Where do people go? Stories of the missing. Where do the children go?

Stories about mysterious disappearances always excite the blood, because no one still knows what happened to the missing people, where they are now and whether they are even alive. The sad statistics are that every day people go missing all over the world. Many are found alive and unharmed, but some remain unfound. We will tell you stories about the most mysterious and mysterious disappearances people who seemed to have disappeared into thin air.

The Lost Eskimo Village

One cold November night in 1930, tired Canadian hunter Joe Labelle, looking for shelter from the cold, accidentally stumbled upon one of the most mysterious places in the history of mankind. The once prosperous Eskimo village on the shores of Lake Angikuni, which Labelle passed several times during his travels, disappeared without a trace. All the residents, as if in a hurry, suddenly left the village, leaving their affairs unfinished - somewhere on the fireplace food was still being cooked, and in some houses the hunter found unfinished clothes with needles sticking out. The Eskimos simply disappeared from this place in the most inexplicable way.

Springfield Trinity

The missing three from Springfield - three girls are still missing. Sharyl Levitt (47), her daughter Susie Streeter (19), and Susie's friend Stacy McCall (18) disappeared from Levitt's home in Springfield, Missouri. Susie and Stacey had celebrated their high school graduation the night before and arrived at Sharyl Levitt's house around 2 a.m. the morning after a party. The police were unable to solve the mystery of the girls' disappearance and the investigation is still ongoing.

The girls who disappeared from Dunes Park

Forty-nine years ago, on a sunny Saturday afternoon, three girls left their belongings on a crowded beach and went for a walk in their swimsuits on Lake Michigan, which is an hour's drive southeast of Chicago. This happened at noon on July 2, 1966. national park Indiana Dunes. From that day on, they were considered missing - no traces of the girls were ever found.

Constance Manziarli

Adolf Hitler's personal chef and nutritionist, who went missing during the escape from Berlin after the Soviet invasion and the fall of Nazi Germany. Despite speculation that she was shot by Soviet soldiers in the Berlin Underground or that she committed suicide with cyanide, some conspiracy theorists believe that she is still alive, since Constance's body has never been found.

Tara Grinstead

Tara worked as a history teacher in high school Okilla, Georgia in the USA. She went missing at mysterious circumstances October 22, 2005. In February 2009, a video appeared on the Internet featuring serial killer. In the video, accompanied by the caption “Catch me, killer,” a man details the murders of sixteen women, including Tara Grinstead, according to local authorities. However, the video was later found to be faked and neither police nor the Georgia FBI unit identified any suspects in Grinstead's disappearance.

Richie Edwards

Rock fans have probably heard of Richie Edwards, the Welsh musician and rhythm guitarist for the alternative rock band Manic Street Preachers, popular in the 1990s. It is known that Edwards liked to deliberately injure himself, suffered from depression, alcoholism and anorexia. In 1995, his car was found abandoned in a place known as "the last refuge of suicides."

James Thetfort

Former soldier James Thetfort disappeared on December 1, 1949 from a crowded bus. Thetford, along with fourteen other passengers, was traveling to his home in Bennington, Vermont. He was last seen dozing off in his seat. When the bus arrived at its destination, Thetford had disappeared, although all his belongings remained in the trunk, and the bus schedule lay on the empty seat. From then on, Thetford was never seen again.

Lieutenant Felix Moncla

On the evening of November 23, 1953, the most mysterious event in UFO sightings occurred - Air Force radars in the area of ​​Lake Michigan, Wisconsin in the USA detected an unidentified flying object. An F-89C Scorpion fighter was immediately scrambled from Kingross Air Force Base to intercept it. The plane was flown by First Lieutenant Felix Moncla, and Lieutenant Robert Wilson was the fighter's radar operator at the time. As ground operators subsequently claimed, the fighter approached an unidentified object, and then both of them, merging together, disappeared from the radar screens. A search and rescue operation was organized, but the wreckage of the plane could not be found.

Martha Wright

In 1975, American Jackson Wright was driving with his wife from New Jersey to New York. After driving through the Lincoln Tunnel, Wright stopped the car to wipe the foggy windows. His wife Martha got out of the car to wipe the back window. When Wright turned around, he did not see his wife. The man said he did not hear or see anything unusual, and a subsequent investigation found no evidence of foul play. Martha Wright simply disappeared.

Connie Converse

Connie Converse was a talented composer and performer of her generation, she performed on music scene New York in the late 50s. However, the singer never received widespread public recognition. In 1974, when she was about fifty years old, in her personal and professional life a crisis came and Connie fell into depression. One day Connie wrote farewell letters and, having sent them, along with song lyrics and other notes, to all her friends and relatives, she left in an unknown direction. They never saw her again.

Amelia Earhart

The famous American aviator was the first woman in the world to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, but her airplane disappeared during a flight around the world near Howland Island in the Pacific Ocean in 1937. Her disappearance is still fraught with many mysteries that none of the historians have been able to solve.

Ghost ship "Joita"

The merchant ship Joyta, carrying twenty-five passengers and crew, mysteriously disappeared in the southern part Pacific Ocean in 1955. Soon the drifting ship was discovered in very poor condition, with rusted pipes and a working radio, which, due to damaged wiring, could only send distress signals within a radius of three kilometers. Until now, nothing is known about the whereabouts of the passengers of this ship.

Adolf Gitler

The death of one of the most famous madmen of the twentieth century, Adolf Hitler, is still shrouded in mystery. According to the generally accepted version, on April 30, 1945, after active street fighting, when Soviet troops were approaching the Reich Chancellery, Hitler shot himself, and his wife Eva Braun swallowed a cyanide capsule. Their corpses were burned and their remains were never found, a fact that has given rise to many theories about the subsequent fate of Hitler and his wife.

Flight MH370

One of the most greatest mysteries 21st century - Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappears while flying from Kuala Lumpur International Airport to Beijing International Airport in China on March 8, 2014. Despite the most varied versions and theories of what happened, this mystery still remains unsolved and what happened defies any logical explanation.

Disappearance of Valentich

The “disappearance of Valentich” in 1978 is one of the most unusual events in the history of ufology. The mysterious case of Friedrich Valentich is considered one of the most known secrets in Australian aviation - before the plane disappeared in the sky, the pilot managed to report on the radio that he had seen a UFO. Many representatives of the ufological subculture, as well as Valentich’s father, believe that the man was abducted by aliens and may even still be alive.

– How often do uncles appear on the streets of Moscow who offer to look at a kitten and then take the child away?

– There hasn’t been a pedophile maniac in Moscow for many years. But this does not mean that a child can be safely allowed to walk the streets - there are cars and other dangers all around. And, of course, you need to understand that in Moscow there is a special situation - we have many video cameras, more disciplined parents... But with the development of technology, pedophiles have new opportunities, in addition to the traditional “girl, want to see a kitten.”

Story No. 1. In 2014, there was a case when a boy was taken away by someone else’s uncle. This was preceded by their correspondence in social network- the uncle offered to give the boy a tablet, they met at the school and went together to get the tablet - it’s good that the boy sensed the danger in time, ran away and remained alive and unharmed.

But a child can also be taken away by an acquaintance.

Story No. 2. In 2015, a housekeeper kidnapped a child from the family where she worked. She felt that her parents had underpaid her for her services. A ten-year-old boy was walking to school with a friend, she called out to him and said: Mom and Dad told you not to go to school today, we will go with you on other matters. And he, of course, happily went with her, then we looked for him for a long time and found him in the Moscow region.

And I believe that this is partly the fault of the parents. I understand that the child wants to go to school on his own - but why did we only find out in the evening that he did not come there? Why didn’t the parents agree with the child that every time he gets to school, he calls them? Why didn’t they agree with the teacher that if their son does not go to school for some reason, the parents always inform the class teacher about this, and if suddenly on some day they did not call and the child did not come, the class teacher informs them?

– There is such a genre - urban horror stories. One of the stories that has been wandering around in oral Moscow folklore for many years is about how some parents took their child to a playroom shopping center, and they returned him to them two months later and with one kidney. You know everything about the Moscow missing children - did it happen in reality? And does anything like this even happen?

– This has never happened! I’ll tell you more: in Moscow there has not been a single case of theft of a child’s organs. All the missing people whom we found in one way or another had nothing to do with this. In addition, not a single one was kidnapped by aliens and not a single one went into a parallel dimension. You laugh, but on the Internet they write that those who were not found were taken to another planet. Usually everything is much more prosaic.

– How do such horror stories appear?

– Story No. 3. About two years ago, a mother called 102 in complete hysterics: her child had just been kidnapped in a black car. We come and find out. Mom was walking with her daughter on the playground, they went home, and when they almost reached the house, mom met a friend, stopped and started talking to her. During the conversation, she realized that she had forgotten about the child. She turned around - but there was no child, she only saw a large black car turn the corner, she didn’t even have time to see the license plate.

We immediately sent groups to the entrances of their houses. Our guys come not into theirs, but into the neighboring entrance, and there is a girl standing there and sobbing. "Who are you?" - "I am lost". It turns out that while her mother was chatting with her friend, the girl went home herself, but she did not go to her entrance, but to the one next door - she got confused. Someone just came in and let her in. And she looks - the entrance is not hers, her mother is not there, she cannot reach the button, she stands and sobs. Here you go: a child was kidnapped in a black car.

– Doesn’t this really happen?

– For a pedophile to kidnap a stranger’s child in a car – no.

Story No. 4. More than three years ago, two Shutov sisters were kidnapped - they pushed them into a car in front of witnesses, the whole city was terrified. The grandparents contacted the police. We run the number plate of the kidnappers' car - it turns out that it is their dad's car. Grandparents took their granddaughters away from their parents, did not allow them to see each other, and so the parents stole their own children.

The applicants think that if they say “kidnapped,” we will work faster, and they hide bad relations with relatives because they believe that we will give up and won’t even start looking. We don’t care what kind of relationship we have to look for, that’s all. But if there were problems with relatives - the father, mother, grandmother, grandfather of the child - we must definitely tell us about it.

– Are there many kidnappings of children organized by relatives?

– Of the 1,600 children who disappeared in Moscow over the year, most are runaways, and of the remaining approximately 300 are children shared by their parents, that is, 20 percent. But the criminal investigation department is looking for missing or kidnapped people, and if you understand, that your (former) spouse has a child, this is a problem in the area of ​​civil law relations, and it is dealt with by the court and bailiffs. The law clearly states: both parents, including divorced ones, have equal rights to support and raise a child. Therefore, I cannot come to dad, take the child away from him and take him to mom. To solve such problems you need to go to court.

Sometimes they go away

- Let's talk about runners, since this main reason missing children

– Most often this happens either in single-parent families, or where there are problems between mom and dad. This can happen in both rich and poor families, where the child is left to his own devices or is not needed by anyone at all. Another option is overprotection; this is a rare case, but it also happens. And the parents are always to blame for this - they failed to maintain a trusting relationship with the child, they could not come to an agreement, they were overzealous with punishments...

Story No. 5. Two years ago, a twelve-year-old boy disappeared - he left for school in the morning and didn’t make it. The police, naturally, found out about this only in the evening. The boy lived alone with his mother; his parents were divorced. We arrive and examine the apartment, we find his diary, in it the title: “Construction of the cosmodrome.” Next is a list: bandit masks with eyes, models of pistols, another list: “Petya stores chocolate, canned food, I store money.”

It’s night outside, we wake up the class teacher and ask – who is Petya? Yes, there is a boy Petya, they are friends. They bring Petya to us. Petya says that his friend proposed building a cosmodrome in the Moscow region, he wrote everything out, distributed who was preparing what for construction. And bandit masks - because you don’t have enough money, you’ll have to rob a bank. Petya got scared at the last moment and didn’t go, and then our hero said: I’ll go alone, and left.

In his diary, the boy wrote that it would be Odintsovo, we sent groups there, volunteers had already begun to comb the area, but then, thank God, he called unknown man and asked: “Does so-and-so live here?” It turns out that he was driving through the village late at night and saw an unfamiliar child walking with a backpack. I asked him - where are you going? And he says: I’m not far away, a cosmodrome needs to be built. The man replied: great, but let’s go in first, eat, and then move on. The boy was happy: thank you, I’m just hungry, he went to him, ate and immediately passed out - he, it turns out, had been walking all this time. The man found his home phone number in the diary and called his mother - well, he turned out to be a decent person...

- And why are the parents to blame?

- The fact is that if dad lived with him, the boy would go to build a cosmodrome with his dad, and if mom sometimes looked into his diary, then she would know about his plans.

“You are not doing this out of curiosity, but for their safety.”

– You talk about maintaining trust, and about reading his diary. What kind of trust can there be here?

- So don’t let him know that you are reading the diary! But you understand: children usually don’t leave home just like that. If they do this, then they had a good reason.

Story No. 6. In winter, two years ago, the police were alerted to the fact that two sisters had disappeared from an apartment in Northern Chertanovo: one was seven years old, the other was four. They put the whole of Moscow on edge: the police, volunteers, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, everyone they could. The situation is this: in the evening, dad and stepmother drank, slept for a long time, woke up and didn’t find the children. We contacted the police at 2-3 o'clock, we are looking, it is already 6 or 7 pm - there are no children.

We work with dad. Dad tells us: “They were probably kidnapped by their ex-mother from Orel.” In Orel they sent a group to my mother, she is in shock, she doesn’t know anything. We talk with the stepmother. The stepmother has one ear torn, a scar on one cheek, a bruise on the other - there is no living space. “Does it hit?” - "No". - “Does it hit?” - "No". Finally she confessed. “Did you hit children?” - “Bill.” We begin to understand that the children did not just disappear. We look at the cameras - they didn’t leave the house.

We are horrified, we carefully inspect the apartment for the second time with an expert, but, thank God, we find no blood. And at about 11 pm the mobile crew finally reports: “We got it!” They bring the girls, frozen and shaking, and they tell us: “We decided to leave because he beat us.” But the camera “didn’t see” them because they went out through the back door. “How did he beat you?” - “A belt with a buckle.”

They stand with a bag, Coca-Cola and cookies in a bag. “They say an auntie stopped us and asked, “Girls, why are you walking here alone in the evening?” We told her: we left home. She says: oh, poor things, you probably want to eat! She bought us Coca-Cola and cookies. And the uncle stopped and asked - where are you going? We said we left the house, he said: oh-oh-oh, and gave a hundred rubles.” That’s how kind everyone is, it didn’t occur to anyone to call for an outfit, but thanks for that.

“We called grandma, she attacked their dad with her fists - I won’t give them to him!” - but what happened next, I don’t know, this is not the work of the criminal investigation department, then the guardianship authorities get involved. I can look for a child from 5 minutes to 15 years old - and there have been such cases, and when I find him, I communicate with him for 15 minutes. When I search, I immerse myself in his life, trying to understand why he disappeared, but after I find him, I know nothing more about him.

– Is love or friends disapproved of by parents a common occurrence?

- Yes, sure. If you see that a child is in love, you should not prohibit, but together with him look for a way out of the situation. This, however, more often happens after the age of 18 in rich and national families, because the parents want the child to date someone from their circle. Sometimes the reason is the reluctance of parents to seek compromises.

Story No. 7. In 2014, we were looking for a 16-year-old missing boy. Single-parent family, dad in Israel. The father did not raise the child, allowed him to leave home, but when the child disappeared, he complained about how poorly the criminal investigation department was doing its job. The boy’s mother said honestly: yes, we had a conflict over playing on the computer, he did not get out of these tanks, in the end I forbade him to play, turned off the network, and he left home.

He disappeared before the New Year. Volunteers helped me a lot - we combed everything we could and found him in early May. He disappeared in Strogino, and I found him a kilometer from the Moscow Ring Road, in an open field. We identified him by an online payment receipt for playing tanks, which was in his pocket, and in another pocket were strong sleeping pills. Was it possible to come to an agreement with the child?

- When you talked about the runners, you repeatedly said: “your mother went out to get vodka,” “your mother and stepfather drank in the evening.” Is vodka often found in stories about children running away from home?

– Yes, of course – most of the families from which children run away are from a risk group, socially disadvantaged. But no one is immune from this. The same thing happens in rich families, and among stars, and among the intelligentsia, and among oligarchs.

– Are there any signs that the child is preparing to run away?

– If you see that a child is becoming withdrawn, behaving unusually, or his behavior has changed dramatically, do not ignore it. It could be anything - problems you don't know about, or drugs, for example. Therefore, either talk to him yourself, or leave it to a psychologist, and you should go with him to the psychologist together, and not lead him, this is important. Explain to him that you are worried because it seems to you that Lately Your relationship with him has changed. Not “you’re sick, you need to be treated,” but “let’s figure it out together, I’m worried.”

– How often do the children you bring home run away a second, third, and so on time?

- More than seventy percent. That is, we look for them, find them, return them, and after a week, a month, six months we look for them again.

Story No. 8. I had one boy - he ran away 28 times, and in last time he did it “beautifully”: he took 5 million from dad’s safe, put it in his backpack and left. We look - all the children in the area ride brand new mopeds: “He gave it to us!” In the end, dad caught him himself, grabbing him by this backpack, there were already 2.5 million left there.

– You said that children almost never run away from home for no reason, and the stories you tell confirm this. That is, returning home is not a happy ending for them at all...

“In any case, we are obliged to find the child and return him to those who are responsible for him.” In addition, when a child finds himself on the street, he is at risk: firstly, he may become a victim of an accident, secondly, he may become a victim of a criminal - “ownerless”, and even for a long time the child attracts attention to himself. Thirdly, he may be involved in a crime and, fourthly, he may commit a crime himself because he needs food and money.

Yes, sometimes in this office the children found say to me: “I’ll run away anyway,” “I’ll stab him,” “I’ll hang myself.” By law, a child has the right to write a statement to the police that he refuses to return home. In this case, he is placed in a specialized institution. This is rare, but it does happen - several times a year children persuade me to send them to an orphanage because they don’t want to go home. I'm turning them over to the juvenile department.

Story No. 9. I have a girl from orphanage, she is seventeen and a half years old. Until she turns 18, she must live in orphanage. But she is a model, taller than me, beautiful - face, figure... She ran away, I found her, and where she arrived, they brought her in a Maserati. And so she asks me: “So, where are you taking me now?” I say: “To the orphanage.” She stands, smiles, looks at me from above and asks: “What am I going to do there in the orphanage, Dmitry Vladimirovich? Yes, I'll run away right now. Why are you going to waste your energy and government funds on me?” And really, what's the point of her being there? But we had a conversation with her, and until she came of age, she gave us no reason to worry, but, by the way, even after her long-awaited birthday, we often called each other.

– You can often hear that before it was calmer on the streets, you could let children go alone, but now... Do you think the number of crimes against children has increased compared to Soviet times?

- In my opinion, no. But the children now have more temptations.

Story No. 10. One adult man persuaded children to go on adventures via the Internet - let's, he says, rob banks, and he gathered six children. This was very beneficial for him: firstly, the children would not get anything for it, because they were minors, and secondly, no one would pay attention to them. We caught them all in time - the boy, who had run away from home not for the first time, told us everything, we went to the gathering place and took this man.

Not a single vending machine or payment terminal can function without a banknote acceptor, so coin acceptors must be kept in reserve.
When a friend or relative mysteriously disappears, we instinctively try not to think the worst and hope for the best. But sometimes life gives us neither one nor the other, choosing an ending that no one expected.

10. Creepy but elegant solution

“I'm going on a journey from which we never return,” wrote Dennis Rarick. It was 1976 when the highly educated mathematician and scientist succumbed to depression. In despair, he decided to say goodbye to his father with this sad message. Dennis drowned his car, wallet, personal documents, and, it would seem, his life itself.

Over the next 14 years, Denis's friends and relatives were convinced that he had died, and documents were filed in court to record this fact. In reality, Rarick pressed the “reset” button on his entire life. He took the name Leonard Cohn and subtracted seven years from his actual age.

Cohn, like his previous incarnation, was engaged in computer technology. He even received a master's degree and a doctorate in computer science, after which he started a family and started his own business.

Cohn's wife, Martha Weaver, knew him as a man without a family. She didn't question him about the missing documents because she believed he was working on a military project. Martha held this belief for 10 years.

Then, having gotten rid of the blues, Cohn decided to confess. It was Christmas and he was having dinner with his wife. Cohn told her that there were serious issues to discuss, namely that he had fabricated his entire biography.

For several weeks, Kon dedicated Marfa to the life of Denis Rarick. After discouraging his wife with the message that their marriage was built on lies, Cohn sent a letter to his father.

And after 14 years he returned. In fact, nothing special happened that could force Denis to come out of hiding. He just felt it was time to return home.

9. Man among the mushrooms

Carlos Sanchez Ortiz de Salazar boasted of having many impressive skills and achievements. He was a doctor, a psychology student and a true polyglot. Moreover, he was respected. Those who knew Carlos considered him kind and responsible. But at the end of 1996, something changed.

Many relatives believe that the modest doctor from Seville, Spain, became a victim of depression and decided to look for a way out of it in solitude. In any case, no one could find him. After 14 years without any news or letters, Carlos's family stopped believing that he was alive. Thus, he joined the list of missing people who were considered dead.

But in 2015, a couple of Italian mushroom pickers brought a ray of hope to the Salazar family. While picking mushrooms in Tuscany, a couple was confused when they came across a variety of plastic bottles and water cans. Like a trail of bread crumbs, the garbage led them to a hut in which there was a man with a dirty face and a long beard.

Afraid to make contact, the mushroom pickers left in panic. Then they came to the forester and took him to the place where the bearded man was found.

The man greeted his visitors friendly and explained that he was Dr. Carlos de Salazar. He also presented documents proving his identity. Being a complete introvert, the former Spanish doctor one day decided to completely break with society. He was afraid of contact with people and after he was discovered, he decided to change his location.

But before he disappeared into the wild forest again, the people who found him took photographs of his documents. Later they showed photographs and told Carlos' story to the Association for the Search of Missing Persons of Italy and Spain.

Carlos's parents couldn't believe that after 19 years someone had found their son alive, and they rushed to Italy. As his 65-year-old mother explained: “It would have been enough to see him just for half an hour. Then, if that is his wish, we would not try to see him again."

But, contrary to their wishes, the meeting did not take place. True to his word, Carlos left his refuge.

8. Unexpected shelter

In practice, it has become a rule that sometimes teenagers conflict with their parents. So the quarrel that occurred one day in 2005 between 14-year-old Xiao Yun and her mother seemed quite common.

In a fit of rage, Yun ran away. But instead of cooling down and then returning, she stayed away from home. As the days turned into weeks, months and years, the disconsolate parents began to come to the grim conclusion that their daughter was no longer alive. In a fit of despair, her parents deleted entries about her from the house register.

Everything changed in 2015. Police in the Chinese city of Hangzhou came across a woman with fake documents in an Internet cafe. The officers brought her to the station for questioning. She initially tried to mislead authorities by claiming that she grew up with her grandparents. But in the end, she cracked and revealed the truth and that her name was Xiao Yun.

According to Yoon, after leaving home, she lived in Internet cafes or bathhouses. To make money, she taught people how to succeed at the video game "CrossFire", kept logs at some of her regular haunts, and relied on generosity strangers. When she wasn't making money, she honed her lucrative skills at playing CrossFire.

Yun's parents couldn't wait to receive their daughter, but she was lukewarm about the idea. After some persuasion, she finally agreed to return home. Now that Yun is back, her parents have sworn that they will never quarrel with her again.

7. Extended my stay

For years, Staff Sergeant Ed Lukin of Queensland, Australia, wondered about the fate of American tourist Kenneth Rodman. Ex-wife Rodman and his daughter undoubtedly did the same. But the circumstances of his disappearance did not inspire hope for happy reunion families.

In 2010, Rodman traveled to Australia and allegedly met a gruesome end. While staying with a friend in Mowbray, he apparently went solo in a kayak to a nearby village. When he disappeared without a trace, the police opened a missing person case.

After a two-week search, all they found was Rodman's overturned kayak, floating in crocodile-infested waters. Then he was officially declared missing. Apparently, he became a victim of crocodiles.

Five years passed, and the investigator on the case, Ed Lukin, received a position in another city. He still hoped to return to the search for Rodman, but in his new place he had a bunch of other urgent matters.

Then, at his new duty station, Lukin encountered a series of break-ins, and this unexpectedly brought him back to the Rodman case. Members of his unit were chasing a pair of burglars when an unknown man on a bicycle rode past them in the dead of night. The police suspected that he had noticed the criminals and decided to question him. But the man sped off.

The mystery man was tracked down with the help of police dogs and he quickly confessed. But not in hacking. In this regard, the man was absolutely pure. But he turned out to be Kenneth Rodman and was responsible for the fact that his tourist visa had long expired.

It turned out that Kenneth was hiding from his friends, relatives and Australian authorities. He pretended to be a victim of crocodiles in order to hide in Australia. Why exactly he was hiding remains unclear. It may have something to do with the nearly $50,000 in unpaid child support he owes.

6. Memory lapses

Winston Bright, a husband and father of three, disappeared one day in 1990. His distraught wife, with the help of the New York Police Department, made every effort to search, but her husband disappeared without a trace. A decade later, Winston's wife concluded that he had died. But she was deeply mistaken.

According to Winston, while his wife was scouring New York for his photo, he wandered aimlessly through the streets of San Diego, without identification and with no idea who he was.

Despite claiming amnesia, Bright changed his name to Kwame Sekou rather than attempt to establish his own identity. Under the name Sekou, he received a diploma in education and a teacher's certificate with the right to teach in public schools San Diego. He spent almost two decades working as an educator.

Bright's memory conveniently returned at the very moment when he finished teaching and wanted to get a pension. He claimed that the first fragmentary memories came to him in a dream. Then, with the help of the Internet, he reconstructed his life before he appeared as Kwame Sekou.

Winston wanted his old life back and his pension. By this time 20 years had passed. During 10 of them he was legally considered dead, and the money he hoped to receive had already been paid to his wife and children.

Eager to get the money, Bright returned to New York and sued over his pension benefits. To confirm his identity, he took a DNA test and told his unusual story about amnesia and partial return of memory in sleep.

Medical workers stated that the condition described by Bright is known as a form of amnesia and is quite possible, although incredibly rare. But Winston's family was more skeptical.

Bright's wife, Leslie, noted that he seemed more concerned about finances than about his long-awaited return. One of his sons openly refused to believe his father's fantastic story. Perhaps the only thing Winston really forgot about was conscience.

5. Suppressed passion

Police in two states tried and failed to find Eric Myers. In 1991, a well-to-do real estate agent from Arizona traveled to San Diego for a real estate seminar, but he never returned home. Five years of fruitless searching have weakened the resolve of Eric's wife and five children. They declared him legally dead and could only wonder what cruel fate had befallen him. Eleven years later they received their answer.

In 2007, Myers' friends and family began receiving disturbing letters, one of which directly asked if they wanted to know what happened to their long-lost Eric. Myers then reached out to his mother through a friend. Soon everyone around him learned the surprising reason for Myers' 16-year absence.

Eric has struggled with his sexual orientation since childhood. Having received a conservative upbringing, he became very religious and married early. He ignored constant family troubles and clung to the façade wonderful family leading a lavish lifestyle. But then Eric was robbed.

This happened during the same real estate conference that preceded his disappearance. The incident left him emotionally traumatized and made him think. And instead of returning home, he fled to Mexico.

There he fell in love with a man and wanted to give in to his long-suppressed homosexuality. Myers and his partner took on fake identities and began traveling carefree.

Meanwhile, his family in Arizona was trying to cope with many difficulties. Daughter Kirsten was dependent on medication for many years. Eric's wife, Anne, tried to provide her with care and concern, but she was deeply wounded by childhood illness.

Sixteen years later, Eric decided he wanted to see his family. In an interview with ABC News, he explained that he "never had any plan to come back, just as there was never any plan to leave."

Apparently, Eric never thought about how his behavior would affect others. Otherwise, he might have guessed that his grieving family, after he was declared dead, received $800,000 in death benefits and now, upon his return, the insurance company will sue to get the money back.

After returning, Eric again fell into a depressed state and, as a result of an emotional upheaval, again left his family. However, Myers justifies his actions, believing that suppressing his true self is a fool's errand.

4. Unlucky hitchhiker

In 2002, Brenda Heist from Lititz County, Pennsylvania, USA, simply could not breathe easy. An accountant at a car dealership was torn between three problems: divorce proceedings, housing difficulties and problems raising her 8-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son. And then one day, after sending her children to school, Brenda went to the park and, apparently, decided to end it all. She didn't come to school to pick up her children...

Those who knew Brenda concluded that something terrible had happened. She was not one of those who spontaneously went on adventures, and the prospect of her abandoning her family seemed unthinkable to everyone. Police immediately suspected her then-husband, Lee Heist, of murder because he was the only one who had a motive. However, the subsequent investigation failed to find evidence pointing to the husband's involvement in his wife's disappearance.

Accusations of femicide haunted Lee Heyst for many years. Even parents in his area forbade their children from playing with Heyst, fearing that they would come into contact with a possible killer. He also faced financial problems, which were only resolved in 2010, when Brenda was declared legally dead and Lee collected her death insurance.

In 2013, Lee Heist and his daughter received news that Brenda had reappeared - in Florida. Eleven years ago, as dejected Brenda Heist sobbed in the park, three strangers approached her. In a spontaneous impulse, she agreed to leave the city with them and lead the life of a miserable vagabond. The quartet slept under bridges, searched for food in dumpsters and hitchhiked to Florida by begging.

In Florida, Brenda worked as a maid, cleaned boats, was a nanny and did any kind of work. She eventually moved in with one of her clients and stayed with him for seven years. She also distanced herself from her past, created a Facebook account under a fictitious pseudonym, and filled out a profile on a dating site. But her reincarnation came with serious problems.

Brenda was arrested several times for drug possession, using false identification, and stealing a client's driver's license. Eventually, she found herself back on the street. Tired of trying to find her way in life, she admitted to Florida authorities that she was Brenda Heist from Pennsylvania.

According to Brenda, she was very worried about the fact that she had harmed her husband and children. It's clear that after 11 years of emotional hell, her abandoned family wasn't ready to extend an olive branch to Brenda.

3. Postcards with recognition

Lydia Bacot McDonald never thought she would become an unemployed single mother. An insurance company statistician from Hartford, Connecticut, USA, fell in love with a man named David Bigelow McDonald during distance learning in college. In 1956 they got married.

IN next year Lydia gave birth to his daughter Anne. However, her husband was no longer around by that time. On April 10, 1957, a few days after a pregnant Lydia left her job, David allegedly went to Boston to look for a car, but he never returned.

The police were at a dead end. But three years later, through one of his friends, he sent his wife a bizarre gift - salmon packed in ice.

Apparently Lydia's husband was somewhere in Seattle, Washington, but he refused to reveal his exact location. He sent his distraught wife several money orders, but did nothing to heal her broken heart.

The scant news from David eventually stopped altogether. Even when David's father became deathly ill, David never showed up. His daughter, Anne, died of breast cancer at the age of 44, apparently never having met her father. Lydia also passed away without knowing what happened to her ex-husband.

Fifty years passed before any information emerged about what happened to David. In 2007, Seattle resident Heather Garrett made a stunning discovery. While going through the personal belongings of a recently deceased family friend, Erik Niels Sonnegaard, she found a number of postcards. Was carelessly written on them secret biography David MacDonald.

For an unknown reason, David decided to abandon his previous life and start over under the name Erik Sonnegaard. By posing as a man of meager means and little education, he endeared himself to Heather's grandmother, Gladys Vance. Coincidentally, Gladys was left by her husband at the same time that David left Lydia.

"Eric" filled the void in Vance's life, becoming her constant companion and caring for her granddaughter with fatherly love. To earn money, he swept sidewalks, worked in recycling, and performed tasks that didn't require a Social Security number. By the time he died of cancer in 2007, he had amassed only a collection of broken televisions.

Military documents and fingerprint comparisons confirmed that Erik Sonnegaard was indeed David MacDonald. The discovery that her grandmother had been deceived left Heather dumbfounded and upset. She refused to communicate with MacDonald's surviving relatives. Some suspect that the war triggered David's PTSD, which was the reason for his departure, but no one will ever know for sure.

2. Murder Imperfect

To be fair, no one could blame Craig, ex-husband Christina Davison is that he was a saint. His misdemeanors include a charge of aggravated assault with firearms and several family incidents. But was Craig such a scoundrel as to kill his ex-wife? In 2014, this is exactly what it looked like.

In May of that year, about three months after Craig was accused of assaulting Christina, she disappeared. Apparently, her departure was not voluntary. There were knife cuts and traces of blood on her bed. Her wallet was found on a roadway in a completely different city.

Efforts to locate the 43-year-old Whataburger waitress were unsuccessful. Her friend Patti Rucker expressed the general opinion at the time: “I don’t think we’ll find her alive.” Luckily, Patty was wrong. Nine months after her disappearance, Kristina Davison turned up in Lexington, Kentucky. She got a job as a waitress at Red State BBQ and became popular in the area. Her colleagues had reason to believe that she had moved to Kentucky to escape abuse from her friend in Arkansas.

Christina's comfortable cover story fell apart when she was pulled over at a traffic stop one night in 2015. It turned out that she was wanted in Texas for drug possession and was listed as missing. She was detained, but questions still remained.

Christina was unable to explain her actions or why she was unable to contact friends or family during her nine-month absence. Authorities believe she was hoping to avoid prison or was hiding from her former common-law husband, Craig, by faking her own death.

1. Unusual resurrection

It's not every day that a murder victim opens his door to you. But in September 2015, police officers in Düsseldorf, Germany, encountered just such a case. When they arrived to check the report of a break-in in apartment building, they were greeted by a woman who introduced herself as “Mrs. Schneider.”

However, when asked to confirm her identity, she admitted that her name was Petra Patsitka. It was a stunning confession to say the least. It was believed that this woman was killed 26 years ago.

Petra's case began in July 1984. She then studied computer science in Braunschweig and recently completed her university thesis. On July 26, she said she planned to visit her parents and visit the dentist. But Patsitka did not arrive at the announced destination.

When she subsequently missed her brother's birthday party, her family notified police that Petra had disappeared. Law enforcement authorities suspected something was wrong and Petra’s photograph was shown in the German crime chronicle “Aktenzeichen XY”. The search brought no results and the case dragged on.

Fears that Patsitka had been murdered were confirmed in 1987 when a teenager, identified as Günter K., confessed to the murder of a student in Braunschweig. In 1989, the case was closed.

Theoretically, Gunther killed at least one other person - a young student - near the place where Petra disappeared. But, if there was a second victim on his conscience, it was not Patsitka.

According to the alleged murder victim, she simply wanted to break ties with her family and therefore went into hiding for 31 years. She rejected suggestions of abuse by her relatives, but refused to specify the specific reason. She moved from city to city and somehow found work and rented housing in places that didn't require identification, a Social Security card, or a bank account.

The police were confused by Petra's ability to drift through life like a phantom. Her family was even more shocked. After the shock passed, the relatives began to count on a reunion. However, Petra resolutely refused.

The disappearance of Lucy Johnson was strange from the very beginning. Lucy was last seen by neighbors in September 1961, but her husband did not report her missing until May 1965. It is completely unclear why the husband waited four years before going to the police and telling them that his wife had disappeared. If he is involved in the case, why go to the police, and if not, why wait four years? Of course, it was Lucy's husband who became the first suspect. Police searched the entire backyard of the Johnson home in an attempt to find the remains of the missing woman, but were unsuccessful.

Lucy's daughter Linda Evans, already an adult, really wanted to find her mother. Despite all reason, she believed that her mother was alive. After finding Lucy's old documents, Linda went on television to ask viewers to help locate her mother. Much to Linda's surprise, a woman named Rhonda responded to the ad and explained that she was also Lucy Johnson's daughter.

It turned out that Lucy had been living with another family all this time, fifty years. She had four more children with her new husband. She explained the reason for her escape by saying that her first husband was a domestic tyrant. He did not allow her to take the children with her, but Lucy could no longer stay with him.

Popular

After 52 years, mother and daughter were reunited. For the first time in so many years, Linda saw her mother's face. “I don’t know how to describe it,” she says, “I saw my face in her face, my eyes in hers.” But a difficult question was still asked: why? “She said my father treated her very badly, he cheated on her all the time,” Evans said. “She said he told her to get out, she came back to pick us up, but her father forbade her to go near the children.” She left and never tried to contact us again."

Runaway lovers

Jacqueline Raines-Kruckman was 18 years old, but by this time she already had two children: two years old and six months old. She was on the verge of divorcing her husband and was already living with her parents again. In September 1965, Jacqueline said she was going to a friend's wedding, but never returned.

Melvin Uphoff worked for Jacqueline's husband. He disappeared from home a month after Jacqueline went missing. Melvin also had a family - a wife and children. Many people gossiped that Melvin and Jacqueline fled together, but the police still started searching.

In 2009, authorities were on the trail of the couple. It turned out that Melvin and Jacqueline actually lived together. They stated that they escaped on purpose and are now demanding respect for the right to immunity privacy. They do not want to let their own children and families know about themselves. Due to the lack of evidence of a crime, the cases of Melvin and Jacqueline were closed.

"Too Young to Be a Mother"

Lula Gillespie-Miller was 28 years old when she gave birth to her third child. The woman believed that she was too young to be a mother, so she signed a waiver of the baby in favor of her parents. In 1974 she escaped. Lula sent only one letter to her family, after which she disappeared.

In 2014, The Doe Network, a volunteer organization dedicated to searching for missing people, contacted Indiana police Sergeant Scott Jarvis, who agreed to take on the 40-year-old case. He found references to a woman matching Gillespie-Miller's description in Texas around the 1980s. Scott suggested that she was still living there under a false name.

Lula was indeed found - after 42 years of silence. Her daughter Tammy was shocked by what she heard. “This is not going to be the subject of one of those reality TV sob stories,” Tammy warned. Although Tammy did try to contact her mother and called her on the phone, Gillespie-Miller said she would talk to her daughter when she was ready. Her daughter believes that day will never come.

The Invisible Woman

The disappearance of Petra Pashitka is considered one of the most strange cases in police chronicles. When Petra was 24 years old, in 1984, she disappeared without a trace from her university dormitory in Braunschweig, Germany. Any attempts by the police to follow Petra's trail were unsuccessful, and five years later the authorities were forced to declare Petra dead.

However, 31 years later, Petra was found alive and well. She lived in different parts Germany under fictitious names. Petra had almost no documents with her: no bank account, not even insurance.

The police managed to find her when they responded to a call for a robbery at the apartment of a woman who tried her best to hide her real name. In the end, Petra revealed who she was. The police were shocked, but Petra said that she was not going to contact her family and just wanted to be left alone.

Married two years after his own death

Richard Hoagland and Linda Eisler lived the life of simple burghers in the city of Indianapolis. Linda was Richard's second wife, the couple could afford a large house, several cars and exotic holiday wherever they wish.

On the day of his disappearance, Richard complained to his wife that he was not feeling well and decided to immediately go to the hospital. This was the last time he made contact with Linda. Police found his car abandoned at the airport. But there was no record of Richard leaving the city. The following summer, Richard sent the children cards wishing them a happy birthday, each containing $50. He never contacted them again.

23 years later, Richard was discovered living under the name Terry Szymanski. Richard stole Mr. Szymanski's death certificate. He even married a woman named Mary, bought a house in Florida and raised a child with his new wife. The police found him thanks to the nephew of the real Mr. Szymanski, who suddenly discovered that his uncle got married... two years after own death.

Kidnapped or rescued?

Richard Wayne Landers Jr. grew up in a dysfunctional family. His parents fought constantly and, in the end, the boy ended up in a homeless shelter. Social services determined that the boy's mother suffered from mental retardation. The father filed for divorce and “disappeared from the horizon.” The boy was taken in by his grandparents - they received temporary custody of their grandson.

After some time, the court ruled that Richard Wayne should return to his mother (who was then living in the car), but his grandparents were strongly against this idea. In the end, they withdrew all the money from their account and fled. For 19 years, Richard's mother and the police tried to find him. They succeeded, but by that time he had already grown up and started a family. Wayne justifies his grandparents' actions, even though they were against the law.

Mon, 05/08/2013 - 13:06

The sad statistics are that every day people go missing all over the world. Many are found alive and unharmed, but some remain unfound. We will tell you stories about the most mysterious and mysterious disappearances of people who simply “disappeared into thin air.”

Maura Murray

On February 9, 2004, a 21-year-old student at the University of Massachusetts sent to email letters to her employer and several teachers in which she reported that she was forced to leave the city due to the death of one of her close relatives.

That same night, Maura had an accident, crashing her car into a tree near the town of Woodsville, in New Hampshire, USA. By a strange coincidence, two days before the Murray incident, another car accident occurred in the same place.

The driver of a passing bus offered to help Maura, but she refused. One way or another, having reached the phone, the bus driver called for help, but the police who arrived at the scene of the accident literally ten minutes later discovered that the girl had disappeared without a trace. There were no signs of a struggle at the scene, so the official version is that Maura left the scene voluntarily.

The next day, Maura's relatives in Oklahoma received a voicemail containing choked sobs. Although, according to eyewitnesses, Murray behaved quite strangely a few days before her mysterious disappearance, her family is sure that Maura could not have left the scene of the accident of her own free will without leaving any traces. For nine years now, no one has been able to find an adequate explanation for this incident.

Brian Shaffer

A 27-year-old Ohio State University medical student named Brian Shaffer went to have a few drinks at a bar called Ugly Tuna Saloona on the evening of April 1, 2006.

Between half past one and two o'clock in the morning, Brian inexplicably disappeared: according to eyewitnesses, the student was very drunk and talking on the phone with his girlfriend, and then he was noticed in the company of two other young women. After that, none of the bar visitors saw him.

The most curious thing is that many noticed how Shaffer entered the bar, but no one remembers how he left it - leaving young man Not even the CCTV cameras recorded it, although they clearly show the student entering the pub.

Although Brian had told his mother three weeks earlier that he was planning to go on holiday with his girlfriend, friends and family were convinced that he could not have taken the trip so suddenly. One version says that Shaffer could have been kidnapped, but how the attacker managed to get him out of the establishment, bypassing video cameras and numerous witnesses, is a question that baffles investigators.

Jason Yolkowski

In the early morning of June 13, 2001, 19-year-old Jason Yolkowski went to work in the small town of Omaha, Nebraska, USA. He agreed with his friend that he would pick him up at a nearby school, but Jason never showed up there, and the last time he was seen by a neighbor was half an hour before the appointed meeting time: Jason, according to a valuable witness, was carrying trash cans into his garage.

From the recordings taken by investigators from school security cameras, it was clear that Jason was not really there, while friends and family could not name any reason that could cause the young man to hide.

In 2003, the young man’s parents, Jim and Kelly Yolkowski, founded Project Jason in memory of their son. non-profit organization, which is searching for missing people, but the fate of Jason himself still remains a mystery.

Nicole Morin

Eight-year-old Nicole Morin disappeared on July 30, 1985 from a penthouse in Toronto, a city in the Canadian province of Ontario, where the girl lived with her mother.
That morning, Nicole and her friend were going to swim in the pool located in one of the parts of the huge building, and at half past ten the girl said goodbye to her mother and left the apartment, and 15 minutes later her friend knocked on the door to find out when Nicole would finally get ready.

After this incident, one of the largest police investigations in the history of Toronto was conducted, but no leads could be found that could lead to the girl's trail.

The version of abduction was considered the most likely, but investigators did not find any evidence of this in the entire 20-story building of the residential complex, so the mystery of Nicole Morin’s disappearance has haunted local residents for almost three decades.

Brandon Swenson

19-year-old Brandon Swenson was driving his own car on May 14, 2008, to his hometown of Marshall, Minnesota. It so happened that his car flew off a rural road and ended up in a ditch. The young man called his parents and asked to pick him up from the scene of the accident, but relatives who arrived at the scene could not find him. After answering his father's call, Brandon said he was heading towards the nearby town of Linda, then cursed and lost contact.

Several attempts to reach the young man yielded absolutely nothing. Police later found Swenson's wrecked car, but neither mobile phone, neither the guy himself could be found. According to one version, he could have drowned in a nearby river, but careful combing of the riverbed did not help - the young man disappeared without a trace.

Louis Le Prince

French inventor Louis Le Prince is considered by many to be the true creator of cinema - it was he who invented a movie camera with a single lens, capable of capturing moving objects on film.

However, he is known not only for his merits in creating cinema - humanity is still haunted by his strange disappearance.
On September 16, 1890, Le Prince was visiting his brother in French city Dijon and then went to railway to Paris, but when the train arrived in the capital, it turned out that Le Prince had inexplicably disappeared.

He was last seen boarding his carriage; the train made several stops along the way, but no one saw Louis get off. In addition, the inventor carried a lot of luggage with him, but numerous drawings and equipment also disappeared without a trace. Investigators considered the suicide version untenable, since it was unlikely that Le Prince had any reason to take his own life: from Paris he intended to go to the United States, where he was supposed to obtain patents for his inventions.

One of the popular versions says that Le Prince’s kidnapping was arranged by another famous inventor, Thomas Edison, in order to maintain his reputation as the “father of cinema,” but there is no convincing evidence of this.

Michael Negrete

On December 10, 1999, at four in the morning, 18-year-old UCLA freshman Michael Negrete turned off the computer on which he had been playing video games with friends all night long. At nine o'clock in the morning, his roommate noticed that Michael had left, leaving his keys and wallet - no one had ever seen him since.

The most interesting thing is that the student apparently left barefoot - his shoes were still in place. Police officers with dogs combed all the surrounding areas, but found no traces of the barefoot freshman. A survey of local residents showed that at 4:35 a.m. an unidentified passerby was seen near the scene of the incident, but whether it was Michael or a person somehow connected with his disappearance is still unknown.

Barbara Bolick

A 55-year-old resident of the town of Corvallis in Montana, USA, on July 18, 2007, went hiking in the rocky Bitterroot Range with her friend Jim Ramaker, who came to Barbara from California to stay and admire the local nature.

When the tourists were near Bear Creek, Jim stopped, looking at the wonderful scenic view. According to him, he lost sight of Barbara for no more than a minute, while she was approximately 6–9 m from the place from which he admired the landscape. When he looked back, he discovered that his elderly friend had disappeared into thin air. The large-scale search efforts that followed did not help find any traces of Barbara.

Of course, the first thing the police investigating the disappearance did was carefully check all of Jim Ramaker's testimony, suspecting that he might be involved in her disappearance, but not the slightest evidence of abduction or murder was found. Moreover, if Jim had been guilty of anything, he would have tried to come up with a more convincing version for the investigation than an inexplicable disappearance out of the blue.

Michael Hearon

On August 23, 2008, Michael Hearon went to his farm in Happy Valley, Tennessee to mow the lawn. That morning, acquaintances noticed Michael leaving the farm on his ATV - that’s when the 51-year-old pensioner was last seen.

The next day, neighbors discovered Michael's truck and trailer on his property, with a lawn mower on it, although the grass on the lawn was untouched. When a day later all of Michael’s equipment was found in the same place abandoned on the side of the road, friends sounded the alarm. Keys, a wallet and a mobile phone were found inside the truck, but there was no trace of the man himself.

Three days later, the police discovered an ATV one and a half kilometers from the farm, which, according to friends of the missing man, belonged to him, but this discovery could not shed light on the strange incident. The American had no secret ill-wishers who could have a hand in his disappearance, just as there was no reason to go on the run, so the disappearance of the farmer remains a mystery to this day.

April Fabb

One of the most mysterious disappearances in British history happened on April 8, 1969 in Norfolk. 13-year-old schoolgirl April Fabb from a small town called Matton went to visit her sister in the neighboring village of Roughton. The girl set off on a bicycle, and the last person to see her was a truck driver, who at 14:06 noticed a girl matching April's description on a country road.
Already at 14:12, her bicycle was found in the middle of a field several hundred meters from the place where the driver saw April, and no traces of the girl were found nearby. +38