There’s always a sliver of truth within the most terrifying and mysterious stories. The best ones leave you with a sense of unease. Even those who revel in the spooky can find themselves genuinely unsettled by certain bizarre occurrences.
Every year, authorities grapple with cases of individuals who seemingly vanish into thin air. These instances plunge families and authorities into a perplexing state of uncertainty as they try to piece together what happened. Let’s delve into 10 of the creepiest disappearances throughout history that continue to baffle historians and researchers.
10 The Mary Celeste Crew
The Mary Celeste set sail from New York Harbor on November 5, 1872, headed for Genoa with a cargo of industrial ethanol. Almost a month later, David Morehouse and his crew spotted the Mary Celeste adrift about 400 miles east of the Azores. Morehouse noted something strange about the ship’s course. He sent his chief mate and several crew members to investigate. Aboard the Mary Celeste, they found the vessel under full sail but not a single soul on board.
The lifeboat was missing, but a six-month food supply remained untouched. There was no sign of struggle, and the cargo was intact. Morehouse’s crew sailed the deserted ship to Gibraltar. Investigators developed various theories to explain the crew’s disappearance, including giant squids, ghosts, pirates, and even accusing Morehouse of staging the event to claim salvage rights.
9 Percy Harrison Fawcett
Percy Fawcett, an experienced explorer and former army officer, vanished during his search for an ancient city, known as “Z,” in the Amazon jungle. Fascinated by tales of an ancient civilization with mysterious, light-emitting towers, Fawcett embarked on an expedition with his son Jack and Jack’s friend Raleigh Rimell. After promising initial discoveries, they set off north from Cuiaba. About 400 miles into their journey, Fawcett instructed his Brazilian assistants to return home with a letter for his wife, advising her not to fear failure.
Fawcett, his son, and Raleigh were never heard from again. Years later, a Swiss man claimed to have encountered an elderly Fawcett. He gathered reporters, but when they returned to the meeting place, both the Swiss man and the reporters disappeared. Numerous expeditions have sought Fawcett and his companions, but their fate remains a mystery.
8 Disappearance Of Australian Prime Minister
On December 17, 1967, Australia was stunned by the disappearance of Prime Minister Harold Holt. Holt went for a swim at Cheviot Beach near Melbourne and never returned. Despite a massive search and rescue operation, his body was never found. At the time, Holt was 59, generally fit, but had collapsed during a parliamentary session earlier that year. He had also been suffering from a shoulder injury.
Theories range from Holt succumbing to the riptides of Cheviot Beach to suicide due to depression. Other, more conspiratorial, theories suggest abduction by a Soviet or Chinese submarine due to his support of the Vietnam War, or even alien abduction!
7 Amelia Earhart
Perhaps the most famous disappearance in history, Amelia Earhart vanished on July 2, 1937. Already legendary as the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, Earhart, along with navigator Fred Noonan, embarked on a mission to complete the first circumnavigational flight around the world. Their disappearance continues to vex explorers and historians.
Earhart and Noonan vanished somewhere over the Pacific Ocean en route to Howland Island from Lae, New Guinea. A search-and-rescue team scoured the area for over two weeks, but no remains or clues were found. Two years later, they were officially declared dead. Her disappearance has spawned numerous conspiracy theories and remains a topic of enduring debate.
6 Angela Hammond
On April 4, 1991, Angela Hammond disappeared while talking to her boyfriend from a payphone in Clinton, Missouri. Rob Shaffer, her boyfriend, recalled Angela describing a suspicious man circling the neighborhood in a green pickup truck. The man stopped near the payphone, and Angela disappeared. Shafer jumped into his car and sped towards her location, but the green pickup truck drove past him. In his haste, he wrecked his car, and watched helplessly as the abductor drove away with his girlfriend.
Police initially suspected Shaffer but cleared him due to witnesses and his alibi. The case’s creepiness stems from potential links to two other Missouri disappearances that year. Angela Hammond has never been found. Detectives classified the case as a random crime, highlighting the mystery of why the conspicuous green truck with a distinctive decal was never located.
5 James Edward Tedford
James E. Tedford, 56, and his wife Pearl Tedford, 28, moved back to Vermont after World War II. After his second stint in the military, Tedford returned to their rented property in Fletcher, Vermont, only to find his wife missing. His family had no clue where she had gone, only that she was last seen walking to the Amoco Store. Around 1947, a lonely James Tedford checked into a soldier’s home after searching for his missing wife.
Two years later, James also vanished. On December 1, 1949, James was returning to the retirement home from Vermont when he mysteriously disappeared. The route passed through the Green Mountain Forest, an area known for creepy events such as disappearances. All 14 passengers on the bus testified to seeing him sleeping in his seat. However, when the bus arrived at its destination, James was gone. No one saw him disembark, and his luggage remained on the luggage rack.
4 Frieder Langer
During the 1940s and 1950s, Bennington became notorious for numerous disappearances. One of the creepiest cases involved 53-year-old Frieder Langer, who disappeared on October 28, 1950. Langer was hiking with her cousin Herbert Elsner when she slipped into a stream. She asked Herbert to wait while she returned to their campsite to change her wet clothes, but she never came back.
Herbert returned to the campsite and discovered Langer had not returned. Search operations, including helicopters and aircraft, were mounted for two weeks, but no trace of her was found. A year later, Langer’s body mysteriously appeared near the same reservoir that searchers had extensively combed. The condition of her remains made determining the cause of death impossible.
3 The Sodder Children
The disappearance of the five Sodder children remains one of the eeriest cases. On Christmas Eve, five of the ten Sodder children disappeared from their home under unclear circumstances. They had asked their parents to stay up and play with their new toys. Later that night, the mother answered a strange phone call where the voice on the other end asked for someone unknown to her. She dismissed it but noticed that someone had drawn up all the shades, unlocked all the doors, and the lights were on.
The family awoke to a fire. The parents and four of their children escaped the inferno, but the five children who had stayed up were nowhere to be seen. The Sodders never stopped believing their children were alive, even after the official conclusion that they perished in the fire. This hope was fueled by a photo of one of their sons as an adult, mailed anonymously in the ’60s.
2 America’s Lost Colony
While individual disappearances like Jimmy Hoffa and D.B. Cooper are well-known, the vanishing of an entire group is far eerier. In July 1587, about 115 English settlers landed on Roanoke Island, now Dare County. Tensions rose between the colonists and local tribes, prompting Governor John White to sail to England for supplies and help. When he returned three years later, the town was deserted, and all inhabitants had vanished.
The only clue was the word “Croatoan” carved on a wooden post. Whether the Croatoan tribe killed or assimilated the settlers remains uncertain. Some scholars speculate that the Spanish army wiped out the settlement. Historians can only speculate about the colony’s fate, as concrete evidence remains elusive.
1 The Sarah Joe
Maritime tragedies are not uncommon, but the disappearance of five friends on a fishing trip in Hawaiian waters is particularly unsettling. The friends departed from Maui in February 1979 on a small fishing boat named Sarah Joe. Despite massive search and rescue operations, they were never found. A decade later, authorities received information about the Sarah Joe‘s sighting near the Marshall Islands. Near the wreck, they discovered a grave containing the remains of one of the missing men. How the boat traveled so far, who buried him, and the fate of the others remain a baffling mystery.
These disappearances remind us that some mysteries may never be solved, lingering in the shadows of our understanding.
What do you think happened in these cases? Leave your comment below.
