10 People Who VANISHED Without A Trace
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VOICE OVER: Peter DeGiglio
WRITTEN BY: Don Ekama
Join us as we explore some of history's most baffling disappearances that continue to puzzle investigators to this day. From aspiring musicians to college students, these individuals seemed to vanish into thin air, leaving behind more questions than answers. Some cases remain cold, while others have taken surprising turns decades later. Our list includes the mysterious case of Jim Sullivan, the puzzling vanishing of Brian Shaffer, the heartbreaking Beaumont Children case, and the high-profile disappearance of Madeleine McCann. Which of these unsolved mysteries keeps you up at night? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
10 People Who Vanished Without A Trace
Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’ll be looking at the most puzzling cases of individuals who simply disappeared and have never been seen or heard from since.
Jim Sullivan
This folk singer-songwriter dreamed of becoming a music star and moved to Los Angeles to chase that dream. But despite some Hollywood connections and two albums under his belt, Jim Sullivan struggled to achieve mainstream success. His career frustrations began to affect his marriage, ultimately leading to his separation from his wife, Barbara. In 1975, hoping for a fresh start, Sullivan set out for Nashville to revive his career. However, he mysteriously vanished while driving in New Mexico. His car was later discovered with all of his belongings inside, but there was no trace of him. Some believe he may have taken his own life or been abducted by aliens. Whatever the case, his disappearance remains one of music’s strangest mysteries.
Michael Negrete
Back in 1999, Michael Negrete was studying music at the University of California, Los Angeles on a scholarship. On December 10, he attended a party with friends and later played an online video game with a dormmate before calling it a night. By the next morning, Negrete had vanished. His belongings remained untouched in his room, but no one had heard from him. Initially, police treated it as a missing person case, but due to the suspicious circumstances, the investigation was later reclassified as a homicide. They mounted an extensive search of the school campus and combed through over 500 leads, but came up with nothing. Negrete remains missing and a $100,000 reward for information on his whereabouts is still unclaimed.
Tara Calico
On September 20th 1988, Tara Calico went on her usual bike ride near her home in Belen, New Mexico and never returned. When her mother went searching, she found nothing, except fragments of Calico’s Sony Walkman and a cassette tape. For months, there was no lead, until June 1989 when a woman found a picture at a Florida convenience store, showing a young woman and a boy being held in the back of a van. Calico’s mother believed this woman was her daughter, and this was supported by investigators at Scotland Yard, although an FBI analysis of the picture proved inconclusive. In 2023, authorities announced they had sufficient evidence pointing to specific persons of interest, but those details have yet to be made public.
Kierra Coles
The last time 26-year-old Chicago postal worker Kierra Coles was seen alive was on October 2nd 2018. That night, just before 11 pm, Coles, who was three months pregnant at the time, was caught on surveillance cameras making an ATM withdrawal before leaving the store, never to be seen again. Authorities believe she was with a man who then drove her car to her neighborhood, parked it, and left in his own vehicle. This man, identified as Josh Simmons, Coles’ boyfriend and the presumed father of her unborn child, was named a person of interest. However, no arrests seem to have been made, and a $25,000 reward remains available for any information that could help solve the case.
The Springfield Three
On June 6th 1992, the day of their high school graduation, Suzanne Streeter and Stacy McCall attended several parties in their hometown of Springfield, Missouri. In the early hours of the next morning, they retired to the home of Streeter’s mother, Sherrill Levitt, planning to spend the night and meet friends later that day. When they failed to show up, their friends went to Levitt’s home, only to find that all three had disappeared. The house showed no signs of a struggle, except for a broken porch lamp and Levitt’s visibly agitated dog. Unfortunately, a proper investigation into the disappearance was hindered by multiple errors, including the inadvertent erasure of a mysterious voicemail and contamination of the house by concerned friends and family.
The Beaumont Children
Any sense of safety residents of Adelaide, South Australia had was shattered on January 26th 1966. That day, three siblings – Jane, Arnna and Grant Beaumont – left home, boarded a bus and headed to the nearby Glenelg Beach for a day of fun. It was the last time their parents ever saw them. Eyewitnesses later recalled seeing the children playing with a thin, tall man in his mid-30s, before walking away with him. Because they seemed at ease, no one found the interaction suspicious. After they failed to return home, their parents contacted the authorities who searched the beach and its surroundings, but found no trace of them. The case remains unsolved, and the Beaumont parents passed away without ever knowing what happened to their children.
Brian Shaffer
27-year-old medical student Brian Shaffer walked into a bar just after midnight on April 1st 2006 and simply vanished. Shaffer had been partying with friends, but got separated from them at some point. When the bar closed, his friends, still unable to find him, went home, assuming he had already left. But days passed with no sign of Shaffer, and he missed a long-planned flight to Miami. Concerned, his family reported him missing. Police reviewed surveillance footage, which captured Shaffer chatting with two women outside the bar but never showed him leaving. Did he fall into a nearby construction site, become a victim of foul play, or vanish intentionally to start a new life? The answer to this puzzling mystery remains unknown.
Maura Murray
Often called the “first crime mystery of the social media age,” Maura Murray’s disappearance occurred just days after Facebook launched. On February 9th 2004, the University of Massachusetts Amherst nursing student made travel plans, packed some belongings into her car and left campus. Earlier that day, she had emailed her professors claiming a death in her family required her to be away for a week. According to her family, though, no such death had occurred. Murray was last seen by a motorist after she crashed her car sometime after 7 pm that evening. By the time police arrived, she was gone. Since then, there has been no trace of her, and her family now believes she is likely dead.
Madeleine McCann
In April 2007, Madeleine McCann and her family traveled to Praia da Luz, Portugal for holiday. On the penultimate night of their trip, McCann’s parents, Kate and Gerry, left her and her younger twin siblings asleep in their apartment while they dined at a nearby restaurant. They checked on the children periodically, but around 10 pm, they discovered that Madeleine was missing. A massive search effort followed, involving both Portuguese and British law enforcement. Meanwhile, the McCanns launched a high-profile media campaign to try to draw attention to the case. Various suspects were considered, including the McCanns themselves; a British-Portuguese resident named Robert Murat; and Christian Brückner, a convicted sex offender. However, no one was formally charged, and the case remains unsolved.
Lauren Spierer
On the night of her disappearance in 2011, Indiana University student Lauren Spierer went out partying and reportedly became very intoxicated. Around 4:30 am on June 3rd, she left a friend's apartment and began walking barefoot towards her own. That was the last time she was seen. While surveillance footage captured parts of her night, no cameras recorded her final steps home. Later that morning, her boyfriend reported her missing, prompting police to conduct a nine-day search of a nearby landfill. Despite this and other extensive efforts, no trace of Spierer was ever found. In 2015, investigators noted similarities between her case and the murder of another Indiana University student, but after further review, the connection was dismissed. Spierer’s whereabouts remain unknown.
Are there any obscure disappearance cases you think deserve more media attention? Spotlight them in the comments below.
Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’ll be looking at the most puzzling cases of individuals who simply disappeared and have never been seen or heard from since.
Jim Sullivan
This folk singer-songwriter dreamed of becoming a music star and moved to Los Angeles to chase that dream. But despite some Hollywood connections and two albums under his belt, Jim Sullivan struggled to achieve mainstream success. His career frustrations began to affect his marriage, ultimately leading to his separation from his wife, Barbara. In 1975, hoping for a fresh start, Sullivan set out for Nashville to revive his career. However, he mysteriously vanished while driving in New Mexico. His car was later discovered with all of his belongings inside, but there was no trace of him. Some believe he may have taken his own life or been abducted by aliens. Whatever the case, his disappearance remains one of music’s strangest mysteries.
Michael Negrete
Back in 1999, Michael Negrete was studying music at the University of California, Los Angeles on a scholarship. On December 10, he attended a party with friends and later played an online video game with a dormmate before calling it a night. By the next morning, Negrete had vanished. His belongings remained untouched in his room, but no one had heard from him. Initially, police treated it as a missing person case, but due to the suspicious circumstances, the investigation was later reclassified as a homicide. They mounted an extensive search of the school campus and combed through over 500 leads, but came up with nothing. Negrete remains missing and a $100,000 reward for information on his whereabouts is still unclaimed.
Tara Calico
On September 20th 1988, Tara Calico went on her usual bike ride near her home in Belen, New Mexico and never returned. When her mother went searching, she found nothing, except fragments of Calico’s Sony Walkman and a cassette tape. For months, there was no lead, until June 1989 when a woman found a picture at a Florida convenience store, showing a young woman and a boy being held in the back of a van. Calico’s mother believed this woman was her daughter, and this was supported by investigators at Scotland Yard, although an FBI analysis of the picture proved inconclusive. In 2023, authorities announced they had sufficient evidence pointing to specific persons of interest, but those details have yet to be made public.
Kierra Coles
The last time 26-year-old Chicago postal worker Kierra Coles was seen alive was on October 2nd 2018. That night, just before 11 pm, Coles, who was three months pregnant at the time, was caught on surveillance cameras making an ATM withdrawal before leaving the store, never to be seen again. Authorities believe she was with a man who then drove her car to her neighborhood, parked it, and left in his own vehicle. This man, identified as Josh Simmons, Coles’ boyfriend and the presumed father of her unborn child, was named a person of interest. However, no arrests seem to have been made, and a $25,000 reward remains available for any information that could help solve the case.
The Springfield Three
On June 6th 1992, the day of their high school graduation, Suzanne Streeter and Stacy McCall attended several parties in their hometown of Springfield, Missouri. In the early hours of the next morning, they retired to the home of Streeter’s mother, Sherrill Levitt, planning to spend the night and meet friends later that day. When they failed to show up, their friends went to Levitt’s home, only to find that all three had disappeared. The house showed no signs of a struggle, except for a broken porch lamp and Levitt’s visibly agitated dog. Unfortunately, a proper investigation into the disappearance was hindered by multiple errors, including the inadvertent erasure of a mysterious voicemail and contamination of the house by concerned friends and family.
The Beaumont Children
Any sense of safety residents of Adelaide, South Australia had was shattered on January 26th 1966. That day, three siblings – Jane, Arnna and Grant Beaumont – left home, boarded a bus and headed to the nearby Glenelg Beach for a day of fun. It was the last time their parents ever saw them. Eyewitnesses later recalled seeing the children playing with a thin, tall man in his mid-30s, before walking away with him. Because they seemed at ease, no one found the interaction suspicious. After they failed to return home, their parents contacted the authorities who searched the beach and its surroundings, but found no trace of them. The case remains unsolved, and the Beaumont parents passed away without ever knowing what happened to their children.
Brian Shaffer
27-year-old medical student Brian Shaffer walked into a bar just after midnight on April 1st 2006 and simply vanished. Shaffer had been partying with friends, but got separated from them at some point. When the bar closed, his friends, still unable to find him, went home, assuming he had already left. But days passed with no sign of Shaffer, and he missed a long-planned flight to Miami. Concerned, his family reported him missing. Police reviewed surveillance footage, which captured Shaffer chatting with two women outside the bar but never showed him leaving. Did he fall into a nearby construction site, become a victim of foul play, or vanish intentionally to start a new life? The answer to this puzzling mystery remains unknown.
Maura Murray
Often called the “first crime mystery of the social media age,” Maura Murray’s disappearance occurred just days after Facebook launched. On February 9th 2004, the University of Massachusetts Amherst nursing student made travel plans, packed some belongings into her car and left campus. Earlier that day, she had emailed her professors claiming a death in her family required her to be away for a week. According to her family, though, no such death had occurred. Murray was last seen by a motorist after she crashed her car sometime after 7 pm that evening. By the time police arrived, she was gone. Since then, there has been no trace of her, and her family now believes she is likely dead.
Madeleine McCann
In April 2007, Madeleine McCann and her family traveled to Praia da Luz, Portugal for holiday. On the penultimate night of their trip, McCann’s parents, Kate and Gerry, left her and her younger twin siblings asleep in their apartment while they dined at a nearby restaurant. They checked on the children periodically, but around 10 pm, they discovered that Madeleine was missing. A massive search effort followed, involving both Portuguese and British law enforcement. Meanwhile, the McCanns launched a high-profile media campaign to try to draw attention to the case. Various suspects were considered, including the McCanns themselves; a British-Portuguese resident named Robert Murat; and Christian Brückner, a convicted sex offender. However, no one was formally charged, and the case remains unsolved.
Lauren Spierer
On the night of her disappearance in 2011, Indiana University student Lauren Spierer went out partying and reportedly became very intoxicated. Around 4:30 am on June 3rd, she left a friend's apartment and began walking barefoot towards her own. That was the last time she was seen. While surveillance footage captured parts of her night, no cameras recorded her final steps home. Later that morning, her boyfriend reported her missing, prompting police to conduct a nine-day search of a nearby landfill. Despite this and other extensive efforts, no trace of Spierer was ever found. In 2015, investigators noted similarities between her case and the murder of another Indiana University student, but after further review, the connection was dismissed. Spierer’s whereabouts remain unknown.
Are there any obscure disappearance cases you think deserve more media attention? Spotlight them in the comments below.
