People have gone missing throughout history, whether due to kidnapping, running away, getting lost or as the result of something more nefarious. But when they never reappear, they capture our attention and cause their friends and family unimaginable anguish. These cases remind us of our vulnerability and fear of the unknown. Here are five instances that shook us to the core:
Amy Lynn Bradley
Amy was born on 12th May 1974 in Petersburg, Virginia. She attended Longwood University after receiving a basketball scholarship and graduated with a degree in Physical Education. Amy was also a powerful and capable swimmer and had previously worked as a lifeguard.
On the 21st of March 1998, Amy and her family went on a cruise; the boat was a Royal Caribbean International Ship, the Rhapsody of the Seas, heading for Curaçao.
On the 24th of March, Amy’s father, Ron, woke up between 5:15 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. and noticed Amy asleep on the lounge chair on the apartment balcony. When he woke again at 6 a.m., Amy and her cigarettes and lighter were missing. Ron later said, ‘I left to try and go up and find her; I didn’t really know what to think because it was very much unlike Amy to leave and not tell us where she was going.’
The rest of the family were alerted, and the ship's crew soon knew as well. They begged the crew to postpone allowing the passengers to disembark, but their pleas were in vain. Amy’s disappearance was only announced after most passengers left the ship. The ship was scoured, but there was no sign of her. The crew's delay would be a tragic mistake, drastically lowering any chance of finding Amy. The Coast Guard was called in, and three helicopters and a radar plane were used in an attempt to find her.
There were some disturbing sightings reported after Amy’s disappearance. In August 1998, a man claimed he had seen Amy on a beach in Curaçao, being escorted by men. The witness said her tattoos matched those of Amy’s and she seemed desperate to get his attention.
Personally, I find the witness from January 1999 to be the most disturbing. A US Navy Petty Officer claimed to have seen Amy in a brothel in Curaçao. He said she told him, ‘Her name was Amy Bradley, and [she] begged him for help’. She told him she was being held against her will and wanted to escape. Frustratingly, he didn’t report this for years as he was worried it would affect his career. Hmm.
In March 2005, Judy Maurer claimed she had seen Amy in a shop restroom in Barbados. ‘Amy’ was escorted in by three men, and when they left the restroom, the frantic woman told Judy that her name was Amy and she was from Virginia. Before she could find out anything more, the three men removed Amy.
One of the most common theories about Amy’s disappearance is that she was kidnapped and sold into sexual slavery. Interestingly, there was a photo of a woman called ‘Jas’ on a sex website that looked eerily similar to her. Amy Lynn Bradley was declared legally dead on 24th March 2010.
Amelia Earhart
Amelia Mary Earhart was born on 24th July 1897 in Atchison, Kansas. She was in her twenties when she started to learn how to fly planes and, by 1928, had become the first female passenger to cross the Atlantic along with pilot Wilmer Stultz. In 1932, she was the first woman to make a non-stop solo transatlantic flight.
In 1937, Amelia attempted to be the first woman to complete a circumnavigated flight of the globe, along with navigator Fred Noonan. The pair were last seen on 2nd July in Lae, New Guinea; by then, they had travelled 22,000 miles. They left Lae for Howland Island, around 2,600 miles away. Amelia had remained in radio contact with a US Coast Guard, and they received a message from her saying the plane was running out of fuel. Around an hour later, she radioed them, saying, ‘We are running north and south’. It was the last transmission. Extensive searches were undertaken, but Amelia and Fred were never heard from again.
Although most people believe the plane ran out of fuel (including Amelia’s stepson, George Palmer Putnam JR)., there are numerous theories about what happened.
One theory is that Japanese forces captured the pair after crashing on the island of Saipan, although Saipan is 2,700 miles away from Howland Island. In 1990 the series ‘Unsolved Mysteries’ showed an interview with a Japanese woman who claimed she had seen Amelia and Fred executed by Japanese soldiers. There were also rumours the Japanese had shot the plane down.
Some believe Amelia and Fred landed on the Nikumaroro reef, a small uninhabited island. Pieces of clothing and crudely made tools were discovered on the island years later. The theory was that they were eaten by coconut crabs, giant creatures with a leg span of up to a meter. Using pig carcasses, it was discovered that the crabs can completely decimate a body in 2 weeks before dragging the bones back to their burrows.
Tom D. Crouch, the senior curator of the National Air and Space Museum, believes the plane is 18,000 feet down, comparing it to the Titanic. He said, ‘The mystery is part of what keeps us interested. In part, we remember her because she’s our favourite missing person.’
Amelia Mary Earhart was declared dead on 5th January 1939.
Madeleine McCann
Madeleine Beth McCann, known as Maddy, was born on the 12th of May 2003 in Leicester and was just three years old when she went missing.
Maddy was on holiday in Portugal with her parents. Kate and Gerry McCann, her brother and sister (who are twins). The family had joined a group of friends who also had their children with them. The 3rd May was supposed to be the last day of the McCanns holiday, and they planned to spend it enjoying themselves by the pool and participating in various activities. In what now seems rather creepy, Maddy was heard asking her parents over breakfast, ‘Why didn’t you come when my brother and I cried last night?’.
At 7 p.m., the children were put to bed in the holiday apartment the family were sharing. At 8:30 p.m., Kate and Gerry left to go and meet their friends at a restaurant on the other side of the resort's pool. The door of the apartment was shut but not locked. The group of friends took turns checking on their children. Gerry first checked on them at 21.05; the three children were asleep, but he noticed that the bedroom door was wide open when it had been nearly shut. He pulled it nearly shut again and left.
At 10 p.m., Kate went to check the apartment. It didn’t take long before she realised the bedroom window was wide open and Maddy was missing. She ran back to the restaurant, shouting, ‘Madeleine’s gone! Someone’s taken her!’. Many people found her choice of words strange; why did she automatically believe Maddy had been taken and not wandered off?
Since Maddy went missing, the world has heard of her case. There have been many theories as to what happened to the child. One of the adults at the restaurant the night Maddy went missing, Jane Tanner, reported seeing a man carrying a young child at around 9 p.m. She told police the child was wearing light pink pyjamas with a floral pattern, similar to those Maddy had been wearing. In October 2013, Scotland Yard confirmed the man had been another British holidaymaker, collecting his daughter from the resort creche (which had been available, but the McCanns chose not to use).
Some believe she had been targeted by human traffickers, which could have some strengths as there have been numerous ‘sightings’ of Maddy in Morocco. Others believe she was killed in a burglary gone wrong, but if it was a burglary, why was nothing missing from the apartment?
By many, Kate and Gerry are still considered the main suspects. There were rumours they had drugged the children to help them sleep and accidentally gave Maddy too much, causing her to overdose. There was more suspicion as they refused to take a lie detector test, although it’s important to note that these tests are notoriously unreliable.
The current number one suspect is convicted rapist Christian Bruckner. His crimes include sexually abusing a 10-year-old girl. This is currently an ongoing case.
Suzy Lamplugh
Susannah Jane Lamplugh was born on 3rd May 1961. At the age of 25, she was working as an estate agent and on the 28th of July 1986, she met a client to view her house. She attended the house at 12.45 p.m. to meet Mr Kipper. The next-door neighbour saw Suzy and a man leaving the property together and getting into a car, which other witnesses have corroborated. Suzy and the man looked like they were arguing whilst getting in the car. The man was described as white, between 25-30 years old, with dark hair and wearing a suit.
At 3.30 p.m., Suzy’s colleagues became concerned about her whereabouts and travelled to the property, but there was no sign of her. By 5.30 pm, they had alerted the police. At 10 p.m., the police found Suzy’s car; it had been parked poorly and looked like it had been done in a hurry. The driver’s door was open, and the handbrake wasn’t on. Suzy’s purse was still in the car, but all her keys were missing. The driver seat position indicated that it wasn’t Suzy who had been driving; it was too far back for her to have been able to drive physically.
It wasn’t long before witnesses started coming forward. One witness had his statement dismissed at first because he described a woman with blonde hair; the police had wrongly believed that Suzy had brown hair at the time of her disappearance, but she had dyed it recently. He told them: ‘I came out of the park to be met by a BMW which h tore across the road and came to a halt with somebody with their hand on the hooter, pressing it for a very long time. As I stood there, I saw a blonde young lady. She looked as though she was laughing or could have been screaming. What worried me was how could she drive with what was going on. But it never occurred to me that it was a left-hand drive car!’.
Suzy’s boyfriend and her roommate were both questioned by police but had solid alibis. By this time, the media were fully aware of the situation and were coming up with their theories. It was pointed out that if Mr. Kipper were called Dan, his name would be an anagram of ‘the kidnapper.’
A year after Suzy went missing, police noticed that the artist's impression of Mr Kipper, taken from witness descriptions, looked very similar to John Cannan, a convicted rapist (and later, a convicted kidnapper and murderer). Interestingly, he was known for delivering roses to women he was interested in, and Suzy received an anonymous bunch of roses at work just days before her disappearance. Cannan also owned a black BMW that numerous witnesses had sighted. He is currently in prison, serving life for rape, kidnap and murder. Previous girlfriends of Cannan have since spoken up and believe him to be guilty of the kidnap and murder of Suzy, but he has never been officially charged. Suzy Lamplugh was declared dead on 27th July 1993.
Marvin Alvin Clark
Marvin was born in 1852. He became highly educated, graduating from two universities before marrying his wife, Mary. They went on to have four children. On 30th October 1926, Marvin left his home in Tigard, Oregon, to travel to Portland to meet with his daughter, Sidney McDougall. Sidney was the manager and lived at the Hereford Hotel. She later said she didn’t realise her father was planning to visit. When Marvin set out, he was 69 years old, 5’8” and had paralysis, causing him to walk with a stick and stop using his right arm.
Marvin never arrived. Some witnesses said they had seen him wearing a dark suit at a bus terminal in Portland. On the 9th of November, Mary received a postcard apparently from her husband; it was sent from Bellingham, Washington, where various witnesses would later say they saw Marvin around the 22nd/23rd of November. The postcard was described as ‘badly jumbled’, suggesting he wasn’t in his right mind. Marvin was never seen again.
In 1986, a nearly complete human skeleton was discovered in the hills between Tigard and Portland, which was thought to be Marvin. However, his great-granddaughter's DNA testing showed in 2018 that it wasn’t the missing man. Marvin’s case was never solved, and they never discovered who the skeleton was.
Sadly, as time passes, the chances of discovering what happened to these unfortunate people fade. These unresolved mysteries remind us that there are still countless missing people out there, waiting for us to discover the endings of their stories. As always, thanks for reading, take care of yourselves and I will see you next time.
Hi! I spend a lot of time writing for the website and I basically exist on caffeine and anxiety - if anybody would like to encourage this habit, please feel free to buy me a coffee!
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