In the USA alone, over 600,000 people go missing each year. Often, these individuals are found alive and well. Rarely will they have suffered a terrible accident or been the victim of a fatality.
Even more uncommon is for someone to simply vanish off the face of the earth forever, with no trace of them left behind.
Still, it happens.
Here are seven individuals who disappeared in mysterious circumstances.
We have no clue what happened to them, where they went, or where they may be, though each case offers a trail of intriguing evidence that leads to a frustrating dead end.
Jennifer Kesse
24-year-old Jennifer Kesse lived in Orlando, Florida. She had a comfortable life working as a finance manager, was in a steady relationship, and had a loving family who doted on her.
So, on January 24, 2006, when she suddenly vanished without a trace, it seemed improbable she disappeared willingly.
The morning she vanished, her boyfriend was expecting a call from her, as he often did as she drove to work. The call wouldn’t arrive. When Jennifer’s boyfriend tried calling her, it went straight to voicemail.
A few hours passed, and Jennifer’s workplace had also been trying to get in touch with her all morning. It wasn’t like her not to show up to work.
Eventually, Jennifer’s parents were informed that she was uncontactable, and they knew straight away something untoward had happened. The Kesse parents made their way from Tampa to Orlando to look for their daughter.
Upon arriving at her condo, everything looked normal. Her car was absent, though, suggesting she’d headed out for work that morning as usual. But she hadn’t arrived.
Two days later, her Chevy was found parked outside a random apartment complex. It yielded no clues.
Months passed with no word from Jennifer or clues about where she may have gone. Jennifer had not used her phone or bank accounts since she vanished. Her cell phone and personal items, such as her purse, have never been recovered.
There was one small clue: grainy CCTV footage of a person of interest dropping off Jennifer’s Chevy outside the apartment complex.
However, the camera that captured the person wasn’t a live video camera. Instead, it took pictures every three seconds.
The time slots it snapped the images of the person of interest weren’t ideal: their face was obscured by a gate post each time.
Investigators could, though, determine that the individual was between 5 foot 3 and 5 foot 5 inches, though they couldn’t use the footage to confirm whether the person was male or female.
There was little in the way of tangible evidence to go off. All that was left for investigators to do was speak to the people who knew Jennifer to see if any of them stood out as a possible suspect.
Her boyfriend was quickly ruled out, as was her brother. Her ex-love interest fell on the radar for a short while, but he was cleared, too.
Another possible piece of evidence was Jennifer mentioning to her family that local construction workers would cat-call her. Had something untoward happened with one of the workers that morning?
Investigators followed this trail but couldn’t find any clues.
Years passed, and the Kesse family wasn’t prepared to let Jennifer’s case go cold. They filed a suit against the Orlando Police Department, so they would have to release the records they had on the case.
There were over 16,000 records, and there was one telling part of the investigation: the police had, in fact, found DNA evidence in Jennifer’s car after originally saying they didn’t. However, it was deemed too small to test.
Photos were included as part of the records. Some of them were images of Jennifer’s car, showing dust and dents on the hood.
The Kesse family was unaware that her vehicle was in this state before seeing the images. Perhaps, her family thought, a struggle had taken place on the hood of the car before Jennifer was abducted.
Jennifer’s dad thinks she’s a victim of human trafficking. He feels the Orlando police force has failed his daughter by not thoroughly investigating her disappearance.
In November 2022, the case was passed over to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
The Kesse family remains hopeful they will find Jennifer or uncover what really happened to her almost 20 years after she vanished.
Lars Mittank
German-born Lars Mittank embarked on a holiday with friends in June 2014. The group went to Varna, Bulgaria, known for its vibrant nightlife and warm climate.
A week later, all of the group arrived home safe and sound, except for Lars. He remained in Varna and, seemingly, would never make it back to Germany.
Nobody knows where he went or what happened to him.
For the first five or so days of the trip, the group of young men enjoyed the free-flowing beer, the sunshine, and the various pubs offering football on the big screen.
However, two days before the group was due to fly home, Lars got into an altercation with a fellow football fan who supported the opposing team.
After the brief disagreement, Lars’ group headed to get some food. Lars decided he wasn’t hungry and told his friends he’d meet them back at the hotel. He wouldn’t make it back until the following morning.
When he arrived the next day, Lars had a shocking story for his friends: he’d been beaten up as he made his way back to the hotel. It seemed he was telling the truth.
Lars looked disheveled, and it was clear he was in pain. So much so that he visited the doctor, who confirmed he had a jaw injury and a ruptured eardrum.
He was given an antibiotic and was advised against flying home since the pressure could damage his ear further.
The doctor also urged Lars to go to the hospital, but he declined. It was apparent Lars couldn’t fly home with the rest of his group; he needed to give his injury time to heal. So, he stayed in Bulgaria alone, despite one of his friends offering to stay with him.
Finding a new hotel proved difficult. They were either too expensive or in a rundown area. Lars eventually found Hotel Color, though it was in an unfamiliar area.
The pickings were slim, and he chose the best hotel he could afford. He was now alone in a new, strange place, which would make Lars’ behavior increasingly erratic.
He called his mother, Sandra, and asked her to block his credit card since he believed the details had been copied upon checking into Hotel Color.
Lars had several strange phone calls with his mother thereafter, at one point telling her he was being followed by four men. Other calls saw him whisper while speaking for fear of others listening in.
Then, Lars would become paranoid about the antibiotics he’d been prescribed. He was unsure of the ingredients and what purpose they served. He specifically told his mother he didn’t feel safe in the hotel.
CCTV footage can somewhat verify this; Lars is seen wandering up and down the hallways, looking behind him, and clearly hiding from unknown assailants.
He left the hotel for an hour before returning, and it’s unknown where he went during that time frame.
The next day, despite the doctor’s orders, Lars decided to fly home. Since his card was blocked, he asked his mother for money, which she transferred over. He’d never withdraw it.
Lars went to the airport and decided to check in with the doctor. It was apparent Lars was nervous and jumpy.
During the consultation, a construction worker mistakenly made his way into the doctor’s office, spooking Lars to the point he cried, “I don’t want to die here. I have to get out of here,” before racing out of the office.
CCTV captured Lars fleeing through the airport, clearly in a state of frenzy and panic. It also caught him once he was outside the airport.
He scaled a fence and disappeared in a field of high sunflowers, so high that you couldn’t see which way Lars went; the flowers towered over him. He hasn’t been seen since.
The theories about his vanishing have persisted since 2014. Some suggest he had an adverse reaction to his antibiotics and began hallucinating.
Others propose that Lars must have had undiagnosed mental health problems that caused him to enter a state of psychosis.
However, Lars had never exhibited signs of mental health issues. Some suggest Lars was right to be paranoid, and he was, in fact, abducted by the people following him.
His mother, Sandra, believes her son will return home one day.
Brian Shaffer
In the early hours of April 1, 2006, Brian Shaffer walked into a bar. Seemingly, he would never walk back out.
Medical student Brian, who was studying at Ohio State University, was out drinking with his friends on March 31. He made a late-night call to his girlfriend to tell her he loved her. It would be the last time they spoke.
Brian and his friend were drinking in a bar called the Ugly Tuna before heading to another bar. However, the pair decided to head back to the Ugly Tuna just after 1 a.m. on April 1.
CCTV footage picks up Brian talking to a couple of women outside at 2 a.m. before he heads back into the bar. He would never be seen again.
His mother, father, and girlfriend all tried to contact him that weekend. Brian wouldn’t return their calls. When he missed a flight he was supposed to take the following Monday, the family knew something serious had happened. They contacted the police.
Despite opening a missing persons report, the police had no clues to go off. It was as if Brian had simply vanished inside the bar.
Days passed with no leads, which turned into weeks, though the Shaffer family was intent on ensuring the case didn’t go cold by keeping Brian’s name in the press, hoping someone would come forward with clues.
One did, suggesting Brian had been shot in the Ugly Tuna. It turned out to be a sick hoax. Then, there was another alleged sighting in Atlanta, which proved to be wrong.
Meanwhile, one of Brian’s female friends, whom he was last seen with, was asked to take a polygraph test. She passed. The male friend he was with that night was also asked to take a polygraph but refused to do so.
One interesting clue was that Brian’s phone “pinged” at a cell tower in Hilliard, 14 miles outside of Columbus. Still, nothing came of this.
The only evidence investigators had to go off was the CCTV footage from the Ugly Tuna. There was one main entrance and exit. There was another rarely used exit that led to a construction site.
Two theories have arisen: Brian changed his clothes while inside the bar and exited covertly from the front main entrance, or he left via the construction site exit. Why he would want to do this remains unanswered.
His bank accounts remained untouched, and his phone has not been used since his disappearance.
There was hope of a breakthrough in 2020 when a picture of a homeless man in Mexico went viral because he looked just like Brian. Further investigation revealed it wasn’t him.
Amy Lynn Bradley
The Bradley family were enjoying a cruise in March 1998. The close-knit family had been enjoying a Mardi Gras-themed disco, particularly Amy and her brother Brad. Certainly, photos of that night depict 23-year-old Amy as having a fun-filled evening.
By the next morning, she’d be gone, no trace of her left behind.
At the disco, Amy was spotted dancing with a member of the live band, among other partygoers. By the early hours, Brad had had enough and returned to the family suite. He was logged as entering the room just after 3:30 a.m., and Amy wasn’t far behind him.
By then, Amy wasn’t too tired, so she headed to the balcony to smoke. As Brad fell asleep, he could see his sister sitting outside. The sibling’s father, Ron Bradley, awoke hours later to find Amy asleep on the balcony with the door closed.
He left his daughter where she was and went back to sleep. When he woke up at 6 a.m., she was gone. The balcony door, though, was now open.
The Bradleys began a panicked search for Amy and pleaded with the cruise management to announce Amy’s vanishing on the tannoy.
They didn’t, not right away anyway. By the time they did, many passengers had already exited the ship.
This would be the beginning of what the Bradley family thinks is a mishandling of Amy’s case. The family believes Royal Caribbean, the cruise line, has refused to cooperate with them in the ongoing investigation of Amy’s disappearance.
The FBI quickly got involved and even used cadaver dogs on the ship to determine if Amy had died aboard. The surrounding water was also searched for a body. Neither search brought back any conclusive evidence.
However, the Bradley family refuses to believe Amy took her own life and is certain that something sinister had happened to her. Specifically, they believe she has been used for trafficking.
In late 1998, two tourists alleged they spotted Amy on a Curacao beach.
The woman they spotted had many of the same tattoos as Amy, some of which were unique: a Tasmanian devil on her shoulder, a gecko around her belly button, a Chinese symbol above her ankle, and a sun on her lower back. Whoever the woman was, she looked uncomfortable.
The unknown woman was being guided by two men.
Then, the following year, a Navy officer claimed he had a conversation with Amy in a Curacao pleasure house. He knew it was Amy because she specifically said, “My name is Amy Bradley. Please help me.”
The officer advised her to head toward the docks where she could leave, but the distressed woman told him he didn’t understand: she was Amy Bradley and needed help.
The man wouldn’t get help out of fear of getting into trouble with his superiors for being at the brothel. He did, however, come forward to Amy’s parents and tell them where she was. By this point, years had passed, and the officer had since retired. Nothing came of this lead.
Another alleged sighting came in 2005 when a woman went to the police saying she’d spotted Amy in Barbados with three men flanking her.
Again, nothing came of this, and the case of Amy Bradley remains unsolved.
Amelia Earhart
Amelia Earhart was born in 1897 in Kansas. She would go on to be one of the most famous figures in aviation history, particularly since she was a female pilot, a rarity in the 1920s.
Even her own family would discourage her from pursuing an aviation career, but daredevil Amelia would shrug off their concerns and save up $500 for 12 hours of flying lessons. In 1920, $500 was no measly sum, either.
She took to flying easily, basking in the exhilaration and excitement of soaring through the air.
By the 1930s, Amelia was dubbed the “Queen of the Air” and had achieved a small celebrity status for her flying abilities. As the years passed, she would become the first female pilot to complete a solo trip across the Atlantic Ocean successfully.
However, in 1937, she vanished without a trace.
Amelia and her navigator, Fred Noonan, took off from California. The pair made it 22,000 miles to New Guinea, after which they were due to arrive at Howland Island, a tiny island in the Pacific Ocean, to refuel the twin-engine Lockheed Electra plane. It seems the pair would never get there.
Poor weather, problems with the radio transmitter, and lack of fuel may have all contributed to the pair never getting to Howland.
It quickly became apparent that Amelia and Fred needed help, and efforts were made to find their plane. A thorough search of areas near Howland Island proved unsuccessful.
The Navy was soon called to join the search, but they could also not find any remnants of the plane, let alone any promising clues that would lead them to Amelia and Fred.
Amelia reportedly sent emergency transmissions in the days after her disappearance, though these were later discovered to have been hoaxes.
Sadly, due to a lack of evidence to the contrary, Amelia Earhart was declared legally dead on January 5, 1939.
Theories about what happened to Amelia and Fred have swirled over the years. Some theorists suggest their plane ran out of fuel and crashed. Others have proposed that Amelia was a secret agent who was taken prisoner by the Japanese.
A conspiracy also suggests that Amelia and Fred reached an uninhabited island where they remained undiscovered.
While there is no chance that Amelia is alive today, the question still remains: did she die on that fateful day in 1937?
Maura Murray
On the evening of February 9, 2004, police were called about a car accident on Route 112 in Woodsville, New Hampshire. A black car with a woman at the wheel was stuck in a ditch.
Shortly after the first call to 911, the police received a second call from a bus driver. The caller reported the crash and noted that the driver, a young woman, appeared to be shaken over the incident.
The helpful bus driver went to see the panicked young woman and offered to call someone to tow her vehicle. However, she claimed she’d already called roadside assistance.
When police arrived at the scene minutes later, the driver, who was quickly discovered to be Maura Murray, was gone.
A search of the area yielded nothing. A deeper dive into the nursing student’s life found she had left campus that day after stating a sudden family death meant she needed to go home. Nobody in her family had actually died, though it seemed Maura may have needed a break from her studies and lied to get some breathing space.
Prior to her crash, Maura had been making inquiries about condos and renting rooms in Bartlett, New Hampshire. She also looked into booking a room in Vermont. She didn’t book a room in either place, but she did look up directions to Burlington, Vermont.
Investigators had to retrace Maura’s steps. They found she’d used the campus ATM at around 3 p.m. that day, taking out $280.
She used $40 of that to buy alcohol, including boxed wine and liqueurs. Around 4:30 p.m., she called her own voicemail. This would be the last time she used her cell phone.
She crashed between 7 p.m. and 7:25 p.m. that night, though nobody knows what she’d been doing in the hours in between. By 7:45 p.m., she’d disappeared from the crash site.
Officers who’d arrived on the scene noticed a soda bottle “that contained a red liquid with a strong alcoholic odor.” They also noticed the big box of wine in the back of the car and printed directions to Vermont.
No foul play was detected at this point, but officers scoured the nearby area. There was no sign of Maura.
After a few days with no leads, the police began to question if Maura had been suicidal. Her family scoffed at this notion, telling the press she was in good spirits.
That may be true, but it didn’t take away from the fact she’d been dealing with some struggles: she’d been facing legal problems for credit card fraud, had crashed her father’s car just hours before crashing her own, and was worried about her alcohol-dependent sister’s wellbeing.
Still, some evidence suggests Maura took off from the scene willingly. Her phone and backpack were taken with her when she left, though she would never use her phone again, likewise for her credit cards.
Theories began to surface in the months after Maura’s vanishing. Some suggest she fled the scene to avoid getting in trouble.
After all, she had an open bottle with alcohol in it, plus more stashed in the back of the car. She was already in trouble for fraud, and adding drink driving onto that was something Maura would likely want to avoid.
Others suggest she took herself off to the nearby woods to resume drinking, only to be taken by the extreme temperatures.
Another theory suggests she tried to reach her destination on foot, but the freezing temperatures killed her.
A macabre conspiracy is that Maura was taken from the scene against her will. Her father thinks a “local dirtbag” took his daughter.
Some theorists going down the kidnapped route have suggested the bus driver who called the police may have something to do with it and question why he didn’t stay with Maura after finding her in a state of panic.
Over the years, multiple efforts have been made to find Maura’s remains near where she crashed. In September 2021, human remains were found 25 miles from the area where Maura was last seen. However, these were proven not to be her.
Her case remains open to this day.
Michael Rockefeller
Michael Rockefeller’s final photograph is one of the most unnerving images taken of someone before their unexplained disappearance. In it, he’s standing among a cannibal tribe as they ominously smile at him.
He was never heard from again shortly after this 1961 picture was taken.
That year, 23-year-old Michael Rockefeller and Dutch anthropologist René Wassing headed to Asmat in New Guinea to study the Dani tribe. The trip went as planned until seven months into it, when the canoe Michael and René were on capsized, throwing the men into the water.
René clung onto the overturned boat as Michael swam to shore. He was never seen again.
Several theories have come about as to what happened to Michael. The main one is that he made it to shore only to be killed and eaten by the known cannibalistic Asmat tribe.
However, other less well-known theories have also been bandied about over the years, some of them offering compelling evidence that Michael didn’t actually die in the canoeing accident.
Ten years after his disappearance, National Geographic completed a project on the same tribe Michael had studied a decade before. In one of the images their photographer had taken, there’s a snap of a man who looks much like Michael Rockefeller. Notably, he’s the only white man among the tribe rowing a boat.
This has helped peddle the theory that Michael made it to shore and decided to live among the tribe instead of returning to his homeland.
Still, many people point to the fact that the tribe was cannibalistic, and Michael simply being welcomed into their tribe was unlikely. To some, the more realistic turn of events is that the men slaughtered and ate him.
Then, there’s the revenge theory: a number of the village leaders in the area (where Michael would have swam to shore) had been killed by patrolmen three years prior. Still reeling from the murders, the tribe may have taken revenge on Michael due to the color of his skin.
Sadly, we’ll unlikely ever know what truly happened to Michael Rockefeller, though none of the possibilities are promising.
Each of these cases remains unsolved to this day. Only time will tell if we ever find out what truly happened to these missing individuals, though for the sake of their loved ones, it’s important that hope isn’t lost and their stories aren’t forgotten.
As time passes, advances in DNA testing and forensic science may yield important breakthroughs. Then, there’s always the hope that witnesses may come forward with vital clues that lead to the case being cracked.
In certain cases, it’s still possible—however small that probability—that the missing individual is alive and well somewhere in the world.
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