- Dec 17, 2006
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Thousands of people are reported missing around the world each year. Most are found within 24 hours, and others in the days, weeks and months following the report. Other missing people, however, are never seen again. While the fate of some missing persons can easily be guessed, others create a strange mystery that hangs over the faded investigation files and writings on the subjects for many years after they have gone. Which are some interesting cases that have remained unsolved for many years? Here are a few:
Marie Celeste Crew, Mid-Atlantic Ocean, December 1872: This famous maritime mystery came about when the crew of the De Gretia noticed a sailing ship meandering through the waves, with no sign of life on the decks. A boarding party found the Marie Celeste completely abandoned, seemingly at short notice, with only a lifeboat missing. The captain, Benjamin Briggs, his wife and daughter and the crew, were never seen nor heard of again. Was there a failed attack by pirates, a bungled mutiny, an accident, some unexplained panic caused by freak weather, or something supernatural? Nobody knows for sure, after more than 140 years.
The Flannan Isle Lighthouse Keepers, Scotland 1900: Another well known maritime mystery took place at the Flannen Island Lighthouse in December 1900. A supply ship landing on the island found no trace of keepers Thomas Marshall, James Ducat and Donald McArthur, and as with the Marie Celeste years earlier, the lighthouse seemed to have been abandoned at short notice, with not a clue as to what had happened to the three missing men. No end of theories, from foul play, accidents, freak weather and the supernatural have been put forward, none of which could be substantiated. The famous case inspired the poem, Flannen Isle, by Wilfred Gibson, and served as the inspiration for the 1976 Doctor Who story, The Horror of Fang Rock. However, it is doubtful that aliens such as the Rutans were responsible for the real life mystery.
Dorothy Arnold, New York City USA, 1910: Dorothy Arnold, a socialite aged in her early 20s, left her wealthy family's expensive New York City residence one Saturday morning in December 1910 to go shopping on Fifth Avenue. Miss Arnold completed her purchases at various stores, but never returned home that day - or ever again. No trace of the missing heiress was ever found, reported sightings of her proved false, and her fate remains a mystery 103 years later.
Judge Joseph Crater, New York City USA, 1930: In the summer of 1930, New York Supreme Court Judge Joseph Crater was holidaying with his wife in Maine, when he had to return to the city at short notice to take care of some business. Crater spent several days working in his chambers and around town, and joined some friends for dinner on a warm evening. At the dinner's end, Crater left to catch a cab to watch a Broadway show, and vanished from the face of the earth. No trace of the missing judge was ever found, although persistent unsubstantiated sightings were reported for years afterward, much like Dorothy Arnold. For quite some time afterwards, a popular nightclub joke was to page Joseph Crater, and the now seldom-used expression 'to pull a Crater' means to vanish.
Bennington Triangle Disappearances, Vermont USA, 1943-1950: Towns hold festivals for many different reasons, but one held in Bennington, Vermont in 2000, was especially strange. The celebration was to mark 50 years since there had been no unexplained vanishings in and around the town. In the space of 8 years in the 1940s, a teenage boy named Melvin Hills; an experienced tour guide Middie Rivers; a party of three hunters; an 18-year old college student, Paula Welden; a teenage girl Frances Christman; an elderly soldier James Tetford; a young child Paul Jepson and a middle-aged woman Freida Langer all vanished from the area. All were strange circumstances; Rivers was an experienced tour guide, who got ahead of his group before disappearing; Paula Welden (the best known case) vanished while hiking, seemingly there one minute, gone the next; Frances Christman vanished while walking to a friend's house under a mile away; the child's parents turned their backs for a minute and he was gone; while the old soldier seemingly vanished from a bus in 1949, with all passengers and crew reporting him on at one stop, but gone by Bennington, his belongings left behind. A serial killer was mentioned as a potential culprit, but would seem unlikely due to the wide variation of ages and genders of the people involved. No other explanation seems to hold much water either, and the cases remain unsolved. A final strange conundrum of this eerie episode was that the body of Freida Langer was found months after she had vanished - in an open clearing that had been searched previously.
Harold Holt, Portsea, Victoria Australia 1967: How does the highest government official of a first world country disappear without trace? Nobody knows how, but it did happen when Harold Holt, the Australian Prime Minister - vanished from Cheviot Beach in Portsea, Victoria in December 1967. Many theories - heart attack, shark attack, drowning, foul play, suicide, abduction, planned disappearance - have been put forward, but nobody knows for sure nearly 50-years later. An irony of Holt's disappearance was that he was sworn into office on 26th January 1966 - the day the Beaumont children vanished from Glenelg Beach in Adelaide.
Jerrold Potter, Illinois USA, 1968: The case of Jerrold Potter, a businessman who was flying with others as part of a Lions convention, is very strange. Potter got up to use the lavatory, but never returned and was never seen again. An investigation found an external door had been tampered with, but not fully opened, and doing so mid-flight would have been a near-impossible maneuver, creating great chaos if successful. The investigation found no reasons for homicide or suicide, and his body was never found along the flight route.
Lord Lucan, Sussex England 1974: In this famous case, Lord Lucan is alleged to have killed the nanny of his children and assaulted his ex-wife in 1974. Lucan was never tried for the alleged crimes, as he vanished later that evening and has not been seen since. The last positive sighting of the missing aristocrat was by a friend in Sussex the same day.
Martha Wright, New Jersey USA 1975: While driving to New York in heavy snow, Mr and Mrs Wright agreed to stop in the Lincoln Tunnel to clear the windows. They stepped out of the car, and that was the last Mr Wright ever saw of his wife, in a case that left everyone involved dumbfounded.
Suzy Lamplugh, London UK 1986: One summer day in 1986, 25-year-old estate agent Suzy Lamplugh left the office to show a property in Fulham to a client. She never returned, and could not be found again.
The Springfield Three, Springfield Missouri USA 1992: The disappearances of Sherrill Levitt aged 47, her daughter Suzie Streeter (18) and Suzie's friend Stacy McCall (18) on 7th June 1992 is one of the most baffling cases of all time. Any theory that seems logical is immediately ruled out by one of the other bizarre factors that comes into play. The case is too complicated to go into great detail, but there is a good documentary (Disappeared - Springfield Three) about it on Youtube. Basically, Suzie and Stacy graduated high school on the Saturday, and that evening attended several parties with other students. The girls were to have stayed with a mutual friend that night, but decided due to overcrowding to return to Sherrill's house, and meet up with the friends the next day, who became concerned when they did not make contact. The girls' cars were at the residence as was the mother's, they had changed out of their clothes and the beds had been slept in. The TV was on, and all personal belongings, including purses, cigarettes and the dog had been left behind. There was no evidence of forced entry, a robbery (cash and jewelry also left behind) or violence. A broken porch light added to the mystery of the eerie scene, and neighbours had seen nor heard anything odd during the night. Motives for the case could not be firmly established, and it seems no closer to being solved than when they were first reported missing that Sunday evening nearly 22 years ago. One particular moment on the documentary on the documentary stood out as the saddest aspect of missing person's cases, where Stacy's mother said that she expected her daughter to return that same day, then the next day, then in a week, a month and a year, before finally realizing one day that she had been missing longer than she had been alive.
Marie Celeste Crew, Mid-Atlantic Ocean, December 1872: This famous maritime mystery came about when the crew of the De Gretia noticed a sailing ship meandering through the waves, with no sign of life on the decks. A boarding party found the Marie Celeste completely abandoned, seemingly at short notice, with only a lifeboat missing. The captain, Benjamin Briggs, his wife and daughter and the crew, were never seen nor heard of again. Was there a failed attack by pirates, a bungled mutiny, an accident, some unexplained panic caused by freak weather, or something supernatural? Nobody knows for sure, after more than 140 years.
The Flannan Isle Lighthouse Keepers, Scotland 1900: Another well known maritime mystery took place at the Flannen Island Lighthouse in December 1900. A supply ship landing on the island found no trace of keepers Thomas Marshall, James Ducat and Donald McArthur, and as with the Marie Celeste years earlier, the lighthouse seemed to have been abandoned at short notice, with not a clue as to what had happened to the three missing men. No end of theories, from foul play, accidents, freak weather and the supernatural have been put forward, none of which could be substantiated. The famous case inspired the poem, Flannen Isle, by Wilfred Gibson, and served as the inspiration for the 1976 Doctor Who story, The Horror of Fang Rock. However, it is doubtful that aliens such as the Rutans were responsible for the real life mystery.
Dorothy Arnold, New York City USA, 1910: Dorothy Arnold, a socialite aged in her early 20s, left her wealthy family's expensive New York City residence one Saturday morning in December 1910 to go shopping on Fifth Avenue. Miss Arnold completed her purchases at various stores, but never returned home that day - or ever again. No trace of the missing heiress was ever found, reported sightings of her proved false, and her fate remains a mystery 103 years later.
Judge Joseph Crater, New York City USA, 1930: In the summer of 1930, New York Supreme Court Judge Joseph Crater was holidaying with his wife in Maine, when he had to return to the city at short notice to take care of some business. Crater spent several days working in his chambers and around town, and joined some friends for dinner on a warm evening. At the dinner's end, Crater left to catch a cab to watch a Broadway show, and vanished from the face of the earth. No trace of the missing judge was ever found, although persistent unsubstantiated sightings were reported for years afterward, much like Dorothy Arnold. For quite some time afterwards, a popular nightclub joke was to page Joseph Crater, and the now seldom-used expression 'to pull a Crater' means to vanish.
Bennington Triangle Disappearances, Vermont USA, 1943-1950: Towns hold festivals for many different reasons, but one held in Bennington, Vermont in 2000, was especially strange. The celebration was to mark 50 years since there had been no unexplained vanishings in and around the town. In the space of 8 years in the 1940s, a teenage boy named Melvin Hills; an experienced tour guide Middie Rivers; a party of three hunters; an 18-year old college student, Paula Welden; a teenage girl Frances Christman; an elderly soldier James Tetford; a young child Paul Jepson and a middle-aged woman Freida Langer all vanished from the area. All were strange circumstances; Rivers was an experienced tour guide, who got ahead of his group before disappearing; Paula Welden (the best known case) vanished while hiking, seemingly there one minute, gone the next; Frances Christman vanished while walking to a friend's house under a mile away; the child's parents turned their backs for a minute and he was gone; while the old soldier seemingly vanished from a bus in 1949, with all passengers and crew reporting him on at one stop, but gone by Bennington, his belongings left behind. A serial killer was mentioned as a potential culprit, but would seem unlikely due to the wide variation of ages and genders of the people involved. No other explanation seems to hold much water either, and the cases remain unsolved. A final strange conundrum of this eerie episode was that the body of Freida Langer was found months after she had vanished - in an open clearing that had been searched previously.
Harold Holt, Portsea, Victoria Australia 1967: How does the highest government official of a first world country disappear without trace? Nobody knows how, but it did happen when Harold Holt, the Australian Prime Minister - vanished from Cheviot Beach in Portsea, Victoria in December 1967. Many theories - heart attack, shark attack, drowning, foul play, suicide, abduction, planned disappearance - have been put forward, but nobody knows for sure nearly 50-years later. An irony of Holt's disappearance was that he was sworn into office on 26th January 1966 - the day the Beaumont children vanished from Glenelg Beach in Adelaide.
Jerrold Potter, Illinois USA, 1968: The case of Jerrold Potter, a businessman who was flying with others as part of a Lions convention, is very strange. Potter got up to use the lavatory, but never returned and was never seen again. An investigation found an external door had been tampered with, but not fully opened, and doing so mid-flight would have been a near-impossible maneuver, creating great chaos if successful. The investigation found no reasons for homicide or suicide, and his body was never found along the flight route.
Lord Lucan, Sussex England 1974: In this famous case, Lord Lucan is alleged to have killed the nanny of his children and assaulted his ex-wife in 1974. Lucan was never tried for the alleged crimes, as he vanished later that evening and has not been seen since. The last positive sighting of the missing aristocrat was by a friend in Sussex the same day.
Martha Wright, New Jersey USA 1975: While driving to New York in heavy snow, Mr and Mrs Wright agreed to stop in the Lincoln Tunnel to clear the windows. They stepped out of the car, and that was the last Mr Wright ever saw of his wife, in a case that left everyone involved dumbfounded.
Suzy Lamplugh, London UK 1986: One summer day in 1986, 25-year-old estate agent Suzy Lamplugh left the office to show a property in Fulham to a client. She never returned, and could not be found again.
The Springfield Three, Springfield Missouri USA 1992: The disappearances of Sherrill Levitt aged 47, her daughter Suzie Streeter (18) and Suzie's friend Stacy McCall (18) on 7th June 1992 is one of the most baffling cases of all time. Any theory that seems logical is immediately ruled out by one of the other bizarre factors that comes into play. The case is too complicated to go into great detail, but there is a good documentary (Disappeared - Springfield Three) about it on Youtube. Basically, Suzie and Stacy graduated high school on the Saturday, and that evening attended several parties with other students. The girls were to have stayed with a mutual friend that night, but decided due to overcrowding to return to Sherrill's house, and meet up with the friends the next day, who became concerned when they did not make contact. The girls' cars were at the residence as was the mother's, they had changed out of their clothes and the beds had been slept in. The TV was on, and all personal belongings, including purses, cigarettes and the dog had been left behind. There was no evidence of forced entry, a robbery (cash and jewelry also left behind) or violence. A broken porch light added to the mystery of the eerie scene, and neighbours had seen nor heard anything odd during the night. Motives for the case could not be firmly established, and it seems no closer to being solved than when they were first reported missing that Sunday evening nearly 22 years ago. One particular moment on the documentary on the documentary stood out as the saddest aspect of missing person's cases, where Stacy's mother said that she expected her daughter to return that same day, then the next day, then in a week, a month and a year, before finally realizing one day that she had been missing longer than she had been alive.
