Top 20 Creepiest Disappearance Stories
#20: Ryan Chambers
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In June of 2005, Ryan Chambers embarked on a spiritual journey to India with his friend John Booker. However, after a while, Booker noticed that Chambers wasn’t getting much sleep and was beginning to act strangely. Then, early in the morning of August 24th, the 21-year-old Australian simply walked out of his ashram wearing nothing but a pair of shorts. He left behind all his belongings and an eerie note reading, “If I'm gone, don't worry. I'm not dead, I'm freeing minds. But first I have to free my own.” No one has seen or heard from him since. An exhaustive search was launched, but after turning up nothing for years, Chambers was legally declared dead in 2023.
#19: The Fort Worth Missing Trio
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Rachel Trlica, Renee Wilson, and Julie Ann Moseley were Christmas shopping in the Fort Worth, Texas Seminary South Shopping Center when they went missing. The girls failed to return to their respective homes, prompting their families to conduct a search. They found Trlica’s car in the parking lot and it contained multiple gifts, indicating that the girls had returned to the vehicle at some point. Nevertheless, the trio were nowhere to be seen. Trlica’s husband later received a letter presumably written by her, stating that they were “going to Houston” to “get away” and they’d be back in about a week. But they never showed up and have remained missing ever since. The families have since cast doubt on the letter’s authenticity.
#18: Brandon Swanson
On May 14th 2008, Brandon Swanson of Minnesota was driving home following a night out partying. After veering off into a ditch, the 19-year-old student phoned his parents and asked them to pick him up. Swanson’s parents remained on the phone with him for the next 47 minutes, but couldn’t seem to find him at his supposed location. Still on the call, Swanson asked his dad to meet him at a local bar but soon after, he yelled out a curse word and went silent. Investigators later found that the young man was actually about 25 miles away from where he thought he was. It is believed that he inadvertently fell into the Yellow Medicine River and drowned, hence the sudden cursing.
#17: Bobby Dunbar
The story of Bobby Dunbar is a bizarre one. Dunbar disappeared on a family fishing trip on August 23, 1912. Authorities then found a boy matching his description with a man named William Walters. Walters insisted that the kid was actually named Bruce Anderson, which was corroborated by Anderson’s mother Julia, who claimed that she allowed her son go on a trip with him. The case went to trial and Anderson was eventually handed to the Dunbars, with whom he lived the rest of his life. Unable to afford a lawyer, Julia lost her case and had her reputation soiled in the media. However, a future DNA test proved that the kid was, in fact, not Dunbar, lending further credence to Julia’s story.
#16: Margaret Fox
In 1974, Margaret Fox advertised her services as a babysitter, attracting the attention of one “John Marshall.” Marshall contacted Fox and told her to meet him in Mount Holly, New Jersey. The young girl traveled there on a bus and was never seen again. The authorities were immediately contacted and they traced Marshall’s number to a supermarket pay phone, which raised suspicions. The Fox family also received a phone call from a stranger, demanding $10,000 for their daughter’s safe return. Unfortunately, this call could not be traced and the man was never identified. Despite investigators’ efforts, the case eventually fizzled out, with no one finding Fox or figuring out the identity of Marshall ever since.
#15: George Mallory & Andrew Irvine
The story of George Mallory and Andrew Irvine captures the horror of mountain climbing and the endless allure of Everest. Both men took part in the ill-fated British Mount Everest Expedition of 1924, hoping to be the first people to reach the top. They were last spotted about 800 feet from the summit but promptly disappeared. The men were soon presumed dead and publicly mourned as heroes of Britain. Their whereabouts remained a mystery for the next 75 years until the Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition located Mallory’s preserved corpse in 1999. It was found with a puncture wound in the forehead, suggesting that he had fallen and accidentally struck himself with his ice ax. Irvine’s body is yet to be found.
#14: Marjorie West
Called “the great unsolved mystery of the missing” by The Guardian, the story of Marjorie West is a fascinating one. West was picnicking with her family on May 8, 1938 when she went missing. The story goes that West’s sister Dorothea left her unattended to, but upon her return, the young child was gone. A massive search was undertaken involving thousands of people, but the effort was unsuccessful. Then-police commissioner P. W. Foote believed that West had been playing hide-and-seek when she got lost. However, a man named Harold Beck later wrote a book positing that West was kidnapped and grew up with her captors as Sylvia London. Beck claimed that London eventually confessed to being West, but she passed away in 2009.
#13: Frederick Valentich
Australian pilot Frederick Valentich was a student in the country’s Air Training Corps. In the evening of October 21, 1978, Valentich was flying over the Bass Strait, which separates mainland Australia from Tasmania. During the flight, Valentich contacted Melbourne Flight Service to report an unidentified aircraft that was following him. The craft had bright lights and seemed to be hovering right above him. Just after telling Flight Service that it wasn’t an aircraft, a loud scraping noise was heard over the radio. Valentich was lost, and his plane was never recovered. Ufologists believe that the pilot was abducted by a UFO, while others posit that he was unknowingly flying upside down and saw his own reflection in the water before crashing.
#12: Evelyn Hartley
Teenager Evelyn Hartley was tasked with babysitting the daughter of Viggo Rasmussen, one of her parents’ colleagues. Hartley arrived at the house as planned, but when she failed to check in later that evening, her father Richard gave her a call. There was no response, so he traveled to the Rasmussen house himself. He found a wild site, as items were thrown everywhere and the furniture had been moved. There were also signs of a break-in, including a torn-off window screen, pry marks, footprints, and blood. The baby was found unharmed upstairs, but there was no sign of Hartley. A witness reported seeing two men driving away with a young girl, adding credence to the theory that Hartley was kidnapped in a break-in.
#11: He Jiankui
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In November 2018, this Chinese biophysicist made world headlines when he announced he’d created the first genetically-edited human babies. His claim was met with widespread condemnation due to serious ethical issues with his experiment. His research was suspended, he was fired from SUSTech, and then...he disappeared. In December it was reported that he was sequestered in an apartment under guard. In December 2019, it was announced that Jiankui had been sentenced to three years in prison, but there remain unanswered questions regarding his whereabouts and well-being.
#10: The Sodders
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A devastating fire erupted in the Sodder household on Christmas Eve, 1945. The Sodder parents and four of their nine children escaped, but the other five weren’t so lucky. The easy theory is that the children died in the fire, but the story contains many twists that cast some doubt. No evidence of the bodies were ever found. Furthermore, patriarch George Sodder spoke negatively about his then-fascist native Italy, prompting a theory that the Sicilian Mafia had burned the house and kidnapped the children. Years later, a photo of an older man was mailed to the Sodders, purportedly depicting a now-grown Louis. They agreed that the man harbored a resemblance to their missing child, and they both held onto this hope until their deaths.
#9: Lauren Spierer
In 2011, 20-year-old Lauren Spierer was attending Indiana University and studying textiles merchandising. On the night of June 2, 2011, Spierer went out with some friends to Bloomington’s Kilroy’s Sports Bar. She left the bar around 2:30 AM, and was last seen leaving a friend’s apartment at 4:30. She remains missing to this day. Various theories have been put forth, including abduction and a fatal overdose, as Spierer had reportedly consumed alcohol and drugs. Despite thousands of tips and attempts by police to tie her disappearance to other crimes in the area, Lauren Spierer’s whereabouts remain unknown.
#8: Lars Mittank
One of the strangest and creepiest stories involving a disappearance has to be that of 28-year old German man Lars Mittank. In June 2014, Mittank was vacationing at Bulgaria’s Golden Sands seaside resort with friends. When it was time to leave, Mittank was left in the country owing to a ruptured eardrum, which prevented him from flying. He checked into the Hotel Color Varna by himself, where he reportedly began to act paranoid. He even called his mother and told her that four men were looking to get rid of him. The last time anyone saw Mittank, he was running through Varna Airport in fear, hopping a fence, and fleeing into the nearby woods. He hasn’t been seen since. The source of his fear, and his current whereabouts, remain unknown.
#7: Maura Murray
On February 9, 2004, Murray, a nursing student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, emailed her professors claiming that there’d been a death in the family. Her parents have since stated that no such death occurred. She looked into hotels in Vermont, loaded her car with clothing and toiletries, and packed up her belongings in boxes. After leaving campus, she purchased alcohol and withdrew $280 from an ATM. Murray crashed her car around 7:00 that night, and when police arrived at 7:45, she was nowhere to be found. The responding officer found a few suspect items in the car, including driving directions to Vermont and blank accident report forms. Of Murray herself there was, and has been, no trace.
#6: The Springfield Three
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This missing persons case, in which Sherrill Levitt, Stacy McCall, and Suzie Streeter all disappeared, has remained unsolved since 1992. The story begins at Levitt’s home in Springfield, Missouri, where the women spent the night after attending high school graduation parties. When a friend arrived at the house the next morning, all three were missing - despite their cars being parked outside. The friend found a broken porch light and she reportedly received an obscene phone call while there. Levitt’s dog was also visibly agitated. When McCall’s mother later arrived to investigate, she found a “strange” message on the answering machine, but this was accidentally deleted. Unfortunately, the crime scene was so badly contaminated that it prevented a proper investigation.
#5: Rebecca Coriam
When this 24-year old British woman disappeared the morning of March 21, 2011, she was working for the Disney Wonder cruise ship. Coriam was last seen on CCTV footage, talking to someone on one of the ship’s internal phones at 5:45 AM. She was clad in extra large clothing and appeared visibly distressed by the call. She hung up, walked away, and was never seen again. Investigators believe that Coriam went overboard, but how she went overboard remains a mystery. Some believe she jumped, others believe she was pushed by a rogue wave, and her parents believe that she was thrown into the ocean. The official investigation has received loads of criticism, and Disney Wonder has even been accused of covering up her disappearance.
#4: Zebb Quinn
On January 2, 2000, 18-year-old Zebb Quinn met up with his friend Robert Owens. After Quinn received a notification on his pager, however, he appeared frantic, and allegedly sped away in his car. Two days later, after being treated at the hospital for injuries, Owens called in sick for Quinn. On January 6, Quinn’s car was found abandoned with bizarre lipstick drawings on the back windshield and a live puppy stuck inside. In July 2017, Owens was charged with first degree murder in the death of Quinn and is currently awaiting trial. He is also serving life in prison for ending the lives of the Food Network’s Cristie Schoen and her husband, J.T. Codd in 2015. As for Quinn, his exact fate remains a mystery.
#3: Harold Holt
In December 1967, Harold Holt was serving as the 17th Prime Minister of Australia. Holt was an avid outdoorsman but nearly 60 years old, and his personal doctor had recently advised him against swimming. On the afternoon of December 17, 1967, Holt went for a swim at Australia’s Cheviot Beach,despite rough waters. He was quickly swept out to sea, and a massive search was undertaken in the area. Despite the country’s best efforts, no one was able to find any trace of Holt. A governmental inquiry was never launched owing to the wishes of Holt’s family. This detail, among other factors, has led to numerous conspiracy theories. Despite countless claims to the contrary, the official ruling stands that Holt died in a tragic drowning.
#2: D. B. Cooper
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The story of D.B. Cooper is one of the most famous unsolved mysteries of all time, a story involving air theft, a cinematic escape, and an ambiguous outcome. Cooper is the pseudonym of a man who hijacked a Boeing 727 in 1971 and extorted $200,000 in ransom. After securing the money Cooper opened the door mid flight and jumped out into the cold, dark night - never to be seen again. The only trace of Cooper remains a small cache of ransom bills that was recovered in 1980. The rest of the money, and D.B. himself, remains missing. Many FBI agents claim that Cooper likely died in the jump, but then again, they could just be trying to save face.
#1: Amelia Earhart
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If there’s one unsolved story more popular than that of D.B. Cooper, it’s that of Amelia Earhart. Earhart was a popular and renowned aviator and the first woman to fly solo over the Atlantic. In 1937, she and navigator Fred Noonan attempted to circumnavigate the globe. However, they disappeared over the Pacific near Hawaii and were never heard from again. Countless theories have been put forth regarding their ultimate fate, but no consensus has ever been made. It’s most likely that Earhart and Noonan ran out of fuel and crashed into the Pacific while desperately looking for Howland Island. It’s a boring answer, but the most realistic often are.
