Mystery Unexplained Missing Persons Cases

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One case I remember from the TV Show 'Unsolved Mysteries' hosted by the late Robert Stack was the puzzling vanishing of Tammy Lynn Leppert in Florida in 1983. Tammy had been a child/teenage beauty pageant contestant, winning many titles, and at around the age of 18 moved into acting. According to Tammy's mother and younger brother, she had never shown any signs of mental illness growing up, but after working on a small part in a movie she returned home a changed girl, paranoid and fearful. She spoke of people wanting to kill her, and behaved in other strange ways too, such as fearing that the neighbors were using their new van to watch her, falling apart on a movie set and having a meltdown when she thought her brother had locked her out of the house. Her family sought help for her, but whatever was going on was never fully ascertained. One day she vanished completely, and nearly 40 years later has not been seen nor heard from since.

Mental illness might be the most logical cause, but there were no signs of this beforehand, and would it come on so quickly? There was no evidence of Tammy using drugs that affected her mind. And if Tammy had seen or heard something she wasn't supposed to and people really did want to kill her, wouldn't they have done so as quickly as possible rather than let this go on for months?
 

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emuboy said:
One case I remember from the TV Show 'Unsolved Mysteries' hosted by the late Robert Stack was the puzzling vanishing of Tammy Lynn Leppert in Florida in 1983. Tammy had been a child/teenage beauty pageant contestant, winning many titles, and at around the age of 18 moved into acting. According to Tammy's mother and younger brother, she had never shown any signs of mental illness growing up, but after working on a small part in a movie she returned home a changed girl, paranoid and fearful. She spoke of people wanting to kill her, and behaved in other strange ways too, such as fearing that the neighbors were using their new van to watch her, falling apart on a movie set and having a meltdown when she thought her brother had locked her out of the house. Her family sought help for her, but whatever was going on was never fully ascertained. One day she vanished completely, and nearly 40 years later has not been seen nor heard from since.

Mental illness might be the most logical cause, but there were no signs of this beforehand, and would it come on so quickly? There was no evidence of Tammy using drugs that affected her mind. And if Tammy had seen or heard something she wasn't supposed to and people really did want to kill her, wouldn't they have done so as quickly as possible rather than let this go on for months?
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After reading this yesterday i had a quick look at it,there was a beauty pageant killer who killed half a dozen girls in her state/area that died the following year..... so they coudn't continue investigating him, and a shady ex bf who she was afraid of who could have been involved in drugs or something but wasn't a suspect,her parents tried to follow it up and hired lawyers but later dropped it maybe they were getting nowhere.

There are stories that she was dating many men alot older than her as you do in Hollywood when you are young and beautiful.

After her first short part in a movie she attended a party and after she returned home that's when she started acting wierd.

Of course we don't know but just at a guess she got involved with the wrong crowd perhaps actors and she saw something or took something that messed her up.
But it seems something happened to triggered it off and then her disappearance.
 
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Night Train said:
After reading this yesterday i had a quick look at it,there was a beauty pageant killer who killed half a dozen girls in her state/area that died the following year..... so they coudn't continue investigating him, and a shady ex bf who she was afraid of who could have been involved in drugs or something but wasn't a suspect,her parents tried to follow it up and hired lawyers but later dropped it maybe they were getting nowhere.

There are stories that she was dating many men alot older than her as you do in Hollywood when you are young and beautiful.

After her first short part in a movie she attended a party and after she returned home that's when she started acting wierd.

Of course we don't know but just at a guess she got involved with the wrong crowd perhaps actors and she saw something or took something that messed her up.
But it seems something happened to triggered it off and then her disappearance.
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Sounds typical of Hollywood.
 
One very strange case was the disappearance of two young Dutch women Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon in Panama in 2014. The two girls travelled from their homes in The Netherlands to Panama, and vanished while hiking on a trail in the Panamanian jungle. After three months some of the girls' belongings and skeletal remains were found confirming that they had died, but just what happened remains a mystery as follows:

1. The girls walked the trail on the day before they had booked a tour to hike the same trail with a professional guide as part of a tour group the very next day.
2. The taxi driver who drove the two girls to the start of the trail said he dropped the girls there in the early afternoon, however photos taken from the girls' recovered cameras showing them on the hike are dated earlier in the day.
3. The girls took with them the dog of the host family they were staying with, and the dog returned home on his own unharmed that evening.
4. The girls carried with them a backpack along with their mobile phones and cameras, as well as some toilet paper. However, despite the warm and humid weather prone to rapid change in the tropics of Central America neither of them had a hat, they took no food or extra clothes, and just one bottle of water.
5. Photographs taken early on the hike show the girls happy and smiling, taken from close up, some selfies together, others of the girls alone. However photographs later in the afternoon are from much further away, some from behind, none together and the girls look unhappy and apprehensive.
6. A series of bizarre photographs of the night sky, the trees of the forest in the darkness, some toilet paper and the back of one of the girls' heads are taken, none of which make any sense are those found next on the camera. One photograph and one photograph alone is found to have been deleted.
7. Analysis of the girls phones show that they attempted to use them several times to call emergency services, but there was inadequate reception on the trail. Despite both phones having a video camera function, the girls took no videos, not even on the early part of their hike. And there were several attempts to use one phone that were unsuccessful due to an incorrect PIN being used.
8. The missing backpack was located near a river. Both girls' bras and sunglasses were in the backpack, along with cash and the phones and cameras and water bottle. The denim shorts one of the girls was wearing were also found.
9. Skeletal remains of the two missing girls were found, but very few bones, most were missing, and those found were in a completely different condition. One girl's bones showed evidence of bleaching, the other's did not. And forensic analysis showed no definite cause of death, nor animals chewing at the bones.
10. The taxi driver who drove the girls to their hike died prematurely several months later.

So while the two missing girls definitely died and this could be used as a cautionary tale to Western tourists visiting out of the way places in Asia, Africa, Australia and the Americas, nobody has ever been able to explain how they died. Did they take a wrong turn, get lost and succumb to the elements over several days due to inadequate supplies? Did they fall to their deaths from an embankment or waterfall? Did they fall prey to carnivorous animals? Or were they victims of foul play?

The strange circumstances and contradictory evidence suggest that this question may never be answered definitely.
 
Stories of vanishings of passengers from cruise ships are plentiful enough to have their own thread, but one particularly strange case was that of Amy Lynn Bradley in 1998. To give a brief background on the case, Amy Bradley was a 23-year-old college graduate from Virginia, who accompanied her parents and younger brother on a cruise in the Caribbean.

Apart from Amy being unusually apprehensive about the planned holiday beforehand, nothing untoward happened and these misgivings were soon forgotten as the family had a great time. Several days into the cruise, it was noted that some male members of crew seemed maybe a little too attentive towards Amy, fawning over her and with some wanting them to go ashore with them at Aruba to a bar named Carlos and Charlie's. If the name of the bar sounds familiar it should - it was the same place where missing Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway was last seen when she vanished from the island in 2005.

In any case, Amy politely refused any such invitations from crew members, and the night before the ship was to make a stop at Curacao there was a calypso party aboard, which Amy attended with her family, she and her brother returning later than their parents. The next morning Amy was seen on the balcony by her family, but after that she suddenly seemed to vanish. When she could not be found the family notified the relevant shipboard authorities, and it looked as though she might have accidentally fallen overboard, but witnesses during the search reported seeing Amy in public areas of the ship after her parents and brother last sighted her. The ship was searched, and by now had docked at Curacao, where more searches were conducted on the island.

All searches were to no avail, and then something more bizarre happened. All pictures taken by ships photographers of Amy Bradley and which could be purchased from guest services were found to be missing. No subsequent official searches for Amy were successful, but during the late 1990s and into the early 2000s sightings of the missing young woman were reported from Curacao by a variety of witnesses. Many reported seeing several tattoos Amy was known to have, and her unusual green eyes. In all reports one ominous thing was constant, she was always in the company of and seemingly controlled by several sinister and unfriendly men. One 1999 sighting took place in a brothel but the man who allegedly saw her feared problems with his employer if he was found to be in such a place, so did not report it for a number of years. During the early 2000s online photographs of a sex worker in the area called 'Jazz' who looked much like Amy were sighted.

So what happened to Amy Bradley? Did she fall over the balcony railing that morning, with witnesses mistaken about who they saw or when? Did she fall victim to homicide on the ship, and her body disposed of during the stop at Curacao? Or was she targeted and abducted as part of a human trafficking operation, and forced to work as a prostitute on the island? This would explain the sightings on Curacao for some years afterwards, but in high profile missing persons cases there are often mistaken sightings of people who had vanished for some time after, with no more of Amy reported after 2005.

The case is sadly still unsolved, and Amy Bradley whatever her fate has now been missing longer than she was alive.
 
The Madeline McCann disappearance was a strange case in 2007, but several months later there was arguably an even stranger one from the UK, that of Andrew Gosden on 14th September 2007.

To give some brief background, Andrew was 14-years-old at the time, lived in Doncaster Yorkshire with his parents and sister and was a bright boy for his age, especially in the field of maths. In fact the previous summer (2006) he had attended an academic camp for intelligent teenagers and children, and absolutely loved it. Andrew liked computer games, but apparently only liked one player games. He never played online, nor did he apparently use the internet, have an email address or have a mobile phone, a bit unusual for a teenager by 2007. At school he had a small circle of friends, but did not socialize with them outside of school and wasn't involved in sports or activities such as scouts.

On the morning of 14-Sep-2007 - a Friday - Andrew dressed and left for school as usual, but after everybody had gone he snuck back into the house, changed out of his uniform and left again. He then withdrew 200 pounds in cash from an ATM. went to the train station and purchased a one way ticket to London. He was seen on the train by witnesses and was caught on CCTV at Kings Cross Station when the train arrived in London, but after that vanished from sight and was never seen again.

In the weeks leading up to his disappearance there had been a few odd things, such as Andrew changing some of his routines, but nothing that would unduly alarm a parent, sibling or teacher. His grandmother lived in London but Andrew did not turn up there, and in fact had turned down the opportunity to spend several weeks in London in the summer holidays, so its not like he was yearning to visit there. There were no known family problems nor problems at school such as bullying, so the reasons for him running away in such bizarre circumstances were not clear. Obviously there was a theory that Andrew might have been groomed by a pedophile and abducted, but the chances of this were restricted by Andrew's lack of socialization either in person or online. Some suggested that he might have met a predator while attending the camp, but this was a whole year before. And in any case, if a person had been wanting to abduct Andrew, this approach - encouraging the boy to cut school and buy a train ticket to London to meet him - is too random and risky and would attract attention.

All subsequent sightings and leads in the case went nowhere, and has sadly now reached the point in time which I have heard family members of people who disappeared or died young say is very hard, realizing that your loved one has now been deceased or disappeared longer than they were alive.
 
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A few have caught my eye lately...
- Jordan Marshall - missing after a bushfire in Margaret River. Some things don't add up.

- Jerimiah Rivers - missing after a camping trip with 6 other friends who have differing stories.

- Logan Lusardo - last seen walking in the early hours of the morning in late November. Another weird one.
 
The disappearance of British tourist David Eason from Fraser Island in March 2001 was very strange. Eason was part of a tour group exploring Queensland Fraser's Island, and declined to go on a walk with the guides and rest of the group, but stay and sunbake near Lake Wabby and meet the others back at the bus at an arranged time. The time came and went with no trace of David Eason, who could not be found that day and for many days afterwards.

He and his possessions seemed to just vanish from the face of Fraser Island, leaving no clues to suggest what had become of him, extensive searches finding nothing. Theories were put forward - he had fallen victim to dingoes, met with foul play, had perished by misadventure either on land or in the sea, or had taken his own life, possibly by drowning. However, all had major flaws - dingoes were unlikely to attack an adult and would have left some trace of their activity, if murdered how could this be done in a busy area of the island, he hadn't wanted to go swimming (and in which case what of his possessions?) and given a search had been commenced just hours after his last sighting he surely would have been found plus there was an absence of tracks, and suicide seemed unlikely. If he had been murdered, the body must have been buried deep in the sand or removed from the island either by burial at sea or concealing him in a vehicle or boat and taking him back to the mainland, a big risk with so many people around.

Then in 2003 Eason's skeletal remains and possessions were found near Lake Wabby less than a kilometer from where he was last seen in an area extensively searched at the time, and where many people in two years since would have gone through. So while David Eason met with an Earth-bound fate, how he was missed during the search and his body not found for two years afterwards in a busy area of Fraser Island is not easily explained.
 
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Two unrelated young men with the unusual surname Negrete both vanished without trace in mysterious circumstances in California at opposite ends of the 1990s.

On July 19 1991 12-year-old Jared Negrete was hiking with his Scout troop in the San Bernadino National Park when he became separated from the other boys and the troop leaders and vanished into the forest. The only trace ever found of him was his camera.

Then on 10th December 1999, 18-year-old college freshman Michael Negrete disappeared from the UCLA campus in Los Angeles after attending a party and playing video games with other students. No sign of Negrete could be found, and family, friends, fellow students and law enforcement were baffled by the out of character vanishing of the young man, with nothing suspicious seen or heard the night he went missing.

Decades later, Jared and Michael Negrete's disappearances are cold cases, neither boy seen or heard from in the years since.
 
Drakescoffeecake said:
A few have caught my eye lately...
- Jordan Marshall - missing after a bushfire in Margaret River. Some things don't add up.

- Jerimiah Rivers - missing after a camping trip with 6 other friends who have differing stories.

- Logan Lusardo - last seen walking in the early hours of the morning in late November. Another weird one.
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I am surprised the Jeremiah Rivers disappearance hasn't gained any momentum with the media

Basically, disappeared from his travel party of 5 or 6 and authorities or family never notified until 3 days after he disappeared

One of the party members recently arrested for assault charges also and has strong ties with a Bikie Group
 
Twisters are unfortunately all too common in the Midwestern and Gulf States of America and are terrifying for those who encounter them at close hand.

A particularly bad tornado struck the town of Woodward Oklahoma in April of 1947, killing close to 200 people, injuring scores more and causing major damage to property. One family whose house was destroyed were the Croft family of four, husband, wife and two daughters, one aged 12 and the younger daughter Joan aged 4.

The parents were severely injured in the twister - Mrs. Croft would die of her injuries and Mr. Croft would require months of intensive care in hospital - and while the daughters were injured and understandably traumatized, they were not life threatening. The girls were taken to an understandably severely overworked hospital and were to wait for their injuries to be seen by doctors, along with many other children in a similar situation.

Other doctors, nurses and medical staff arrived from out of town to help in the relief effort, so it was not a real surprise when two doctors arrived in the ward where the girls were staying, taking Joan away for treatment. The older sister felt something was off about the two young medics, and tried to alert nurses and other doctors to her suspicions, but the overworked medical staff thought the sister was understandably upset about the traumatic day especially losing her mother and paid the concerns little heed, assuring the girl that her sister was no doubt safe in a different ward.

It was only when things started to calm down and all non-critical patients had been seen that medical staff realized there was no sign of Joan Croft among the injured and misplaced children, and a search yielded no results. The police were notified, and lots of people remembered the two young men who led Joan away. In the confusion, staff and fellow patients assumed the men were doctors, male nurses or paramedics from out of town assigned to help with the disaster; or relatives of the Croft family, especially given that the men asked a receptionist for Joan specifically when they arrived.

Neither Joan nor the two mystery men who abducted her were ever seen or heard from again, and not a trace of them could be found. Joan Croft would now be 80-years-old, so possibly still alive to this day, but if any elderly ladies had vague childhood memories of being Joan Croft they haven't come forward to date.

There have always been evil predators who might take advantage of this type of situation to abduct a child, but if this was the intention of these men, why did they ask for a specific child upon arrival rather than just carry out an abduction at random in the confusion? The answer remains as big a mystery today as when it happened over 76-years-ago.
 
I came across the missing person case of Steven Clark. I also listened to podcast that his sister was on. Very interesting case given the circumstances of the disappearance.

On the 28th of December 1992, 23 year old Steven Clark went on a walk with his Mum Doris to the beach in Saltburn in North Yorkshire. He made a trip to the public toilets when he arrived at the beach and when he didn't come out his Mum assumed he had just returned home. He had not and that day he seemed to just vanish into thin air. Steven hasn't been seen since and his case has taken many bizarre twists and turns in the 30 years since he disappeared.
 
emuboy said:
The Madeline McCann disappearance was a strange case in 2007, but several months later there was arguably an even stranger one from the UK, that of Andrew Gosden on 14th September 2007.

To give some brief background, Andrew was 14-years-old at the time, lived in Doncaster Yorkshire with his parents and sister and was a bright boy for his age, especially in the field of maths. In fact the previous summer (2006) he had attended an academic camp for intelligent teenagers and children, and absolutely loved it. Andrew liked computer games, but apparently only liked one player games. He never played online, nor did he apparently use the internet, have an email address or have a mobile phone, a bit unusual for a teenager by 2007. At school he had a small circle of friends, but did not socialize with them outside of school and wasn't involved in sports or activities such as scouts.

On the morning of 14-Sep-2007 - a Friday - Andrew dressed and left for school as usual, but after everybody had gone he snuck back into the house, changed out of his uniform and left again. He then withdrew 200 pounds in cash from an ATM. went to the train station and purchased a one way ticket to London. He was seen on the train by witnesses and was caught on CCTV at Kings Cross Station when the train arrived in London, but after that vanished from sight and was never seen again.

In the weeks leading up to his disappearance there had been a few odd things, such as Andrew changing some of his routines, but nothing that would unduly alarm a parent, sibling or teacher. His grandmother lived in London but Andrew did not turn up there, and in fact had turned down the opportunity to spend several weeks in London in the summer holidays, so its not like he was yearning to visit there. There were no known family problems nor problems at school such as bullying, so the reasons for him running away in such bizarre circumstances were not clear. Obviously there was a theory that Andrew might have been groomed by a pedophile and abducted, but the chances of this were restricted by Andrew's lack of socialization either in person or online. Some suggested that he might have met a predator while attending the camp, but this was a whole year before. And in any case, if a person had been wanting to abduct Andrew, this approach - encouraging the boy to cut school and buy a train ticket to London to meet him - is too random and risky and would attract attention.

All subsequent sightings and leads in the case went nowhere, and has sadly now reached the point in time which I have heard family members of people who disappeared or died young say is very hard, realizing that your loved one has now been deceased or disappeared longer than they were alive.
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I just listened to a podcast on this case. Very strange circumstances and very sad for his family.
 
One very odd missing person's case was that of 9-year-old Asha Degree, who vanished without trace in Shelby North Carolina in February 2000.

The only unusual thing that happened in the lead up to her vanishing was at a basketball game the day earlier, where Asha had been fouled out of the match, the young girl distraught and sobbing afterwards. But after this, things were normal in the house where Asha lived with her parents and older brother.

The mother, father and brother all reported seeing Asha at various times of the Sunday night, but sometime in the early hours of the Monday morning Asha arose, packed some things into a cloth bag, and snuck out of the house into the night, the weather conditions appalling with teeming rain, strong winds and temperatures close to freezing.

The first the Degree family knew the youngest member was missing was when they woke up on Monday morning for school and work and found Asha missing. The police were notified, and two witnesses came forward, both reporting they had seen Asha while out driving and were concerned about such a young child being out at night in such bad weather and had stopped to talk to her, but the girl had ran off both times, the latter time into some woodlands which was the last time she was seen.

Investigations revealed no problems for Asha at home or in school, nor had there been anything suspicious changes of late that suggested that a Humbert Humbert might have come onto the scene. In any case, if Asha was secretly groomed by a predator, why would he suggest her running away from home in the middle of the night to join him, when this suggestion would likely arouse alarm and suspicion in most children, and presents a higher risk of discovery?

Police and the FBI investigating the case advised that while teenagers run away, it is far rarer for pre-teens and the few that do try it normally don't go far before returning. And if Asha was going to run away, why choose a very cold night with such inclement weather?

Several years later Asha's cloth bag and some of her possessions were found a short way out of town, but of Asha - who would now be 33 if still alive - there was no trace living or deceased, and more than 20 years on this strange case remains as unsolved as it was the day Asha disappeared.
 
Moonwatcher said:
Kids going missing is just so much sadder.
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Agree with you there. It's also really sad when you think about how old that these missing kids would be now if still alive. Both Azaria Chamberlain and Rhianna Barreau would both have turned 43 this year had they not vanished without trace in 1980 and 1992 respectively. Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirstie Gordon who were abducted from the Adelaide Oval in 1973 at ages 11 and 4 would now be 61 and 54 if still alive. The Beaumont Children Jane, Arna and Grant would have turned 66, 64 and 61 in 2003 had they not vanished at Glenelg in 1966. Madelaine McCann, who vanished from Portugal in 2007 would have celebrated her 20th birthday this year.

In cases where the child's fate is known it's still mind-boggling. James Bulger and Jon-Benet Ramsay were both born in 1990 and were murdered at ages of 3 and 6 in horrifying, high-profile cases in 1993 and 1996 respectively. It's hard to believe both would be 33-years-old today if still alive. it's just so sad.
 
emuboy said:
Agree with you there. It's also really sad when you think about how old that these missing kids would be now if still alive. Both Azaria Chamberlain and Rhianna Barreau would both have turned 43 this year had they not vanished without trace in 1980 and 1992 respectively. Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirstie Gordon who were abducted from the Adelaide Oval in 1973 at ages 11 and 4 would now be 61 and 54 if still alive. The Beaumont Children Jane, Arna and Grant would have turned 66, 64 and 61 in 2003 had they not vanished at Glenelg in 1966. Madelaine McCann, who vanished from Portugal in 2007 would have celebrated her 20th birthday this year.

In cases where the child's fate is known it's still mind-boggling. James Bulger and Jon-Benet Ramsay were both born in 1990 and were murdered at ages of 3 and 6 in horrifying, high-profile cases in 1993 and 1996 respectively. It's hard to believe both would be 33-years-old today if still alive. it's just so sad.
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I am the same age as the killers of James Bulger. That one still hurts to think about.
 
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