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List of people who disappeared mysteriously

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The following is a compilation of people who have mysteriously disappeared, whose death is not substantiated, whose remains have not been recovered, whose current whereabouts are unknown, and who (except for the most recent cases) may be presumed deceased.

c. 600–300 B.C.

210 B.C.

  • Xu Fu and his fleet of thousands never return from a quest for the elixir of life, on behalf of the ruler of Qin, Qin Shi Huang, from the immortals reported to live on the Penglai Mountain in the sea to the east of China. His non-return was almost certainly intentional and his fate remains unclear, although many legends exist.

c. 30 AD

  • Religious leader Jesus; see Death and resurrection of Jesus and Ascension for analysis of the controversy surrounding the disappearance of the body of Jesus. His body is missing because he resurrected and ascensded to heaven according to biblical accounts.

711

900s

1174

  • Madoc — semi-mythological Welsh prince.

1412

1463

  • François VillonFrench poet and criminal — whereabouts unknown after banishment from the city of Paris.

1483

1499

  • John CabotItalian explorer. Disappeared, along with four other ships, during a voyage to find a western route from Europe to Asia.

1501

1502

  • Miguel Corte-Real — Portuguese explorer. Disappeared while searching for his brother Gaspar.

1587 or 1588

1611

1694

1788

  • La Pérouse and his scientific expedition (two ships, La Boussole and l'Astrolabe, 220 crew members including 40 scientists) vanished near the island of Vanikoro in the Pacific Ocean.

1809

1826

1828

  • William Hare, Irish-Scots serial killer, avoided trial and eventual fate unknown

1847

  • Rear Admiral Sir John Franklin FRGS and the entire crew on his last expedition to chart and navigate the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic. Years later a letter was found stating the Admiral perished on June 11, 1847, but his body was never found.

1860

1872

1879

1888

1890

1896

1900

1907

  • German scientists Walter von Knebel and Max Rudloff visited Askja in Iceland to study the caldera. While exploring Öskjuvatn in a small boat, they disappeared without a trace.

1909

1910

1913

1914

1917

1918

  • Crew of USS Cyclops.
  • Jüri Vilms, Estonian statesman.
  • Although accounts of their execution emerged early on, the main members of the ruling Romanov royal family of Russia were officially missing from 1918 until 1991, when all but two of their bodies were found in a mass grave in the woods outside Yekaterinburg in Russia. Not present were the bodies of the Tsarevich Alexei and one of his older sisters (believed to be either Maria or Anastasia), and so they are still considered missing (although some Russian scientists dispute this). Anastasia's identity was claimed by Anna Anderson, but DNA testing disproved her claim.
  • Arthur Cravan, French proto-dadaist writer and art critic, disappeared near Salina Cruz, Mexico in November, 1918, most likely drowning during a sailing trip in the Pacific Ocean.

1920

1921

1924

  • Andrew Irvine and his climbing partner George Mallory did not return from a two-man climb toward the summit of Mount Everest. After being missing for 75 years, Mallory's body was found in 1999. Irvine's body is still missing. A Chinese climber believed in 1975 that he had sighted it, but his own accidental death not long after meant the find was never confirmed. Some experts believe he had seen Mallory's body.

1925

1927

  • Charles NungesserFrench aviator who disappeared with his navigator, Francois Coli, on May 8,1927 while attempting an east-to-west flight to North America, only two weeks before Lindbergh's successful flight from New York to Paris

1928

1930

1934

  • Wallace D. Fard, founder of the Nation of Islam. In 1934, after conferring leadership of the Nation of Islam to his protegé Elijah Muhammad, he left Detroit, where he had been living, and disappeared without a trace while in the custody of the Chicago police department. The Nation of Islam maintained that he had returned to Mecca, but rumors persisted that he had been murdered by the Chicago police or by Elijah Muhammad.
  • Everett Ruess, American writer and artist known for his vagrant lifestyle and his statements on life and adventure. At the age of 20 he went into the Utah desert with two burros and never returned. His remains have never been found.

1936

  • Joseph Rodriguez — 4-year-old child and resident of Spanish Harlem, New York City, who disappeared in 1936 while playing with friends. Although Rodriguez' aunt received a telegram informing her that her nephew had been injured and would return home shortly, Joseph never appeared. There was no further communication from the writer and no trace of Joseph's body was ever found.

1937

1938

1939

  • Lloyd L. Gaines, central figure in the Civil Rights Movement. He successfully sued for admission the Law School at the University of Missouri in 1938. He left his fraternity house to buy stamps and disappeared.

1940

  • Eleanor Jarman was a convicted robber, one of the more violent female criminals of her time, who escaped from jail in 1940 and became a fugitive from justice. Although she was placed on the FBI ten most wanted fugitives list, she was not caught. In 1975, in an incident that was not disclosed for years, she secretly visited relatives. She refused to turn herself in or reveal how she had been living. She would now be well over 100, and is presumed to have died under an alias.

1944

  • Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, French author and aviator. Apparently died when his Lockheed P-38 Lightning crashed off the coast of Marseille. Though the aircraft was recovered in 2003, his body was never found.
  • Glenn Miller — popular American jazz musician and bandleader. Disappeared on December 15, 1944, en route from England to Paris to play for troops in the recently liberated city. Neither his remains nor the aircraft in which he was riding were ever recovered.
  • On 6 August 1944, a ship named the Island Queen vanished completely from Grenada. A second ship, the Providence Mark, which made the same journey on the same night arrived safely with no hint of trouble. Not a trace of the Island Queen or the people on board was ever found.

1945

1948

1949

1950

1953

1955

  • Curtis Chillingworth was a Florida state judge who (together with his wife, Marjorie Chillingworth) disappeared from his Manapalan, Florida, home in June 1955. Authorities later learned that the couple were abducted, taken offshore and killed as part of a Murder-for-hire plot.
  • The crew and passengers of the Joyita, which disappeared in the South Pacific ocean; five weeks later, the Joyita re-appeared with no one on board.
  • Weldon Kees, poet. On July 19, 1955, Kees's Plymouth Savoy was found on the north side of the Golden Gate Bridge with the keys in the ignition. He left no note and his body was never found, but he was known to have talked about picking up and moving to Mexico.

1956

1957

1959

  • Camilo Cienfuegos was a Cuban revolutionary born in Calabazar de Sagua, Las Villas Cuba. He disappeared and presumably died on October 28, 1959, in a Cessna accident due to bad weather while flying over the sea. However, neither his plane nor his body were ever recovered despite Cuban government efforts.

1960

1961

1962

1966

1967

1970

1971

1972

1974

1975

  • Bas Jan Ader — Dutch artist who disappeared while attempting to sail across the Atlantic Ocean.
  • Jimmy Hoffa — president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
  • Lyon Sisters — two pre-teen girls who disappeared on their way home from a neighborhood mall

1976

1978

  • Eddie Aikau — famous Hawaiian surfer and life-guard.
  • John Brisker — former ABA and NBA player, disappeared after flying to Uganda.
  • Mel Lyman — cult leader — 1978. Claimed by cult members to have died 1978, but no body, death certificate, or other proof were ever produced. The date of death and burial place are unknown outside the "Lyman Family".
  • Frederick Valentich disappeared while flying across Bass Strait, in what has been claimed by some people as a UFO encounter.
  • Genette Tate — 13-year-old girl who disappeared whilst doing a newpaper round in Devon, UK in August 1978.

1979

  • Etan Patz — schoolboy, disappeared while walking to New York City bus stop.
  • Louis Cafora — An armed robber from New York
  • Joanna Cafora — The wife of armed robber Louis Cafora
  • Ian Mackintosh — Scottish naval officer, novelist and screenwriter; disappeared with two companions in a light aircraft over the Gulf of Alaska.

1980

1982

  • Paul America — Actor. After a failed attempt to reach Andy Warhol by telephone, he disappeared without a trace.
  • Johnny Gosch — Paperboy in Des Moines, Iowa, abducted while delivering papers. His image was one of the first national missing children notices to appear on milk cartons, and later the cover of Newsweek.

1983

1984

1985

1986

  • Suzy Lamplugh, a British estate agent who disappeared on 28 July 1986 in Fulham, West London.

1987

1989

1990

  • Teddy Wang, Hong Kong billionaire kidnapped in April and never seen again. Declared presumed-dead and his estate was inherited by his wife Nina Wang.

1991

  • Sarah MacDiarmid — young female, disappeared from Kananook station in Melbourne, Australia.
  • Ben Needham — 21 months old male, disappeared from the island of Kos in Greece, 24th of July. He has never been found. It was believed Ben was abducted and several suspects in Kos and Veria, Northern Greece were suggested as being responsible, no-one was ever charged with abduction. The British media claimed the Greek police did not handle the case correctly.
  • Michael Dunahee — (born May 12, 1986) is a missing child from Victoria, British Columbia who disappeared when he was five years old, presumed to be abducted, and has never been found. He disappeared from the playground at Blanshard Park Elementary School, also known as the Blanshard Street Playground, in Victoria, British Columbia on March 24, 1991. Michael was last seen around 12:30 P.M. playing at the school playground as his mother, Crystal Dunahee, was participating in a softball tournament and father was a spectator. Michael was abducted meters from his mom and dad. No witnesses to Michael's disappearance ever came forward.

1994

  • Michael Anthony Hughes has been missing since his abduction from Indian Meridian Elementary School in Choctaw, Oklahoma by Franklin Delano Floyd (who claimed to be his father) on September 12th of that year. Floyd has claimed that Hughes is still alive somewhere in the U.S., but has not disclosed his location.

1995

  • Whitey Bulger — leader of the Winter Hill Gang organised crime group. Fled FBI prosecution in 1995, included in the Ten Most Wanted list.
  • Richey James Edwards — member of Welsh rock band the Manic Street Preachers. His car was found abandoned next to a bridge notorious for suicides. He was suffering from an array of mental health problems up to his disappearance, but was never considered suicidal.
  • Jodi Huisentruit — Early on the morning of June 27, 1995, KIMT news anchor Jodi Huisentruit was abducted outside her apartment while on her way to work. Huisentruit was never found and the case was never solved.

1996

1997

  • Kristen Modafferi - an 18-year-old college student whose disappearance resulted in her parents to establish the National Center for Missing Adults.

1998

  • Tom and Eileen Lonergan — American couple stranded while SCUBA diving with a group of divers off Australia's Great Barrier Reef due to a faulty head count. Left to fend for themselves in shark-infested waters. They are presumed to have perished. Alternate theories surrounding their disappearance include suicide, murder-suicide, or staging their disappearance. The film Open Water is based on their story.
  • Florinda Donner-Grau, Taisha Abelar, Patricia Partin, Kylie Lundahl and Amalia Marquez, known as Carlos Castaneda's witches, disappeared soon after Castaneda's death in April 1998. Patricia Partin's skeleton was identified in Feb. 2006. The rest remain missing. The people still at Castaneda's compound say that the women "are traveling."

1999

2000

  • Bruno Manser — Swiss born activist who fervently campaigned for the preservation of rainforests in Sarawak.

2001

  • Peter Falconio — A British man, thought to have been shot in Australian outback. Body never found. Bradley John Murdoch was arrested and found guilty of Falconio's murder and received life imprisonment. Falconio's fiance was the main witness in the trial. The case is being appealed by Murdoch and his lawyers.

2002

  • Bison Dele (aka Brian Williams) — former NBA player, thought to have been murdered in the Pacific Ocean by his brother, body never found.

2003

2004

2005

2006

  • Actor Joe Pichler has been missing since January 5, 2006.[3] His car was found January 9, 2006 in Bremerton, WA, at the Manette Bridge adjacent to the Port Washington Narrows. Inside it was a note in which he said he was sorry that he hadn't been a better role model for his younger brother and asked that his belongings go to (then 17-year-old) A.J. However, he was not reported as officially missing by his family until 16 January. At or around that date, the aforementioned note from the car was reported as explicitly suggesting that Joe may have been suicidal.
  • Richard Lee McNair escaped from a federal maximum-security prison facility in April 2006 (located in Pollock, Louisiana) and is a fugitive from justice. His current location is unknown; McNair had been serving two life sentences for murder, attempted murder, and burglary.[4]
  • On 8 December, 2006, 25 year-old Laura Gainey, daughter of Montreal Canadiens general manager Bob Gainey went missing when she was swept overboard while sailing in the North Atlantic. Gainey temporarily passed his GM duties on to assistant manager Pierre Gauthier while awaiting word on Laura. She was sailing on the barque Picton Castle, a sail-training ship based out of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada destined for Grenada. Gainey, a professional crew member with the rank of leading seaman, was swept off the boat during a storm around 9:30 p.m. and is presumed drowned. On 11 December, 2006 at 6pm EST the United States Coast Guard held a press conference in Portsmouth, Virginia to confirm that the search for Laura Gainey has been halted.

2007

See also