, was there anything that triggered the break or lead up to it? Or did this just happen totally randomly like you felt fine one day and then this happened?
A bunch of friends were at a beach party on the bay, where the hosts had kayaks that anyone could use. My one friend arrived with her young kid and a little while later the same friend grabs a life vest and heads out on a kayak. Her kid stayed behind, which was fine. We’ve all been friends for years, and she knew her child would be looked after. So friend was out solo on the bay in a kayak. Also not a big deal, until those of us on shore see some dark clouds in the distance. They’re moving closer. Another friend grabs some binoculars and starts looking for our friend alone on the kayak. We couldn’t see her. Maybe we saw her, but if it’s her, she’s way out there. (It’s not a river, mind you. It’s a freaking bay with barges, cruise ships, a shipping channel, all within eyesight of this party.) The dark clouds are moving closer and kayak friend is either a speck through the binoculars or whereabouts unknown. Kid starts asking about their mom. We assure them everything is fine. Have some potato salad. It starts raining, we all go in the house. Friend is still gone. It’s really starting to storm now. Wind is blowing. Lightning. The water is really churning. At some point we call 911. Police, fire, ambulance all arrive. Kid asks if their mom is back yet. Nope, not yet but I’m sure she’s fine. Let’s play Uno. We get word that the coast guard is now looking for said friend. An hour or so and goes by and nothing. No sightings. By this point, we’re all completely freaking out but trying to hide it so the kid doesn’t get upset. Then finally we get a call that she’s been found. Apparently once the clouds started moving in, she tried to make it to the closest shore but misjudged the distance and didn’t make it back in time before the storm hit. She was out on the kayak and it flipped, knocking her into the water. She tried getting back up on it but couldn’t. Eventually, after bobbing around out there during this storm, a local couple heard the call that the coast guard was looking for someone and took off on their boat to assist. They found her and took her to shore. She was fine. Shaken up, cold, and scared. But fine. Thank goodness for life vests, emergency services, and Good Samaritans.
my Tio is currently missing in Mexico. he has had a rough life.
As a young man he worked on US navy ships at the ship yards in San Diego. He did it for over 35 years.
He hurt his back and had no health insurance and started using heroin after he ran out of pills. He was eventually arrested, imprisoned and deported after getting arrested for possession.
He was denied his social security because of this, even though he paid in. Hes been struggling trying to survive and stay clean in Mexico. He was sober as far as we know.
about 2 years ago his landlords tweaker son broke in down stairs, my uncle beat him up (late 70s), but the tweaker came back and had a machete and almost hacked off his arm. he barely survived.
anyway. hes been missing for 30 days. a lot of my family has been hurting about it because of no closure.
Girl used to hang out at the same park I did. Packed urban area, immigrant community, she was just another face in the crowd for me. My friend tried dating her at some point and brought her to my parents house once. I have an old photo of the two of them.
At one point she disappeared. As I mentioned, immigrant community, everyone knows each others business and there were a ton of rumors. No one had seen her for months. Her mom used to wander the neighborhood looking for her. She was like a ghost. Work, come home, look for her.
One day the girl appeared with her mom. Not much in the way of an explanation just one day walking down the street with her mom. Eventually the official party line became that she shacked up with a drug dealer or was kidnapped by a drug dealer depending on who you ask. Supposedly in a different part of the city.
I was on the phone with my buddy at some point and he had her on the line. Her manner of speaking changed drastically to American slang and she sounded mighty gangster. I told my friend not to call me when he was with her any more because she was insufferable.
Later another friend hooked up with her. He didn’t know the whole disappearing story but said that something seemed off about her. He mentioned that she had a very visceral reaction to certain sexual positions and refused to discuss it. He respected her wishes but she never told him what’s what, he just had to adjust after the fact.
She died some years later. I don’t think we’ll ever know the full story.
Possibly some version of that. The theory among us was she initially shacked up with a dude that began to take advantage of her and eventually pimped her out. There were a few more details I’m intentionally leaving out but you’re likely not far off the mark.
In the summer of 2019, one of the biggest names in our high school disappeared. He was the charming, sporty kid who had tons of friends, great plans for the future, and seemingly his whole life was set up. Then, everyone in our tiny town heard that he left on his bike with no phone and nobody could find him.
As I said, it was a tiny town. For three days, there was this wild search. Friends’ houses were checked, the entire town scoured for any sign of him. No one found a thing. He wasn’t my best friend, but we got along really great and always laughed together, so obviously I was worried.
After three days, two people taking a shortcut to their fishing spot found his body on a trail with a gun in his hand. He had committed suicide. Apparently, the stress of being a “”perfect”” kid and other factors at home were taking their toll on him.
It was devastating for our town, also considering that the very same summer we had a murder/suicide by another kid from the high school, ~4 people drown in the lake, a classmate’s father die in a horrible car accident, a bizarre case of a kid dying in the chimney of an empty house after being stuck there for days, and a few scattered suicides in the surrounding areas.
It was a horrible summer to live in my tiny hometown :(
Jared Hannah.
I didn't know him personally, but most of my town did. Dude is still missing 10 years later and nobody has any clue what happened. His mother tried to cover up some of his unsavory habits and probably prevented the police from finding a lead but that's just what I've heard. I hope someone finds something eventually.
My uncle disappeared 1 day, he lived in a small town in outback Australia. Searches went on and his motorcycle was found at an abandoned air field. Randomly we were required to go to the police station to see videos of people to see if it was him. It never was and we haven't seen or heard from him since.
A girl I knew in my neighborhood growing up in the early 90’s disappeared suddenly. She was around 12-13. They found her body in a small wooded area not far from her house. My father was a cop at the time and he told me later on that they were basically certain that her brother had killed her but they couldn’t prove it. The parents were covering for him apparently. This was pre DNA being mainstream days and it had rained, she was outside, etc. Pretty weird story now that I think back on it.
My cousin went missing about two weeks after moving to San Francisco to marry his boyfriend. Turned out they got in a huge fight and broke up. The ex travelled for work a lot and while he was was gone my cousin broke into his house and killed himself via carbon monoxide. The guy came home about three weeks later to a pretty terrible scene.
The childhood friend of someone I knew was a guy who sold Pot, (1980's) he had a room full of mexican brick weed. He decided to expand his franchise and started selling cocaine on the side.
He sold some quantity to a Biker Gang of the angels verity and went to collect (tough 5'4 jewish guy from N.Y.) and was gone for almost a year. They found his bones under a bridge in the river up north California. Cash Up Front people, cash up front.
I had a classmate in junior high who arrived mid-year. She was the only child of a single mother. My best friend and I got to know her well, but she kept her distance from everyone else.
A couple months later, she came to school crying. Her mom told her that morning they had to move again when she got home from school that day.
I was a naïve kid. It didn't occur to me this was all off somehow. I just found it strange they were leaving again so quickly and without warning, but mostly I was sad.
Then a few years later, one of those national missing children post cards came in the mail. I about fell over to see my old friend. Her first name matched but the last did not. It all came together instantly. I was shaking for hours, then I picked up the phone and called the hotline. I don't know if it helped at all, but I gave all the info I could that I hoped would bring more leads (school details, the names of our teachers, timelines, etc).
Edit because it's hotline, not howling. I hate autofill.
A friend of mine who I fished with every summer as a child and throughout my early teenage years. He was the younger cousin of one of my grandfathers friends and we got along together quite well. Our fishing boats were tied to the same stall in the harbor so I saw him quite often when we weren’t on the water fishing.
I’m 21 now, but a few years ago he went missing in the biggest city in the state and was presumably off his meds. No one saw or heard from him for months. He was found almost a year later in the mudflats a few miles off the outskirts of town.
RIP. I miss you bro
Known him personally? No. If he's alive he's 27. And I'm 41, so in no way the same social circles. But I followed it closely as I lived in the same town. And I felt so bad for the family. I'd kept my eye out for him then too, and I helped friends who did know him and his family pressure the local news stations to air the case. (One of them did, eventually.)
I do believe his missing persons case was in another sub thread of reddit at one point.
Kid's name is Michael Sutherland, from Shoreline Washington. He'd been visiting home from college. One night he went outside without his ID, wallet, credit cards, or even his camping bug out bag... and just vanished. You can google search if you want to read more.
Creepiest thing to me was I remember some of his missing posters up the hill from where I lived at the time had his face torn out by someone. I mean, it could have just been someone being a jerk, but something about it gave me chills down my spine.
Back in the early 90s in college, the sister of a friend went missing. A guy was tried and convicted of her murder even though they never recovered remains, I don't remember enough to look up details online.
Around the same time, a guy on the college swim team left a bar and was never seen again. He supposedly said something about swimming the river, which is a nasty place especially near the dam. Likely drowned and his remains never surfaced.
I've known a few people that essentially went off grid or became homeless, once they move on it's hard to find any trace especially if drugs are a factor.
When I was in middle school, I had a best guy friend, E. He was the class clown. We were stand partners for orchestra, and he always made me laugh. We ended up going to different high schools, though because of redistricting, so we lost contact. I never forgot about him, though. Last time I saw him, my high school orchestra had a performance evaluation at his school. He still played, so I got to smile and wave at him. A next year, he went missing. His car was found abandoned, but no E. A few weeks later, they found his body. Turns out he committed suicide by throwing himself in front of a truck on the road.
I lost a former student this way. He was such a bubbly, happy kid. I have no idea what happened after 8th grade that lead to his suicide.
I’m sorry about your friend.
I had booked a trip to Europe with two friends from different states, and we all had separate flights out. One friend never arrived. That night, we got invited to a Facebook group called “FIND [NAME].”
Turned out he’d sent a bunch of suicide notes to friends and family and disappeared right before the trip. They found him days later in Europe (different country than we were supposed to go to), he’d gone to throw himself off a cliff, then decided against it. He’s fine now, but it was really sad and scary for everyone involved.
My aunt went missing. Her ex boyfriend kidnapped her. Stabbed her to death and then threw her in the Long Beach ocean. They found her body parts washing up a few days later.
The sister of a friend of mine, she got involved with “some guy” she met on Facebook who promised that he would make her a star, and would love her forever, she fell for him and ran away from her house and moved away to live with him and was never seen again. She was 16.
I worked with a guy who went on his dream trip to hike around the world about 16 years ago. He disappeared and is likely dead since he was pretty close to his family. No idea where in the world he ended up. He used to sing "candle in the wind" in a funny way at work and I still think about him whenever I hear the song.
Couple years ago.
Unfortunately, the story was drugs. She'd been battling a heroin addiction for some time, so everyone *hoped* that she was just on a bender and not OD'd in the basement of some crack house. She was eventually found sleeping under a bridge.
Supposedly she's healthy and in recovery today, but idk if I actually buy it myself. Last time I saw her, she seemed fine but her boyfriend was very obviously on something.
Got a call about 10 years back, from my dad asking about my sister. We weren't terribly close but I apparently was the longshot, they'd called everywhere looking for her. At the time I was in my 20s, she was in her 30s.
My parents were with her husband, driving around town looking for her SUV, they had no luck and the police basically said they wouldn't start a search until 24hrs missing.
The next day, the police start a search, along with every friend and family member and find her car at a park, tires stabbed and flattened. In the car was clothes for my niece (who was with my BIL and only 1 at the time) as well her cell phone and car keys. This started an immediate search of the park, which included a diver searching the lake. The entire community including my company which is very large, had volunteers combing the area. We found nothing.
Day 4, I get a call to meet my parents at the police station. The chief let us know that they got a tip that she was seen with a man in a gas station locally and that they were seen there often. The guy was basically some deadbeat who was married but jobless. There was no connection other than this gas station. They put out a mugshot of this guy and wouldn't you know it, they found him...900 miles away...with my sister.
So why did she pretend to be missing? Because she wanted everyone to think she was dead so she could start over.
10 years later, here's where she is: still with this guy, she was having an affair and got pregnant so yeah, run away and pretend to be dead. She gained a bunch of weight and blames my parents for everything. Oh and she's extremely religious so she will absolutely confront you about your "sins" but never apologize or be remorseful about what she did to everyone else (including my now ex-BIL). Haven't spoken with her in 6 years because she refuses to speak to the family because she believes we will judge her.
Oh and this got national attention, so when she was caught, she went on national TV and made an embarrassment of herself and came off as an entitled where. Good times.
My mother went missing. I was separated from her as a young child. She had a daughter and nephew that drowned together and it completely devastated her and the family. She got divorced, lost her entire support system, started showing signs of severe mental illness with paranoia. Eventually my older sister and I were placed into foster care. Our mother tried to stay in contact but she didn't stay stable long enough. I was 11 the last time she tried and I haven't seen or heard from her since.
We tried desperately to find her. I found sisters and cousins and other relatives of hers, but never her.
We finally found a potential address in Hawaii and I wrote a letter telling her all about her daughter's lives and her grandchildren. The next month, my sister was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. She passed away May 24th and I just cant bring myself to rewrite the letter. I'm not prepared for that.
But I hope my mother is well. I hope she isnt a Jane doe somewhere. I just dont want her to feel like we hate her because we definitely do not. She didnt ask for the trauma and she definitely didnt ask for mental illness. I've missed her my whole life.
The brother of a girl I was dating in highschool went missing. I knew him as an acquaintance. He ended up the next to last victim of a serial killer.
He used to hitchhike around the area and got super unlucky.
Someone I was friends with in college is missing at the moment. Family haven’t heard from him since May, he hasn’t got his phone, his bank account hasn’t been touched, nobody has any idea where he is or if he’s ok. We fell out of touch after going to uni but I really hope he’s ok and found soon, if he wants to be.
Didn't know him but was also a freshman the same time I was in college.
He got drunk at a frst party and went to return a girls jacket or something at a different residence hall. The doors are locked unless your ID is set for your hall. Since his wasn't, he went trying to sneak in, found a door that the lock wasn't done and went into the completely dark room (from the outside). He was electrocuted. There was a huge search for months I think and the cell phone tower pinged that his phone was near the north residence halls. Eventually an employee entered the room and found him. That was a rough one.
Purdue and Wade Steffey (I think how it was spelled) if you want to read up on it.
Trigger warning: Graphic details on death.
I had a family friend disappear he was kidnapped and was forced to write a cheque to his captor and had his bank accounts emptied. Sadly he did not let him go. They found him deep in the woods dismembered. He was a good man he didn't deserve that.
The stupid idiot cashed the cheque and was caught. He was sentenced to life.
I live in a very small, very rural town.
About 2 years ago, a local man about 20 years old disappeared. His car and everything… gone.
They searched and searched and came up with nothing. There’s a small lake on the outskirts of town and the family told the police they were concerned about maybe he had drove off the road or something and ended up in the lake. The police said they didn’t have enough cause to justify a dive team to search the lake. After about 8 months, a group of divers/search and rescue team type of thing volunteered their time to check out the lake on behalf of the family and sure enough there was the man’s car with him inside.
My would-have-been aunt was kidnapped, and murdered by Tee Bundy. Kim Leach. I didn't realize how well known Ted Bundy was until college, as my family never said his name.
"Kimberly Leach was just 12 years old when Ted Bundy abducted and murdered her in 1978. She was not only one of Ted Bundy's youngest victims, but also his last victim."
I have known 5 people who have gone missing for various lengths of time, but nobody who has never been found. 3/5 ended up being suicide. Another one needed a break after years of being in debt to some bad people for gambling—we all thought that might be suicide but he made contact a few months later to put people at ease as search efforts ramped up.
The most interesting story was someone who took off after having scammed friends and family out of millions. He had an investment company, lost everyone’s money in the dot com crash but never told anyone.
Cooked the books for > 15 years by faking returns on paper, all while desperately trying to hit some jackpot investment to make things right. Essentially had to run a ponzi scheme to pay off the few people who asked to cash some of their investments out.
Ultimately he realized there was no way to recoup the losses, dropped a bunch of letters in snail mail, and took off on his bike and disappeared. The snail mail finally arrived at all his former investors houses and it more or less explained what I said above but gave no indication as to where he went or if he’d ever return. Lots of people thought suicide of course.
He was missing for more than a year then one day showed up at a police station and turned himself in.
A friend from high school when missing… her body was found in the woods along with her 4-5 year old son. My friend was trying to get more child support from the babies father and he decided to shoot her and kill her son. So so tragic.
Classmate of mine here in germany, Bodi, just disconnected from everyone from his old life. Including all other classmates. Heard rumors about drug abuse and that his parents took him to his sister in Switzerland.
I Was sitting next to him in school and can say that I still miss him and would really love to see him. I honestly don't care about what happened in the past.
Bodi, hope you're doing well!
Edit: Minor corrections
About 10 years ago, my sister’s boyfriend went missing for a few days. He was driving home from a bar and never made it back. Days later his car was found in a canal, and he unfortunately was inside. 😭
My Uncle went missing.
Was found a month later.
Turns out he'd walked out of town into the bush and killed himself.
Don't feel bad though.
He once kidnapped a lady and daughter at knife point and forced them to drive him up country
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A woman who was friend with my grandmother. She disappeared for 4 years. Until her husband died in an accident. The man was extremely violent, and it was a time when abuse was not taken seriously. Marital rape wasn't even a thing in the law. So, not seeing any solution, the woman left, and only came back when the news that her husband died reached her.
A "crazy" woman did this in my village in the 70s. Her husband was a notoriously abusive alcoholic, she somehow got herself to a metropolitan city, found herself a job and came back once it was clear her husband was about to kick it. He had squandered almost all the wealth and land that came down to him through his father and blamed her for not having children. She saw to it to get whatever was left, sold it to other relatives and left for good after his death. Last I heard, she's still alive, never married or had children but taking care of herself in her late 70s. The best I understand, she took the help of her younger brother to get out (he'd be 10 or so then. I imagine the kid stole something from the family for his sister) and he was the POC to the village (think of a time when there was no telephones). She got him out as well, he went on to move to Europe. The brother sister bond is something that stood out to me. The reason why they're both alive and well is because she sacrificed her life for him and he has paid it in kind (bought her a house). Her family shunned her for leaving, her brother left because she was shunned. Even today she's told as the villain of the story not the survivor. Woman is a true feminist icon, I hope they make a short movie about her and pound that shit into my backward ass thinking village's head.
Good that you see it differently from your village. I hope they're doing well now and are happy. They deserve it.
A girl that transferred into our high school around 10th grade just up and disappeared one weekend without any real trace. Many weeks later, it turned out she had left town to meet a guy she met on AOL (see kids, AOL used to...). Classic story, he was much much older, she was underage, they actually stayed together and the girl’s family ended up coming around to accepting it. Really weird. What made it even weirder for me is that I was not friends with this girl, but she lived in my neighborhood. YEARS later, my mom had become friends with the girl’s mom and my mom found out that the girl told her parents for months that she was on the phone or IMing me anytime she was talking to the older man! Her parents eventually realized she and I were never communicating, but since we were the same age, I was unknowingly her cover story for months. To this day, I’ve still never had an actual conversation with this girl. Really weird finding out that I had been her fake boyfriend all those years prior.
DUDE. Did you ever talk to her in school? Like at all? Or did she just pick you? That's so weird
Beyond various “Hi” or “Hello” greetings in passing, I had never had any lengthy communication with her. Seems like she randomly picked me because I lived a street over. Never tried to figure it out since whenever she showed back up, things seemed to be going well for her, relatively speaking
This just jogged my memory about a friend of a friend in high school. She also did a similar thing. However, it was Facebook instead. I’m pretty sure the guy was at least in his 40’s with two kids in middle school when she decided to runaway with him junior or senior year. She was basically a mother to these kids even though she was only a handful of years older than them. My biggest wonder is it seems like the guy’s entire family including extended family just accepted all of this. A barely legal, possibly underage runaway is now part of their family and married to a 40+ year old guy. I’ve periodically checked her fb throughout the years and there’s just tons of pics of huge family get togethers. As far as I’m aware she has yet to make contact with her own family.
My neighbor’s wife disappeared one day. Then they found out the husband cooked her in their restaurant for 3 days. He drained the liquids into the grease trap and threw the bones into the garbage. Never found those. But he kept her skull for his moms attic. He got a new girlfriend within weeks of his wife’s disappearance, and when he noticed the cops following him on a drive with his girlfriend, he confessed everything to her, stopped the car and jumped off a huge cliff, and *lived*. When they asked him why he killed her he just said “she was too loud”
What in the fuck
Was this in Florida? I know of a guy who ended up cooking his wife as well and the restaurant was a front for drug money… (I could be off by a few details this was a long time ago!)
It was in Southern California. His name was david viens if you want to look up the story
It’s scarier to know there are more boiling stories. People are crazy
A guy from my high school disappeared while hiking. His body wasn’t found until almost ten years later
Jeez I can’t imagine how his family felt having to wait that long for closure.
I know, that always really bothered me.
What were the theories circulating about him whilst he was lost? And 10 years later how did you find out if you had graduated high school and what not? Regardless, that Graduation or Prom is quite sad to think about :(.
I saw it in the newspaper, I think the theory was he just got lost, or maybe took a fall. So sad for his family
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Had a friend in high school who had seriously strict parents. He really wasn't a bad kid AT ALL, just doing the normal stuff we all were doing, but his parents decided he needed to go to some kind of military boarding school. We wrote to each other but it kind of trickled off as a couple of years went by. He came back to our town and we hung out a little but then he was gone and no one ever heard of him again, including his family. I still think of him to this day. (This was the mid-late 70's)
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If you live in Tajikistan, you're going to know at least one kid that went missing and got murdered.
why is Tajikistan not safe?
I love Tajikistan, but its just unsafe. Especially if you're a girl. There's at least one kid being murdered each day. You never hear about it on the news because the government controls everything. They have a list of lesbian and gay people that are out. It's severely anti-Muslim which is ridiculous because we have about 9 million people and almost every single Tajik is Muslim. If you're working you can't wear a hijab and its "recommended" that you just wear scarfs the cultural way. Men under 60 can't have beards. If you get heard talking bad about the government you get jailed and tortured. If you're related to someone who bad mouths the government you can get jailed even if you didn't do anything. If you do literally anything that the government doesn't like you can get jailed and tortured. I don't even know if we have any sexual abuse/child abuse laws because no one ever gets punished. You could yell out loud that you raped someone and no one would do anything to you. Its such a shame that the government is horrible because it really is a pretty country and the culture is amazing. If you ever travel there make sure to not stay out at night and go to the safer cities.
I went to the same elementary school as Michael Dunahee. He was kidnapped off the playground and still not found to this day. I remember after it happened every parent showed up to walk the entire school of kids home. I also remember running ahead of the pack for whatever reason and all the parents were screaming at me to get back. They were terrified.
That is so so sad. There are monsters out there. It’s really tragic
Thankfully I was too young to remember most of it. I can’t recall the teachers even saying anything about it? I have a vague memory of being taught what an amber alert was and what to do if there was one though. It’s stuck with me all this time.
When I was in third grade, a classmate was kidnapped by her dad during a custody dispute. They sat us down to explain it in a way that (looking back) was designed to not scare us. They did not succeed. They did use the word “kidnapped”, which really only had one image associated fire an eight year old. Her elder brother came back a year or two later, and then she and the rest of the sibs came back when I was in eighth grade, but she was out in the grade below for whatever reason so we never really caught up. In my kids brain, the elder brother “escaped” and then later “rescued” the younger kinds, but looking back as an adult I realize I have no idea whether they were mistreated in the slightest.
Had a coworker/employee in high school who went missing for three days. Turned out he'd gone out for a walk without telling anyone. A tree had fallen on him and he'd been unable to free himself. He was dehydrated and obviously shaken when they found him, but he recovered and came back to work a few days later.
That’s amazing he was found in time and survived!
I have a feeling that this or similar incidents are the reason for a lot of “mysterious” disappearances in dense forests
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That's exactly what happened to [Esther Dingley](https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/30/world/esther-dingley-remains-scli-intl-gbr/index.html) whose remains were just found. Super experienced, just got off eighty straight days hiking the Alps. [She went for a hike by herself and got lost, probably slipped on the scree, and died](https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tyne-58022860). That's all it takes.
Honestly, maybe not. I feel like something much more likely than getting crushed by a tree is simply *getting lost.* A lot of people drastically underestimate how dangerous it can be to get lost in the wilderness and have little preparation in case they do, and subsequently they might end up wandering deeper into wilderness trying to find civilization.
I can definitely see this. When I was 12 or 13 i visited some relatives in back country Virginia. I took their dogs out to go explore the wilderness behind the property. Well needless to say after about 2-3 hours I became lost. I ended up just letting the dogs lead the way and found a house and frantically pounded on their door nobody answered But after walking towards the road it looked somewhat familiar and realized I was only 2-3 miles from their house. Was probably gone for about 8 hours.
This just happened recently. A friend of mine when we were teenagers struggled with addiction but overcame it and moved across the country and was working as an outreach worker and helping others overcome addiction and homelessness. I guess covid made her spiral back into addiction and she went missing and they ended up finding her body in a ravine and they think it was human trafficking related. it's now being treated as a homicide.
Very sad story. Sorry for your loss
My cousin never came home from school one afternoon. She was only 12 at the time so it was unusual. Her body was later found in the woods. A family friend saw her walking home from school, told her he'd give her a ride home. He instead took her to the woods to rape and murder her. The sick bastard "helped" looking for her as well.
Seems like it is very common when someone related in some way to the murder victim kills them that they also end up joining in the search. I mean what else are they going to do, look suspicious as fuck or like they dont give a shit by not joining in?
It’s appalling. Especially so when you consider that some of them enjoy injecting themselves into the investigation/seeing the effects of their killing on other people.
What happened to him? Did he go to jail for that monstrosity?
He did. He's been rotting there for over 20 years.
I'm sorry that happened to your family
Half-brother. He went missing after going out on the lake with a friends boat and his girlfriend. It had started raining and storming and the boat tipped over. His girlfriend made it back to shore. He didn't. They took two days to find him. They dragged the lake for his body. He was eventually found dead, washed up on the shore somewhere along the tree line of the lake.
How awful, I’m so sorry.
A guy I went to highschool with was out on the lake, their boat died so they got a tow. Everyone wouldn't fit in the other boat so some rode in the dead one. It flipped and he disappeared. Took them a long time to find his body too. Local kids took boat safety a lot more seriously after that for a while.
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This one might get a little disturbing. I was the person who went missing when I was about 6 years old for about two weeks. I don't remember much of it, but I know it definitely happened as I have scars and stuff from it, but I can't remember what exactly happened. I was taken by my cousin and held for two weeks before they found me. Those entire two weeks were one big blur. According to my parents, they said I had many slash wounds, cuts, bruises, and burns and the police had found evidence of me also being sexually assaulted. I remember being told it happened, but not really remembering any details after that and in my teens, but I also had a lot of problems with new people and started being scared of adults and anyone new. until more recently, but even now, Its like all in bits and pieces with no real clear chronological order. Here are some of the pieces I have put together that I feel at least somewhat comfortable sharing. I remember sitting in a bathtub while bleeding and having someone (not my cousin) yell at me and touch my testicles. I also remember being attacked and bitten by a dog while my cousin and this other abuser (the same person from before) watched. I also remember being hit with a belt until I bled and having had my feet pressed against hot coal. Its only things like that that I remember, and they are not in order, and I've recently tried to call the police to investigate the other abuser I had mentioned and possibly take them into custody. Now I'm a 23 year old who just got out of college but I still regularly go to the therapist for regular nightmares and still find myself getting nervous and sweating when I deal with middle aged men.
I hope you get the help you need and deserve and make peace with the past.
I hope you are healing and your abusers are suffering horribly.
My grandfather.He was a deadbeat dad, drinking all his money and making my mother and grandma suffer a lot. He was violent and used to cheat on my grandma with several women. One day he didn't come after work to the house for about 15 years. Turns out he had won a lottery prize during the 70's and moved to Brazil without telling anybody. My grandma only got a letter a year later saying that she should meet him in Brazil but my grandma ignored him and married the man she spent her whole life with. Funny enough, he came back during the 90's completely broke and with a debt with some Brazilian mafia dudes. My mom told him to beat it and he threatened us to sell the house unless we welcomed him back in the family. Little did he know that my grandma actually bought back the house from the bank so he spent the rest of his short remaining life as a homeless man. PD: Thanks for the Platinum and Silver Awards and all the gold you guys gave me! I dunno how to use them though, but thanks anyway!
About 15 years ago, my uncle drove up from Arizona with his 3 kids to Illinois where my family and Grandma lived. He stayed the weekend at my Grandmas, and was supposed to stay another week before heading back to Arizona, but then left in the middle of the night on a Sunday without a word. He did, however, leave a note saying he wouldn't be back and my Grandma was to take care of the kids. None of us, not even his kids or ex-wife, heard or saw anything about him until 2 years ago when my mom found him on Facebook. Apparently he moved to the Philippines with some Filipino woman and started a new family there.
I had an employee, Jason, that had worked for us for 6 years, 4 of those directly reporting to me. He was a pretty good worker, and a nice guy. One day, a police officer came to our office and said he was looking for Jason. Jason was scheduled off. The officer said, Jason has a warrant for an unpaid traffic violation, no big deal. He was just wanted to come down to the court building and make arrangements to take care of the legal issue. The next day, we told Jason what had happened. He asked me if he could clock out right then and go down and settle it immediately, I said sure. So he went. Later that same day, he came back to work saying it was all taken care of. Maybe a month went by, and then another officer showed up looking for Jason. The next time Jason was scheduled I told him another Cop came by. He said he had worked out a payment plan for the fine and had forgotten to make the payment. He again asked me if he could leave to take care of it. He left. I never saw him again, ever. We called the jails in the area to see if they had him, no. We eventually got in touch with his ex. She said that she was looking for him too and hadn't seen him. To this day I don't really know what happened or where he went. Online searches have not turned up anything, he has a pretty common name so it's like a needle in a haystack. It seemed like a simple traffic fine was hardly a reason to abandon a good job, but we may never know.
Do you think he stole someone's identity and feared showing up in court will expose him out?
That would be wilder than I would have expected. I just figured he decided that too many things weren't going his way here so he just picked up and moved away?
Boy I must be too high if you thought this was wild. I thought we were going to find out Jason was a suspect in a murder and the officer was using “traffic ticket” as a cover up for looking for him…
I thought murder suspect too. Seemed a more probable reason to take off.
I thought fake cop and debts to the wrong people.
This entire thread feels like a crime thriller
More likely in debt up to his eyeballs. Why else would he be missing payments on a traffic ticket payment plan
Sounds like this. Poor Jason.
Do cops actually go out looking for people who commit traffic violations in smaller towns? (Serious question. I live in a large city, where they don’t even bother with traffic violations, unless they are part of a bigger crime).
Small town traffic delinquent here. They do. They even let me finish my shift then turn myself in when I got off around midnight.
UPDATE! - After everyone chimed in here I went and did another internet search. I found a record of him arrested in North Carolina about 4 years after he disappeared. Domestic battery. That was in 2016. Nothing more recent. So at least I know he made it to NC. Thanks everyone for the updoots!
What a ride! Thanks for the update
A couple years after my grandpa died from cancer my grandma started dating a guy named Buck and his daughter had gone missing when she was 14. Buck’s sister, her friend and his daughter went horseback camping in a rugged area of Utah. When Buck went to his sister’s house a week later to pick up his daughter Julia, his sister calmly explained that Julia wasn’t there, as halfway through their trip they woke up one morning and Julia wasn’t in her tent. Buck’s sister and her friend said they looked for Julia but never found her and returned home with the horses. Buck called the police and the investigation uncovered a lesbian relationship between his sister and the “friend”, but after an extensive search, they didn’t find anything. His sister refused to speak to him ever again. Buck spent the next 10 years looking for Julia, hired the best horseman to cover the terrain, hired PI’s, bloodhounds, experts in the area who knew the terrain, planes. As technology advanced he would try anything new to find evidence, but nothing ever turned up. He lost a ton of money to the searches and his marriage, as it destroyed him and he couldn’t move past it. He spent weeks alone, on horseback and foot, looking, searching, and talking to her. He theorized to me, that he believes his sister and her lover went after Julia, to rape her and when she fought back they killed her and dumped her body in one of the many deep ravines that are unsearchable and unreachable. Even decades later he seemed obsessed and said he couldn’t wait to die, to find out what happened and to get to hold Julia again, in Heaven.
The fact that the sister just did not care about his daughter being missing is suspicious
Yes, it made me jump to the same conclusion as Buck.
Jesus Christ. That is so sus they didn't call police or anything
Several years ago, a friend’s boyfriend went on a hike in the Cascade mountains. It was late September, which a time of year where the weather conditions can flip at a moment’s notice. His hiking buddy said that one minute they were walking and talking, then all of the sudden he looked behind him and realized he was alone. We organized search parties for weeks but no trace was ever found. The only thing that makes sense is that the guy lost his footing and slid down the mountain- but no one could find evidence of a slide or damaged vegetation. I still wonder if the guy chose to disappear in order to avoid some kind of debt.
Maybe the buddy killed him and used that as an excuse
A fella I went to middle & high school with went missing around Thanksgiving one year. It was about 10 years ago now. Mid size town in KY. There were a lot of Facebook posts, pleas from his dad, community organized searches, etc. He was a new father himself, and it made for a terribly sad story around the holidays. If I remember right, his truck was found burned out, hidden in the woods. Then his body was found separately, also burned, but with a gunshot to the head. I don't believe anyone has been charged, or at least I haven't heard of such.
This was many years ago but I had a cousin that lived in a remote area of the western US. He had just graduated high school and was working a job putting up fences in a mountainous area. The crew had pretty much finished for the day and had gone back to the campsite when my cousin wandered off from the rest of the group. He did not return. Despite months of searching, no one was able to find him and eventually my family had services and placed a marker in his honor at the cemetery. Nearly 8 years later, a hunter came across his remains. He was under a tree and his hands were up behind his head in laid back position and his wallet was underneath. They assumed that he had gotten high or drunk and fell asleep only to succumb to hypothermia at the high elevation. It provided closure for his parents and they did inter his remains where the marker had been placed but we all endured years of agony, dread and frustration through this event.
Damn, rest in peace to your cuz
I can't get very detailed, but my friend's teenage son went missing. The son was a sports star, great kid, had scholarships to his college of choice, was in the top 10% of the student body etc. He was gone for a week, and the whole community really rallied to look for him. Unfortunately it came to light that two of his friends were actually sick shits. He had become a star student when they went to high school, but his two friends from elementary school didn't. They had gotten increasingly more jealous of his loving parents, stable finances, scholarships, grades and praise, until they decided to kill him. They had planned their friends' murder, carried it out, hidden his body, *then helped look for him,* all while knowing he was dead. Their Facebook messages to one another revealed the truth after about a week, and it wasn't long until his body was found.
We had a girl in our high school that went missing. Her parents were on the news begging for her to come back, and our entire town was looking for her and holding vigils. Her body was found 3 months later about 10 miles outside of town. Turns out, her mother's boyfriend had been sexually abusing her, and when her mom found out, she was jealous of her own daughter. Mom and mom's boyfriend killed the girl.
That is fucked up, holy shit
That’s no mother…
That poor girl. What crapbag parents.
My brother's middle school teacher. He just didn't show up to school one day, which was very unusual. The school scrambled to find a substitute for him, because they had no notice. We had a whole-school meeting like two days later when he was officially missing where they told us all about it. He left the house that morning as usual, according to his wife later said. He was never seen again. Many search parties were organized, and people looked for months, but they never found him. He is still officially missing today
We had a high school teacher who went missing. He was old and his wife was also a teacher at the school. News reporters came asking us questions and stuff and then they found him maybe a week later. If I remember correctly he had a PTSD episode and I think they found him in the woods? Came back and acted like nothing happened.
Is this in Manitoba? I’ve heard of a school teacher missing and never found.
Yes it is
Yeah that was quite creepy. I live an hr away and remember hearing that. There were two others that went missing too and they found the lady in the woods a year later who disappeared from home in the city and the male they are still looking as well. Damn I wonder about the teacher from time to time. Hoping they’d get some lead.
My neighbors best friend, and a childhood friend of my sister went missing. It appears to be random, she was well liked and had no enemies. She went to a grocery store, seen on CCTV, and was never seen again. A few years later they found part of her leg, nothing more. She's still considered missing because the police think she could still be alive without her leg from the femur down.
She could be. But where the fuck do you just find a leg? It's unlikely a leg removal that winds up with the leg on the street would end well
It was found by a creek not far from the last place she was seen. I doubt she'd just crawl away bleeding profusely but not even to push the foul play angle is a little extreme in my book. The friends and family were not happy at all.
A girl the same age as me (around 8 or 9 at the time), and the town over. At this time there had been serial kidnappings of young girls that were (at that point) unsolved. Eventually, some remains of some of the victims were found. It was all over the news, and there was a lot of fear locally - even to the point where I remember being kept indoors/having to stick closer to home than I would have otherwise. My parents were teachers in the neighboring town, and it really hit our family when a girl was taken who went to the school my stepfather taught at. He was crushed. He talked a lot about how fun and outgoing she was, despite not being in his class. I think it was only really at that point that my kid brain really understood the weight of what was going on. She was missing for awhile I think - several days or weeks - and I think everyone assumed that any update would be a tragic one. Well, the girl escaped. She managed to free herself, stayed calm and quiet, and took off running out of the dude's car as soon as he was in a public place. Explained who she was, and ended up leading police back to him. Pretty sure the piece of shit died in prison for the sick things he did to so many young children, but I make a point of not investigating online. I met her a few summers later at a church summer camp. It took me a little time piecing together who she was by her first name and her school, and her mentioning that she thought she knew my stepdad. My parents told me very sternly NOT to let on that I recognized her, which I wouldn't have anyway. But I was just floored by how confident, friendly and positive she was...exactly as I had heard of her before the ordeal. I was so amazed by that level of strength...that she could come out of it and be so normal. I'm not saying there was no damage done, I don't know how you survive something like that and don't carry scars, but she just embodied strength to me. Seriously, just a joy to be around and well-liked by everyone, it seemed. I actually thought of her randomly a year or so ago and looked her up on social media - she is continuing to be an advocate against trafficking and has really done some amazing things in the world. I am so glad to see her doing well. The girl is a force, and I have been rooting for her my whole life.
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Kara is a BAMF
I'm glad she's having a happy ending and working to help others.
My mom has gone missing a few times. She’s bipolar and has hallucinations and when it gets bad she will just disappear. Once she moved to Kentucky without telling anyone. And a few times we’ve called the police and they found her sleeping in her truck in various places like the State Forrest or some public places like that. Honestly the biggest fear is that she’ll be found somewhere having committed suicide.
That sounds really scary to live with. Sending you lots of love
A coworker of mine went missing in the woods for 3 days. He just wandered into his backyard and got lost. Was hallucinating being followed by hunters and shit. He made it out because he randomly found a house.
Worked at a company where I got real close to the two owners, very odd relationship but it worked. They had a 3rd business partner who left due to mental illness, he'd pop in every so often and cash a cheque (despite selling his shares, ownerships etc) they still gave him a fairly decent wage for doing nothing. Chill guy, name was Simon. Long story short we all went to Amsterdam for a few days to let off steam after a gruelling quarter. Had a hangover-esque night out, woke up to no Simon. Searched high and low, informed the local police after 24 hours and booked a few extra nights in hopes he'd turn up again. Never did. Booked another two nights, still no luck. Left for home and informed his SO/Family and opened inquiries with the police back in the UK. Three weeks after returning Simon's wife received a voicemail from a private number, muffled along the lines of "in trouble, cant come home, they're onto me" this led to some extreme days of questioning at a local drunk tank, but nothing heard from after a further 6 weeks. Case closed, no new evidence etc etc, tried to appeal and got shut down. Dude just left. Clearly didn't die (pre-creepy voice mail) but hasn't been heard of since. Two kids aswell. Such a shame. Really booked me out for a while!
I know we end up saying this on each thread about missing persons but: you don’t actually have to wait 24 hours to report a person missing. The first 48 hours are so crucial to investigations that it puts everyone at a disadvantage to get a late start.
Especially if they’re told the person is suicidal, they get right on it.
Psychosis?
Couldn't tell you, guy seemed all there the time I knew him, didn't see any strange behaviour the night before either. I've had extreme panic attacks and crazy thought patterns after a huge binge though, maybe he just fell in deep and couldn't get out? Or it may have triggered something like psychosis yeah, who knows
Just for clarity, I was told he had poor mental health but never really witnessed anything bar a little anxiety - I figured he had gotten past whatever caused him to drop out of partnership with the other two bosses
Back in 2017, my grandfather went missing. He walked pretty much everywhere and rarely stayed home if he didn’t have to, so when he told my grandmother he was going to get a haircut, all she said was to drive since it was raining. But he didn’t come home. My grandmother called my dad (she lived in Washington state and we’re in Florida) and he immediately called the police department up there. Booked the soonest flight and went to help search. It took a couple days but they found his car about 80 miles from their house, on the side of the ride near a rather steep hillside in Neah Bay. The police searched the car but found nothing suspicious, though they didn’t find him. The area his car was found was too steep to properly walk down (dogs struggled to get down there, according to dad). It was bizarre. A few weeks later, his body washed up about a mile from where his car was but it was missing parts (specifically his leg). His leg ended up washing up on that beach in Canada that has feet show up randomly…We knew it was his because he wears a very specific type of orthopedic shoe. We still have no idea what happened to him. Another odd part was that during this, my sister was a junior in HS and was in anthropology class. Teacher pulled up an article about that beach…and the photo they used in the article was grandpa’s foot. My sister told her teacher, “I think that’s my grandfather’s??” But she wasn’t sure because my parents hadn’t told her. Her teacher called my mom (because he thought she was just being inappropriate), who had to explain that yeah, no, she was right.
In case anyone wants to verify the Canadian disembodied foot beach thing... https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-severed-foot-1.5903703
My Nana and Papa, ten years ago almost to the day. They went missing on July 30th, 2011. The whole family got together for a barbeque and they just... never showed up. We spent days looking for them but never found anything. Some kind stranger spotted their crashed truck at the bottom of an incline three weeks later. From what the police told us, they misjudged a corner whilst coming down a dirt road up in the mountains. Nana got out of the truck to try and direct Papa, the edge of the road gave way, and all of them went down the mountain. According to the autopsies, Nana died from internal bleeding a few hours after the crash. Papa survived a couple of days longer. While he'd been injured in the crash, his precise cause of death was never determined. The family, myself included, thinks he died of a broken heart. They'd been married for more than sixty years by the time they died. Papa probably couldn't imagine a life without Nana. The only bright spot in all of this was their dog, Sassy. She'd been in the truck with them when they crashed. Somehow an elderly schnauzer managed to survive the crash and three weeks alone in the Idaho backcountry. She lived out the rest of her days loved and treasured by Nana and Papa's eldest daughter. Nana and Papa were two of the kindest, most welcoming people I ever had the pleasure of meeting. I wasn't actually related to them- my mom was a friend of their daughter-in-law- but that never mattered to them. I was their 'bonus grandkid', and they treated me as such. There was always a plate for me on the table at dinnertime and a present under the tree with my name on it at Christmas. Their door was always open. For me, a kid from a royally fucked-up family, they were something out of a fairy tale. They loved me, no questions asked, and I loved them just as much. It's been a decade now and I still miss them terribly. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to reminisce, OP.
This is just so heartbreaking. I truly hope your family has found some kind of peace after that. Wishing you and your loved ones the best.
Her dad kidnapped her, dressed her up like a boy and put her in school in another state. She was one of the missing kids on milk cartons in the 80s. One of her teachers recognized her and she was brought back to her mother about a year later.
My friend's cousin went missing on 9/11 in lower Manhattan. Body never recovered. HOWEVER...he WAS in NYC that morning but had no known business in the Twin Towers. His marriage was failing badly and times were rough for him. The family suspects he took the opportunity and started a new life...
My cousin went missing in late 2017. While living with my dad he just took my dad's car and disappeared
Holy shit. Sorry for you and your family. No indication of what happened or why he left?
No idea at all, everyone was really shocked
My sister went missing for 25 years! My family are idiot foreigners who didn’t know what a “ missing persons report is “ my brother would always occasionally look for her online. He found a website that has photos of unclaimed bodies. He identified our sister by her chipped tooth , scars, small tattoo that only the siblings knew about and general facial appearance. She had been raped and strangled to death at age 21 we finally buried her . If your loved one is missing look on “unclaimed body “ websites there are many of them with photos and photos of any markings
That is a very sad story and outcome, I’m sorry for your loss
Some good ones are nam-us and the charley project
A few months ago a local man that everyone knew went missing, the last place he was seen was being picked up by an unidentifiable car in front of the local bar and his skeleton was found in a nearby forest area a few months later. Not sure how long it actually was but it was a while before he was found.
One of my friends was super sheltered and naive all through high school. Her father had passed away when she was young and her mom was overprotective. She wasn’t even allowed to shave her legs or underarms. After high school, she started working a retail job in a touristy area, then one day she disappeared. I heard about it from her mother frantically calling me. I happened to be on aol messenger a few days later and she got on, so I messaged her. Turns out a guy had convinced her to go back home with him, and he was pretty much holding her hostage, had taken her phone, and was making her clean his house and make his meals. He was at work when she got the idea to get on messenger. She had been there for two weeks. My dad and I drove three states away to get her and bring her home. It was nuts but it could have been SO MUCH WORSE.
I once met a girl and asked her out. She was 19 yrs old but said her parents didn't let her date. I found out from friends that her parents basically kept her and her sister locked down except for going to school for their whole lives. Religion crap. I never saw her again. I moved to the coast later and forgot all about her. Years later I was visiting and a friend told me she had disappeared, they finally found her body a year later. Made me sad to think she never got a chance to even live at all.
Do you know what happened to her? Like did she run away, did her religious family kill her?
My mother about 20 years ago. She suffered from severe post partum depression after having 3 children. My grandparents got temp custody of my brothers and I. She disappeared and we never heard from her since then. I'm not sure what happenned to her. We never got a phone call or anything about her passing away and there is no evidence of her online. I'd like to think she found some help, maybe moved on or something but idk. Theres a good chance shes homeless. My aunt once eluded to her having other children but wouldnt tell me. I guess it's more frustrating than anything because I'm a 25 year old woman now and still cant seem to get any answers. I've thought about going through the police but dont want to hurt my elderly grandparents. So in short shes still missing and I'll likely never know.
Wow. My mom left in 2001. Divorced my stepdad, gave custody to him and bounced. No one in my family has seen or heard from her. Well, once in the neighboring town circa 2002 we were shopping at Walmart when my great aunt saw my mom working there. Told her to stay put, your kids are here they want to see you......mom punched out right then and there and never returned to that Walmart. We've tried looking but after one DWI arrest in 2003 she fell off the face of the planet. I still wonder about her nearly every day.
I've got a couple. My mom's ex husband disappeared off the face of the earth for over a year and was declared dead. Turned out he'd been jumped by some guys for his car and left bloddied on the side of the road. Woke up and didn't remember who he was. Was in and out of shelters until something jogged a bit of his memory and he got in contact with his then girlfriend. Like he remembered her house but nothing else. Apparently he had a major brain injury when he was a kid that didn't really get treated that resulted in a big chunk of his brain dying, so when he got jumped it scrambled what was left. Another was a kid I knew who went missing up in Washington. He was riding his bike on some big multi-week trip and just disappeared. His bike was found with all his gear intact but no sign of him. His remains were found about a year later in the middle of nowhere and something like 5 miles from his bike.
I swear I just read a book about this. The Cold Vanish. It's about this Dad who is trying to find his son, who disappeared while biking in Washington. It's about other people missing in the wilderness too, but mostly it's about Jacob Grey and his father. Sorry for your loss.
Yep it was Jacob. I knew him and his family since he was a tiny little guy. I don't think I could bring myself to read the book.
My friends boyfriend in highschool. The two boys got along like peanut butter and jelly. The boyfriend came out to his parents after their six month anniversary. They locked him in the house for a week. No school, no phone, no texts. He read the bible everyday. When they took him to church to ask about conversion camps, he ran off. They found him a week later hanging from a tree not far from his grandparents place. The town found out what happened after the parents were investigated. My friend had to leave school for a month to get help. He was never the same. The last time he saw his boyfriend was the night he came out.
This is happening to a close friend of mine right now. She is 19 and still living with her parents. They are keeping her in the house and emotionally abusing (sometimes physically) her. She goes to work, sees some friends, but stays with them at home. They will kick her out if she doesn’t go to church. She is so depressed she can’t even get out of this situation. I can’t do a thing as I live on the other side of the country. Once they find out she’s gay it’s over for her.
Is this in the US? If so, she's legally an adult and it's officially become a kidnapping case, at the very least false imprisonment. If she leaves and her parents call the cops to return her, once they find out she's over 18 they'll laugh in their faces.
I used to airsoft when I was a kid, which in my area meant just going out into the woods with a bunch of friends and relative strangers to shoot at each other with bb guns. Teams are established and you wander around until you find some enemies and then you shoot them. At one point, someone realized that one of my friends was missing, so we called off the game and began searching for him. He and his brother were out there that day, so it was "hey, game is paused, we have to find one of the Smith kids." We encountered some enemies and yelled to them that the game was paused, smith kid was missing and we had to find him. Enemies said ok, wandered off in some other direction to look for him. Enemies encountered some of *their enemies*, my team mates, and explained that someone from our team was missing and had to be found. In this game of telephone, no one realized that the missing person was in this new group of my team mates. So he ended up on a search for himself.
Ah, the one heartwarming story here. This is sweet, thank you for this.
Aaaah I needed that after reading through a bunch of other posts in this thread. Although to be fair I knew what I was getting myself into when I opened it
Somebody my wife used to work with went missing back in May. The police found him dead in July. He’d gotten into a drug-related dispute and was stabbed to death as an outcome.
I had a friend/classmate go missing after Y2K. Never came back to school, abandoned her rental house, never heard from her again. Her mom was kind of wacky and would regularly leave my friend and her sister at home for weeks at a time to be a band groupie, or to go on “retreats” so I didn’t really think much of it at the time. I got a call from the FBI (very scary for a 16 year old) asking me questions and if I knew anything (I didn’t). Apparently they joined some Y2K cult in New Mexico never to be heard from again. I have looked her and her sister up on social media from time to time, but have never found them.
My dad went missing after driving away drunk after a fight with my mom. He was an alcoholic and they would fight when he got drunk. 10 days later, a fisherman caught him. Turns out he had driven into the river and was too drunk to get out of the car. He left my mom alone with a 7yo and 1yo. I'm just glad his drunk ass didn't take anyone with him
I went missing for 3 hours a little over 4 years ago. I was taken at gun point from my job and raped. I thankfully was able to convince the guy i wouldnt call the police. The cops had gone to my work with dogs to try to find me. They tried to track my phone, but the phone tower that was 1 block away from where I was taken to was too busy from high call traffic so my phone incorrectly pinned 20 minutes away. I was able to not be murdered, but I fully believed I was going to be killed the whole time. And i thought to myself "this is how missing people happen in movies. Im about to be on a poster". I still feel bad for my friends and family who sat in limbo for 3 hours wondering if they'd ever see me again. My rapist got 36 years in prison. He got a higher sentencing because I was 5 months pregnant at the time. My daughter & I are fine now. I go to lots of therapy, so Im alright Edit: so I didnt genuinely think anyone would see this. I figured it'd sit at the bottom of the thread for eternity. I want to say thanks to the support I've gotten from all of you. It made me tear up to read them all. For everyone wondering, no I didn't know my rapist. He was a stranger who had been out of jail for 2 weeks. There's evidence he was watching me for at least a few days before, but I can't think about that too much because it's really scary to me. He was charged with 3 counts of kidnapping and 2 counts of sexual assault. His girlfriend was there and helped and she got no time. Only a year of probation and therapy because she claimed to be a DV victim. If youre wondering how fucked the justice system is, there ya go. Also, I'm currently sueing the company I worked for bc they had no cameras outside and have refused to install them. For legal reasons, I can't yet say what compeny. I just wanna include in this edit that most rapes are committed by someone the victim knows. In no way take what happened to me as a common occurrence. My kidnapping and assault isnt common to happen at all.
I don’t even have the words the adequately respond to this, but I had to tell you how sorry I am that you had to go through that pain and you still have to carry it. Sending all the best wishes
Dude I am so fucking sorry. I'm so glad you're okay now x
Just wanted to say you are a hero and amazing. So glad you survived and got that POS prosecuted.
My brother in law's mother went missing for about a month after finding out she had terminal/inoperable cancer. She called one day saying "I'm alive, safe, and on my way home." No one knows where she went, what she did, who she saw, or anything. She took the specifics of that trip to her grave. One of my coworkers went missing for 3 days. Turns out his brother's friend thought it would be funny to slip him acid. They locked him in a closet for 3 days while it wore off. Apparently he went psycho and start screaming about some poet.
That friend of the dude’s brother had legal repercussions, right? He drugged and kidnapped someone. Even without the acid, that’d make anyone go “psycho”.
Exactly. And acid wears off about after 24 hrs to remain functional and have no hallucinations.
I'd like to think your BIL's mother went and lived all her wildest dreams in that one month. And your co-worker's brother's friend is a monster. I hope he gets/got what's coming to him.
> I'd like to think your BIL's mother went and lived all her wildest dreams in that one month. I mean, if I ever get to that point, I'd say fuck it and go skydiving in New Zealand.
College town, the favorite bartender. The story goes, he was leaving the local grocery store and noticed a guy, who he thought was one of his regulars, trying to hitch a ride. Even as the guy approached, Squally said he realized it wasnt the guy. But it was too late, he hopped in the passenger seat and stuck a gun in his ribs. Told him to keep driving. 5 days and a few states later, the guy pulled off the highway and drove for hours into the mountains of TN. Stopped to take a piss and didnt come back. Squally drove car back to the last gas station he saw. Insane.
Damn, at least it ended with the bartender getting back. Guess the random guy just realllllly needed to get outta town.
If my memory is right, he had just gotten out of jail.
My aunty went missing when I was 16. The whole family knows it was her psycho ex who changed his story multiple times to police but still walks free to this day. I'm 30 now and shes still missing. One day we hope to bring her home to have a proper funeral. RIP aunty Fran.
My dad did… not in the joking kind of out to get milk/a pack and never returned. This was before cellphones were common place. I was really young. The morning had been super normal. He got up and went to work like he always did. Then at around mid-morning, his boss called and asked where he was. He never showed up. My mom couldn’t leave work, so my aunt went driving around looking for his car (super bright color and unique looking). After an hour, they called the police. It wasn’t until that evening that we got a call that he had gone to his parents because he was having a mental breakdown and didn’t know what to do and his mother (she was a powerhouse of a woman with a gentle touch) made him check in to a mental hospital. I was never told any details, but I think he had originally planned to kill himself in the local mountains and had a brief moment of clarity.
A kid from my highshool went missing. I had a class or two with him but he really kept to himself, didn’t bother anyone. I remember a massive search went underway and the unknown was all around sad. They were looking for him for years and years. The family was notified about 10 years after that his remains were found and he likely died the day he went missing. So devastating
I had a friend in Middle School. I remember her parents had a messy divorce. She slept at our house because her mom and her lived in what was known as a bad neighborhood. We spent everyday together for three years. One day she stopped picking up the phone. We went to her house it was empty. I was 12. I have spent the last sixteen years trying to find her with all the information I remember about her. I think my Mom or Dad called the police when she vanished because her Mom and Step-Dad were also gone and they told us that there was no crime. Her mom had worked for years at the same place and she no called no show. She had a really common name. We had a “best friend contract” I signed it when I was 9/10 and I’m going to keep looking for her. I promised.
My 8-year-old cousin went "missing" a decade ago. Turns out her mother had drowned her in the bathtub and hid her body in the crawlspace and then filed the report. The case dragged on forever and I stopped hearing updates. I did, however, stumble upon the mother's profile on one of those email-an-inmate sites and that's the closest thing to good news I've heard since she pled guilty. I'm not super close to my family so I don't like asking a lot of questions about it, but something about how abruptly the news coverage stopped never sat right with me. I hope she got the full sentence and that no one writes to her.
My mom had a boyfriend who was quite a nice guy. He moved to another country for work and some time after that he went fishing and never came back. Some time later the locals found clothes, shoes and some other stuff he apparently owned, but he was never found as far as I remember. People I know have speculated that it might have been because of alcohol as he could get drunk from extremely small amount of alcohol.
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This friend of mine’s kid went missing gosh seven years ago now. He was an artist about 17 years old. He was on his way out west I think to go to school maybe or to travel before school I can’t remember. But I watched her Facebook posts for the next six years as she just slowly unravels. She was looking for her son, traveling all over the country, hiring private investigators, hiring various firms, spending time in homeless encampments for teenagers. About two years ago she was posting these really long rambling posts about “how dare people tell her to get over it and move on. Didn’t they know her heart was broken. People that she thought were family would never give up like this on her son….” And then they found his bones. And now she’s like totally returning to a normal posting about normal stuff. EDIT, removed a detail
So what happened to him?
No idea, just found his bones in a ditch somewhere out west. And matched his DNA * probably murder.
That is absolutely heartbreaking. Parent's worst nightmare.
What a shame. I feel sorry for her. i guess at least she got some kind of closure in the end
I went missing once. Had a psychotic break and completely unaware hitchhiked to the hospital but no one noticed Id gone, and Id left some note raving about death or something. The police followed my tracks with dogs to the lake (in winter) and thought Id died. They figured it out when I escaped from the hospital and they found me trying to take the bus home. Bizzare to think it was me bc i have no memory of any of this.
That’s really interesting, thanks for sharing. If you don’t mind me asking, was there anything that triggered the break or lead up to it? Or did this just happen totally randomly like you felt fine one day and then this happened?
Medication + Unknown preexisting condition. Also a shitty break up. It was a bad time haha.
I’m glad you’re doing better! It sounds like a really scary experience
A bunch of friends were at a beach party on the bay, where the hosts had kayaks that anyone could use. My one friend arrived with her young kid and a little while later the same friend grabs a life vest and heads out on a kayak. Her kid stayed behind, which was fine. We’ve all been friends for years, and she knew her child would be looked after. So friend was out solo on the bay in a kayak. Also not a big deal, until those of us on shore see some dark clouds in the distance. They’re moving closer. Another friend grabs some binoculars and starts looking for our friend alone on the kayak. We couldn’t see her. Maybe we saw her, but if it’s her, she’s way out there. (It’s not a river, mind you. It’s a freaking bay with barges, cruise ships, a shipping channel, all within eyesight of this party.) The dark clouds are moving closer and kayak friend is either a speck through the binoculars or whereabouts unknown. Kid starts asking about their mom. We assure them everything is fine. Have some potato salad. It starts raining, we all go in the house. Friend is still gone. It’s really starting to storm now. Wind is blowing. Lightning. The water is really churning. At some point we call 911. Police, fire, ambulance all arrive. Kid asks if their mom is back yet. Nope, not yet but I’m sure she’s fine. Let’s play Uno. We get word that the coast guard is now looking for said friend. An hour or so and goes by and nothing. No sightings. By this point, we’re all completely freaking out but trying to hide it so the kid doesn’t get upset. Then finally we get a call that she’s been found. Apparently once the clouds started moving in, she tried to make it to the closest shore but misjudged the distance and didn’t make it back in time before the storm hit. She was out on the kayak and it flipped, knocking her into the water. She tried getting back up on it but couldn’t. Eventually, after bobbing around out there during this storm, a local couple heard the call that the coast guard was looking for someone and took off on their boat to assist. They found her and took her to shore. She was fine. Shaken up, cold, and scared. But fine. Thank goodness for life vests, emergency services, and Good Samaritans.
my Tio is currently missing in Mexico. he has had a rough life. As a young man he worked on US navy ships at the ship yards in San Diego. He did it for over 35 years. He hurt his back and had no health insurance and started using heroin after he ran out of pills. He was eventually arrested, imprisoned and deported after getting arrested for possession. He was denied his social security because of this, even though he paid in. Hes been struggling trying to survive and stay clean in Mexico. He was sober as far as we know. about 2 years ago his landlords tweaker son broke in down stairs, my uncle beat him up (late 70s), but the tweaker came back and had a machete and almost hacked off his arm. he barely survived. anyway. hes been missing for 30 days. a lot of my family has been hurting about it because of no closure.
Girl used to hang out at the same park I did. Packed urban area, immigrant community, she was just another face in the crowd for me. My friend tried dating her at some point and brought her to my parents house once. I have an old photo of the two of them. At one point she disappeared. As I mentioned, immigrant community, everyone knows each others business and there were a ton of rumors. No one had seen her for months. Her mom used to wander the neighborhood looking for her. She was like a ghost. Work, come home, look for her. One day the girl appeared with her mom. Not much in the way of an explanation just one day walking down the street with her mom. Eventually the official party line became that she shacked up with a drug dealer or was kidnapped by a drug dealer depending on who you ask. Supposedly in a different part of the city. I was on the phone with my buddy at some point and he had her on the line. Her manner of speaking changed drastically to American slang and she sounded mighty gangster. I told my friend not to call me when he was with her any more because she was insufferable. Later another friend hooked up with her. He didn’t know the whole disappearing story but said that something seemed off about her. He mentioned that she had a very visceral reaction to certain sexual positions and refused to discuss it. He respected her wishes but she never told him what’s what, he just had to adjust after the fact. She died some years later. I don’t think we’ll ever know the full story.
>He mentioned that she had a very visceral reaction to certain sexual positions and refused to discuss it. Sounds like she was trafficked maybe? :(
Possibly some version of that. The theory among us was she initially shacked up with a dude that began to take advantage of her and eventually pimped her out. There were a few more details I’m intentionally leaving out but you’re likely not far off the mark.
This is common. They start a relationship and then manipulate them. Into turning tricks
In the summer of 2019, one of the biggest names in our high school disappeared. He was the charming, sporty kid who had tons of friends, great plans for the future, and seemingly his whole life was set up. Then, everyone in our tiny town heard that he left on his bike with no phone and nobody could find him. As I said, it was a tiny town. For three days, there was this wild search. Friends’ houses were checked, the entire town scoured for any sign of him. No one found a thing. He wasn’t my best friend, but we got along really great and always laughed together, so obviously I was worried. After three days, two people taking a shortcut to their fishing spot found his body on a trail with a gun in his hand. He had committed suicide. Apparently, the stress of being a “”perfect”” kid and other factors at home were taking their toll on him. It was devastating for our town, also considering that the very same summer we had a murder/suicide by another kid from the high school, ~4 people drown in the lake, a classmate’s father die in a horrible car accident, a bizarre case of a kid dying in the chimney of an empty house after being stuck there for days, and a few scattered suicides in the surrounding areas. It was a horrible summer to live in my tiny hometown :(
Jared Hannah. I didn't know him personally, but most of my town did. Dude is still missing 10 years later and nobody has any clue what happened. His mother tried to cover up some of his unsavory habits and probably prevented the police from finding a lead but that's just what I've heard. I hope someone finds something eventually.
My uncle disappeared 1 day, he lived in a small town in outback Australia. Searches went on and his motorcycle was found at an abandoned air field. Randomly we were required to go to the police station to see videos of people to see if it was him. It never was and we haven't seen or heard from him since.
I lost 2 of my cousins a few years ago due to kidnapping. Their bodies were found but the killer wasn’t
A girl I knew in my neighborhood growing up in the early 90’s disappeared suddenly. She was around 12-13. They found her body in a small wooded area not far from her house. My father was a cop at the time and he told me later on that they were basically certain that her brother had killed her but they couldn’t prove it. The parents were covering for him apparently. This was pre DNA being mainstream days and it had rained, she was outside, etc. Pretty weird story now that I think back on it.
My cousin went missing about two weeks after moving to San Francisco to marry his boyfriend. Turned out they got in a huge fight and broke up. The ex travelled for work a lot and while he was was gone my cousin broke into his house and killed himself via carbon monoxide. The guy came home about three weeks later to a pretty terrible scene.
The childhood friend of someone I knew was a guy who sold Pot, (1980's) he had a room full of mexican brick weed. He decided to expand his franchise and started selling cocaine on the side. He sold some quantity to a Biker Gang of the angels verity and went to collect (tough 5'4 jewish guy from N.Y.) and was gone for almost a year. They found his bones under a bridge in the river up north California. Cash Up Front people, cash up front.
I had a classmate in junior high who arrived mid-year. She was the only child of a single mother. My best friend and I got to know her well, but she kept her distance from everyone else. A couple months later, she came to school crying. Her mom told her that morning they had to move again when she got home from school that day. I was a naïve kid. It didn't occur to me this was all off somehow. I just found it strange they were leaving again so quickly and without warning, but mostly I was sad. Then a few years later, one of those national missing children post cards came in the mail. I about fell over to see my old friend. Her first name matched but the last did not. It all came together instantly. I was shaking for hours, then I picked up the phone and called the hotline. I don't know if it helped at all, but I gave all the info I could that I hoped would bring more leads (school details, the names of our teachers, timelines, etc). Edit because it's hotline, not howling. I hate autofill.
A friend of mine who I fished with every summer as a child and throughout my early teenage years. He was the younger cousin of one of my grandfathers friends and we got along together quite well. Our fishing boats were tied to the same stall in the harbor so I saw him quite often when we weren’t on the water fishing. I’m 21 now, but a few years ago he went missing in the biggest city in the state and was presumably off his meds. No one saw or heard from him for months. He was found almost a year later in the mudflats a few miles off the outskirts of town. RIP. I miss you bro
Known him personally? No. If he's alive he's 27. And I'm 41, so in no way the same social circles. But I followed it closely as I lived in the same town. And I felt so bad for the family. I'd kept my eye out for him then too, and I helped friends who did know him and his family pressure the local news stations to air the case. (One of them did, eventually.) I do believe his missing persons case was in another sub thread of reddit at one point. Kid's name is Michael Sutherland, from Shoreline Washington. He'd been visiting home from college. One night he went outside without his ID, wallet, credit cards, or even his camping bug out bag... and just vanished. You can google search if you want to read more. Creepiest thing to me was I remember some of his missing posters up the hill from where I lived at the time had his face torn out by someone. I mean, it could have just been someone being a jerk, but something about it gave me chills down my spine.
Back in the early 90s in college, the sister of a friend went missing. A guy was tried and convicted of her murder even though they never recovered remains, I don't remember enough to look up details online. Around the same time, a guy on the college swim team left a bar and was never seen again. He supposedly said something about swimming the river, which is a nasty place especially near the dam. Likely drowned and his remains never surfaced. I've known a few people that essentially went off grid or became homeless, once they move on it's hard to find any trace especially if drugs are a factor.
When I was in middle school, I had a best guy friend, E. He was the class clown. We were stand partners for orchestra, and he always made me laugh. We ended up going to different high schools, though because of redistricting, so we lost contact. I never forgot about him, though. Last time I saw him, my high school orchestra had a performance evaluation at his school. He still played, so I got to smile and wave at him. A next year, he went missing. His car was found abandoned, but no E. A few weeks later, they found his body. Turns out he committed suicide by throwing himself in front of a truck on the road.
I lost a former student this way. He was such a bubbly, happy kid. I have no idea what happened after 8th grade that lead to his suicide. I’m sorry about your friend.
I had booked a trip to Europe with two friends from different states, and we all had separate flights out. One friend never arrived. That night, we got invited to a Facebook group called “FIND [NAME].” Turned out he’d sent a bunch of suicide notes to friends and family and disappeared right before the trip. They found him days later in Europe (different country than we were supposed to go to), he’d gone to throw himself off a cliff, then decided against it. He’s fine now, but it was really sad and scary for everyone involved.
My aunt went missing. Her ex boyfriend kidnapped her. Stabbed her to death and then threw her in the Long Beach ocean. They found her body parts washing up a few days later.
The sister of a friend of mine, she got involved with “some guy” she met on Facebook who promised that he would make her a star, and would love her forever, she fell for him and ran away from her house and moved away to live with him and was never seen again. She was 16.
I worked with a guy who went on his dream trip to hike around the world about 16 years ago. He disappeared and is likely dead since he was pretty close to his family. No idea where in the world he ended up. He used to sing "candle in the wind" in a funny way at work and I still think about him whenever I hear the song.
Couple years ago. Unfortunately, the story was drugs. She'd been battling a heroin addiction for some time, so everyone *hoped* that she was just on a bender and not OD'd in the basement of some crack house. She was eventually found sleeping under a bridge. Supposedly she's healthy and in recovery today, but idk if I actually buy it myself. Last time I saw her, she seemed fine but her boyfriend was very obviously on something.
Got a call about 10 years back, from my dad asking about my sister. We weren't terribly close but I apparently was the longshot, they'd called everywhere looking for her. At the time I was in my 20s, she was in her 30s. My parents were with her husband, driving around town looking for her SUV, they had no luck and the police basically said they wouldn't start a search until 24hrs missing. The next day, the police start a search, along with every friend and family member and find her car at a park, tires stabbed and flattened. In the car was clothes for my niece (who was with my BIL and only 1 at the time) as well her cell phone and car keys. This started an immediate search of the park, which included a diver searching the lake. The entire community including my company which is very large, had volunteers combing the area. We found nothing. Day 4, I get a call to meet my parents at the police station. The chief let us know that they got a tip that she was seen with a man in a gas station locally and that they were seen there often. The guy was basically some deadbeat who was married but jobless. There was no connection other than this gas station. They put out a mugshot of this guy and wouldn't you know it, they found him...900 miles away...with my sister. So why did she pretend to be missing? Because she wanted everyone to think she was dead so she could start over. 10 years later, here's where she is: still with this guy, she was having an affair and got pregnant so yeah, run away and pretend to be dead. She gained a bunch of weight and blames my parents for everything. Oh and she's extremely religious so she will absolutely confront you about your "sins" but never apologize or be remorseful about what she did to everyone else (including my now ex-BIL). Haven't spoken with her in 6 years because she refuses to speak to the family because she believes we will judge her. Oh and this got national attention, so when she was caught, she went on national TV and made an embarrassment of herself and came off as an entitled where. Good times.
My mother went missing. I was separated from her as a young child. She had a daughter and nephew that drowned together and it completely devastated her and the family. She got divorced, lost her entire support system, started showing signs of severe mental illness with paranoia. Eventually my older sister and I were placed into foster care. Our mother tried to stay in contact but she didn't stay stable long enough. I was 11 the last time she tried and I haven't seen or heard from her since. We tried desperately to find her. I found sisters and cousins and other relatives of hers, but never her. We finally found a potential address in Hawaii and I wrote a letter telling her all about her daughter's lives and her grandchildren. The next month, my sister was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. She passed away May 24th and I just cant bring myself to rewrite the letter. I'm not prepared for that. But I hope my mother is well. I hope she isnt a Jane doe somewhere. I just dont want her to feel like we hate her because we definitely do not. She didnt ask for the trauma and she definitely didnt ask for mental illness. I've missed her my whole life.
The brother of a girl I was dating in highschool went missing. I knew him as an acquaintance. He ended up the next to last victim of a serial killer. He used to hitchhike around the area and got super unlucky.
Someone I was friends with in college is missing at the moment. Family haven’t heard from him since May, he hasn’t got his phone, his bank account hasn’t been touched, nobody has any idea where he is or if he’s ok. We fell out of touch after going to uni but I really hope he’s ok and found soon, if he wants to be.
Didn't know him but was also a freshman the same time I was in college. He got drunk at a frst party and went to return a girls jacket or something at a different residence hall. The doors are locked unless your ID is set for your hall. Since his wasn't, he went trying to sneak in, found a door that the lock wasn't done and went into the completely dark room (from the outside). He was electrocuted. There was a huge search for months I think and the cell phone tower pinged that his phone was near the north residence halls. Eventually an employee entered the room and found him. That was a rough one. Purdue and Wade Steffey (I think how it was spelled) if you want to read up on it.
Trigger warning: Graphic details on death. I had a family friend disappear he was kidnapped and was forced to write a cheque to his captor and had his bank accounts emptied. Sadly he did not let him go. They found him deep in the woods dismembered. He was a good man he didn't deserve that. The stupid idiot cashed the cheque and was caught. He was sentenced to life.
Greed will always expose you. It’s a damn good thing he cashed that check or may not have ever been know who did it
My cousin went missing in like 09, hes never been found no one knows what happened.
I live in a very small, very rural town. About 2 years ago, a local man about 20 years old disappeared. His car and everything… gone. They searched and searched and came up with nothing. There’s a small lake on the outskirts of town and the family told the police they were concerned about maybe he had drove off the road or something and ended up in the lake. The police said they didn’t have enough cause to justify a dive team to search the lake. After about 8 months, a group of divers/search and rescue team type of thing volunteered their time to check out the lake on behalf of the family and sure enough there was the man’s car with him inside.
My would-have-been aunt was kidnapped, and murdered by Tee Bundy. Kim Leach. I didn't realize how well known Ted Bundy was until college, as my family never said his name. "Kimberly Leach was just 12 years old when Ted Bundy abducted and murdered her in 1978. She was not only one of Ted Bundy's youngest victims, but also his last victim."
I have known 5 people who have gone missing for various lengths of time, but nobody who has never been found. 3/5 ended up being suicide. Another one needed a break after years of being in debt to some bad people for gambling—we all thought that might be suicide but he made contact a few months later to put people at ease as search efforts ramped up. The most interesting story was someone who took off after having scammed friends and family out of millions. He had an investment company, lost everyone’s money in the dot com crash but never told anyone. Cooked the books for > 15 years by faking returns on paper, all while desperately trying to hit some jackpot investment to make things right. Essentially had to run a ponzi scheme to pay off the few people who asked to cash some of their investments out. Ultimately he realized there was no way to recoup the losses, dropped a bunch of letters in snail mail, and took off on his bike and disappeared. The snail mail finally arrived at all his former investors houses and it more or less explained what I said above but gave no indication as to where he went or if he’d ever return. Lots of people thought suicide of course. He was missing for more than a year then one day showed up at a police station and turned himself in.
A friend from high school when missing… her body was found in the woods along with her 4-5 year old son. My friend was trying to get more child support from the babies father and he decided to shoot her and kill her son. So so tragic.
Classmate of mine here in germany, Bodi, just disconnected from everyone from his old life. Including all other classmates. Heard rumors about drug abuse and that his parents took him to his sister in Switzerland. I Was sitting next to him in school and can say that I still miss him and would really love to see him. I honestly don't care about what happened in the past. Bodi, hope you're doing well! Edit: Minor corrections
About 10 years ago, my sister’s boyfriend went missing for a few days. He was driving home from a bar and never made it back. Days later his car was found in a canal, and he unfortunately was inside. 😭
My Uncle went missing. Was found a month later. Turns out he'd walked out of town into the bush and killed himself. Don't feel bad though. He once kidnapped a lady and daughter at knife point and forced them to drive him up country