Gone, without a trace. Mass disappearances are a very real and bizarre thing in which large numbers of people suddenly disappear without a trace, for seemingly no reason. Sometimes, an airplane full of passengers flies off into the night, never to be seen again, or a ghost ship turns up floating around in the water with absolutely no sign of its crew. Even these chilling instances, however, are small-time compared to the vanishing of an entire society.

Entire civilizations, cities, and empires have faded away, and today’s archaeologists and researchers often try to retrace their inhabitants’ steps and reconstruct what exactly happened to see if we can find a cause, and more importantly, a way to prevent it from happening to our cultures today. Interestingly, some of the cultures on this list were several hundred thousand people strong before they seemingly disappeared without a trace. Here are ten civilizations that just up and vanished mysteriously.

10 Nabateans

Semites are people who belong to a particular ancient language group, which includes Arabs, Akaadians, Hebrews, and more, and one of those groups was the Nabatean culture, which existed since at least 312 BC, as they are mentioned as having been attacked by the Macedonians.^[1] This ancient and seemingly forgotten kingdom spanned the territories of Syria, Arabia, and Palestine at one point, becoming rather massive. Nabatean writing would eventually develop over the centuries to become modern-day Arabic, and it wasn’t until recently that we were able to retrace its evolution.

They established vast trade routes and commerce and became an extremely technologically advanced civilization for the day, with vast water systems which helped them survive the arid climate of Arabia. They left us massive structures which aligned with celestial bodies as other ancient cultures did, proof of an engineering genius among these people. Toward the end of their history, they were strong allies with the mighty Roman Empire, though Emperor Trajan did annex the kingdom from AD 105 to 106. We really don’t hear about the Nabateans much after that era.

9 Clovis People

Anyone who’s ever been to the deserts of New Mexico might wonder how or why any civilization would live there before the advent of air conditioning. But this area, as well as an expansive land within the Americas, was the territory of one of the earliest American civilizations, the Clovis people, who are named after the modern-day city of Clovis, New Mexico.

A rare and important archaeological discovery was made here, namely many sharp objects and weapons, obsidian, bone tools, and hammers, which were highly sophisticated for their time, 9050 to 8800 BC based on 21st-century estimates. These same tools and designs have been found across a good chunk of North America, meaning this group was particularly widespread. Nevertheless, they eventually just totally disappeared.

It has been hypothesized that their massive size forced them, much like Rome, to branch out into smaller groups which eventually evolved into distinct peoples in different places, making them the forerunners to many other Native American cultures. That notion is supported by the fact that genetic links to the Clovis have even been found in the remains of ancient South American people.^[2] Others have speculated that they relied heavily on hunting the mammoth, which became extinct, or even that the southwestern part of the United States was hit by a comet that wiped them out.

8 Catalhoyuk

The inhabitants of Catalhoyuk were a very old Neolithic civilization who also disappeared into thin air, as far as we can tell. They lived in modern-day Turkey from 7500 to 5700 BC in mud-brick housing not unlike that of other extremely early civilizations. This particular group was extremely artistic with their religion, painting massive murals and erecting large shrines of dedication that astonish art buffs today. They lived extensively on grain and other crops for sustenance.

Researchers are continuing to unearth new facts about this group every day, so perhaps we will soon know exactly what happened to them, but as of now, we just have the empty shells of the marvelous buildings and unique homes sitting seemingly abandoned. A large part of the mystery of their disappearance is simply them being lost to time. All we have to go on is the physical evidence itself, without literary references. Digs have turned up skeletons beneath the floor of one building, of all places, suggesting they may have used it for some rather devout religious purposes, but right now, we don’t really know.^[3]

7 Rapa Nui

Arguably the most famous of disappearing cultures, the Rapa Nui people were the original inhabitants of Easter Island, leaving us the famed statues that we’ve probably all seen. The Polynesian people inhabited the island, which now belongs to Chile, though it’s 3,500 kilometers (2,200 mi) away from the country. Due to its absolute remoteness, how the original Rapa Nui arrived there is as much of a mystery as why they vanished.

So, why did they disappear? Starvation due to excessive resource consumption has been blamed. Destruction of Easter Island’s ecosystem by rats has also been fingered as the culprit. It’s also believed that the Rapa Nui traveled to another remote island, itself thousands of miles away, to start a new settlement. (Descendants of the Rapa Nui of Easter Island live in Chile today.) The truth might well be a combination of the many proposed explanations.^[4]

6 Minoans

Hailing from the Greek island of Crete, the Minoans were an old Bronze Age civilization that existed from between 3000 and 1000 BC, long before the Golden Age of Athens and Alexander the Great. The Minoans were patently a Greek culture and the forerunners of the ancient Greece that’s most famous in our history books today, and they were also a very pagan culture, practicing animal sacrifices, burning offerings, having many nuanced cults, and holding wild, orgiastic festivals of song and dance.

The ancient Egyptians mention them in hieroglyphics, which means the Minoans definitely got around in the ancient world, and they had high-quality technologies and impressive arts for the day—but then they declined and disappeared.^[5] Theories have suggested that they were decimated by a volcanic eruption in the Santorini islands near Crete, which must have ravaged the coasts of Crete with waves, ash, raining stone, and more. Herodotus, the famous Greek historian, writes that they were brought down by plagues and diseases, but there simply is no way to tell, as Herodotus wrote many centuries after the peoples of this island had disappeared.

5 Cucuteni-Trypillian Culture

Between roughly 5400 and 2700 BC, a society known as the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture lived in the areas of what is modern-day Moldova, Romania, and Ukraine in the Carpathian Mountains. Strangely, this group also disappeared off of the face of the Earth. They were an early civilization that relied heavily on agriculture and close proximity to water supplies, building houses and settling as humans of the period were largely just beginning to do. They had an extremely in-depth religion and were proficient in many arts, including sculpting, pottery, and much more.

Before its strange disappearance under unusual circumstances, this massive culture spanned an impressive 350,000 square kilometers (135,000 mi²) and practiced a rather bizarre way of life, even for the time. The social order was such that the people inhabited very densely populated settlements, which they would burn to the ground or otherwise completely abandon and rebuild every 60 to 80 years.^[6] Some have theorized that this was how they honored their dead, in a sort of mass crematory funeral.

4 Anasazi

The Anasazi culture of the North American Southwest left behind many structures and artifacts for us to find before they ultimately disappeared. Maybe it was the brutal climate of the Southwestern heartland or the changing of that climate which made conditions uninhabitable, namely where access to water is concerned, but this is one group of people who also disappeared.^[7]

Massive structures built into the cliffsides were left totally abandoned and were found in relatively pristine condition. These housing structures were perfect for fending off intruders, as they were often multiple stories high with windows for the entrance via ladders. When war would break out, the Anasazi could climb into their structures, raise the ladders, and be several stories above the invading tribes and could fire down on their enemies with impunity.

Many Native American tribes as well as some scholars claim that the Anasazi never actually disappeared; they just reached the critical mass of size that a society can become before it inevitably breaks off into smaller factions and becomes new groups of people—much like ancient Rome. They believe that certain tribes today which survive are the direct descendants of the Anasazi people.

3 Nabta Playa

The ancient people of Nabta Playa, in the southern part of modern-day Egypt, were a Neolithic group which existed in the area from roughly 11,000 to 6,000 years ago and were largely nomadic, as was common for that area at the time. The climate of the Nabta Playa basin was one of feast or famine, where seasonal shifts provided an abundance of water at some points during the year and then a complete drought at others. Eventually, the people settled down and inhabited the area as a civilization.

Changes in the climate have rendered the area almost entirely dry sand at this point, which also preserved what the people here left behind before they disappeared, such as a stone circle. The stone circle roughly aligns with the stars in many different ways and became a haven for sacrifice to the gods, with animal remains being found in vast underground caverns.^[8] Like those who built Stonehenge, the people who lived there eventually declined and then wholly disappeared.

2 Khmer Empire

Over the long timeline of history, the Khmer Empire is one of the more recent disappearances to take place. The empire existed from AD 802 to 1431 in Southeast Asia, spanning the modern-day countries of Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, and was a mixed culture of Buddhists and Hindus that came about through centuries of warfare. The Khmer Empire built some of the most astonishing temples and monuments in Southeast Asia today, many of which are in near-perfect condition.

But like the others on this list, the Khmer Empire, too, declined and disappeared. Some have noted that the migration of the Thai people may have slowly overtook the Khmer people, much like the Germanic tribes slowly infiltrating the western half of the Roman Empire over time. Others have blamed the constant war that the Khmer lived with daily, but they were never wholly overtaken. Still others have pointed to possible changes in weather conditions which altered their access to rainwater, causing a mass migration. Theories run the gamut as to why they fell, but no one really knows for sure.^[9]

1 Olmecs

The Olmecs were the first large Mesoamerican civilization, and their culture was as rich as it was bizarre and unusual. They left us many standing structures and statues which exist today, and their prominence lasted from 1200 to 400 BC, with a society based on sacred religious practices for which they built pyramid-like temples. Much like the Polynesian people of Easter Island, they also carved massive stone heads, some of them as tall as 3 meters (10 ft) and weighing 8 tons.^[10]

So much of this culture that lived long ago has been lost to time, and we don’t even actually know what they called themselves or much about their language. “Olmec” is a term the Aztecs had for them centuries after their disappearance, which translates roughly to “rubber people.” Even more interesting is the fact that not a single trace of anyone who lived there remains—not even the bones. But we do have the artifacts.

They disappeared from the world stage sometime around 400 BC. Some have suggested that the insanely humid Mesoamerican climate eroded their bones away. But as for the people, the language, and the culture outside of their art and artifacts, we know next to nothing, especially not why they vanished.

Across the world, many people over the years have disappeared, seemingly into thin air, with no satisfying explanation. The mystery is only deepened when neither the missing person nor their remains are ever seen again.

However, there have also been many cases of people who disappear in the most mysterious of circumstances, only to reappear—sometimes decades later—in equally mysterious and intriguing circumstances. What follows are just ten examples of such bizarre cases. These people vanished into thin air and then reappeared just as strangely . . .

10 Amber Smith—Discovered In A Place Previously Searched

Although two-year-old Amber Rose Smith was missing for only a day, her case is truly one of the most bizarre and intriguing. According to her father, the young girl was playing happily at their home Newaygo County, Michigan, on October 8, 2013. She was out of sight of her father only briefly as he went into another room. However, upon is return, she was no longer there.^[1]

A full-scale search involving numerous volunteers was launched almost immediately. However, despite the entire area undergoing absolute scrutiny by the hundreds-strong search party, it appeared that the young girl had seemingly vanished into thin air.

The following day, however, as searches continued, Amber Rose was found only a few miles from her home. And what’s more, she was discovered in a location that had already been thoroughly searched the previous day. How she had managed to “avoid” the search teams who went into action so soon after her disappearance, as well as how she had managed to cover so much ground, left searchers and investigators baffled.

9 Steven Stayner—Rescues Child From The House Of His Own Imprisonment

What is perhaps the most fascinating, if extremely grim, about the case of Steven Stayner are the events that would take place following his reemergence in a California police station in 1980 after having been missing for over seven years.

Steven had been missing since 1972, when he was seven years old, and had disappeared while walking home from school. His abductor, Kenneth Parnell, would hold him captive for years, sexually abusing him during this time. By the time Steven was a teenager, Parnell desired a younger boy, and after Parnell brought another abducted child to the house, Stayner was spurred on to escape with the five-year-old, stating later that he “couldn’t let another child go through what he had.”

Parnell was eventually arrested and sentenced to seven years in prison, although he was released after serving only five of those years. (He was arrested again in 2003 for attempting to “procure” a four-year-old boy.) In 1989, after gaining national attention for his part in Parnell’s arrest, Steven Stayner was killed in a motorcycle accident at only 24 years old.

Incidentally, in the years that followed, though, it would be Steven’s brother, Cary, who would be in the news. This time, though, as opposed to his being seen as a national hero who performed acts of bravery in the face of such danger and criminality as Steven had been, Cary was facing multiple charges of first-degree murder, of which he would be convicted. He was sentenced to death in 2002. Allegedly, Cary stated he wanted a “movie-of-the-week” made about his crimes—just like the television movie made of his brother’s ordeal.^[2]

8 Tanya Kach—Only A Few Miles From Home For A Decade

When 14-year-old Tanya Kach of McKeesport, Pennsylvania, vanished one day in 1996, it was assumed (given that she had simply walked out of the family home) that she had run away. In part, that was true.

It would come to light a decade later in 2006 that Kach had been convinced by a security guard at the middle school, Thomas Hose, to “run away with him.” When she did so, however, Hose would instead hold her prisoner at a house his parents owned. She would remain there for the next ten years, and Hose would routinely rape and abuse her.

After four years, Kach, under a new name, was allowed to leave the house. In 2006, she sought help, telling the owner of a deli, whom she’d become friends with, that she was being held prisoner at the hands of Hose and had been since she was a teenager. It wasn’t long before Hose was arrested, charged, and eventually imprisoned. Kach was reunited with her family.^[3]

7 Steven Kubacki—A Truly Strange Disappearance For Over A Year

Unlike our previous two encounters, the account of Steven Kubacki is not a brutal case of imprisonment but one of genuine mystery bordering on the supernatural. One February morning in 1978 near Lake Michigan, student Steven Kubacki would venture out to indulge in several hours of skiing. However, when he still hadn’t returned the following day, a huge search was put in motion.

Strangely, and ominously, footprints were discovered in a location where the student claimed to be heading. And what’s more, they stopped right at the frozen water’s edge. There was no sign of any markings on the frozen surface of the water and no signs that the ice had been broken anywhere. Later that day, Steven’s skis and backpack were discovered. However, no other sign of Kubacki came to light, and the searches were eventually called off. His family, while not giving up hope, were prepared for the worst.

Then, over a year later in early May 1979, Steven Kubacki would appear out of the blue on his parents’ doorstep. He had very little memory of where he had been. He had awoken earlier that day in a field in Pittsfield, hundreds of miles from where he disappeared and around 64 kilometers (40 mi) from the family home. Even stranger, he was wearing clothes that weren’t his and had a strange bag of maps with him that he didn’t recognize.^[4]

Rather than compensate himself financially with the many offers from media people for his story, Kubacki would retreat from the public, refusing to speak of the incident (of which he had no memory) and not wishing to undergo such things as hypnotic regression, as he wasn’t experiencing any “psychological problems” and wished to keep it that way.

6 William Bates—No Memory Of His Previous Life

Perhaps one of the strangest cases of disappearances followed by an equally strange reappearance is that of Dr. William Horatio Bates, who would seemingly vanish into thin air from New York City in August 1902. He left a short note for his wife stating that he was “called out of town to some major operations” and that he was “glad to get so much money for us all.” Furthermore, he would “write details later.” And with that, he was gone. What is perhaps curious, aside from the hurried manner with which he seemingly left, was that he was already a man of considerable wealth, which made his line of being “glad to get so much money” slightly odd.

He would not return, nor would he write as he had promised. After several days, his wife would use her husband’s fellow Mason friends to try to locate him, which, especially considering the times, was perhaps key in doing so. After his picture and details traveled across lodges around the United States and as far afield as Europe, information would reach Mrs. Bates that William was in a London hospital. Furthermore, he was not in a good way, looking “haggard, thin, and [with deeply sunken eyes].”

Bizarrely, despite access to funds at a London bank account, he appeared to be suffering from malnutrition. Even stranger, when Mrs. Bates arrived in London, William claimed to not recognize or remember her. He did, however, agree to stay with her at her hotel so that his memory might return.

Initially, all appeared well. He would even recall being asked to set sail from New York several weeks earlier and operating on a patient with a brain abscess. However, only two days later, he would leave the hotel and disappear once again. This time, at least as far as his wife was concerned, it was forever. She would pass away in 1907, still searching for her ill husband.

A fellow doctor and friend would locate Bates in Grand Forks, North Dakota, in 1910, working in an ophthalmology practice he owned. He would eventually return to New York with his friend, going into partnership together. However, Bates would never, at least according to him, recover his memories of his life before that mysterious call in 1902. Nor would he recall what had happened to him.^[5]

5 Linda Arteaga—An Incident With The Shadow People?

One of the most recent of our strange disappearance and reappearance cases occurred on September 22, 2012 in the Arkansas Ozarks. On that afternoon, brother and sister Eddie Huff and Linda Arteaga set out for a day’s hiking in the forests of the region. However, when Eddie returned alone claiming to have left his sister at a relative’s house, something seemed amiss, even more so when it was discovered that the 53-year-old woman was not at the relative’s house as Eddie had claimed.

Eddie, seemingly with no memory of what had happened, was now confused and a little disoriented, to say the least. A search party was organized, and Arteaga was eventually discovered in a seemingly random location in the middle of the deep woodland. What’s more, she appeared shocked and unnerved by whatever incident had unfolded and led her here.

She would later claim, although the details were murky at best, that her brother had suffered some kind of injury and that she had volunteered to go and find help. She would then state that as she walked through the woods, she came across other hikers who, try as she might, simply didn’t seem to be able to hear her when she called out to them. Even more disturbingly, she would witness bizarre “shadowy figures” that appeared to be watching her from the trees and bushes. The next thing she knew, she was coming to in the forest with the search party calling her name.^[6]

This rather bizarre incident remains unexplained.

4 Gabriel Nagy—Disappeared For 23 Years After Calling His Wife

On the early afternoon of January 21, 1987, Gabriel Nagy, a married father of two from Sydney, Australia, would call his wife to let her know her that he would be home from work early that day. Then, he vanished without a trace for almost a quarter of a century. Most would suspect, whether through foul play, his own hand, or some bizarre and tragic circumstances, that he had died shortly after that phone call.

However, in 2010, just before Nagy would have been officially declared dead, a clue would suddenly leap out at the detective in charge of the cold case, Georgia Robinson. A Medicare card in Gabriel Nagy’s name was eventually tracked down, leading Robinson to visit the property and its owner.

The man in question was confused as to why the police were at his door. However, it didn’t take long for Robinson to realize that the man was indeed the missing person from January 1987. And what’s more, it would appear that he was truthful when claiming no memory of his life with a wife and two children. However, with patience and using photographs of his family from the police files, Nagy had what he would later describe as “flashbulb” moments, where memories began to emerge from the haze. Slowly, a time line was pieced together.

It would appear that at some point after the phone call, Nagy was attacked, as his “first memory” is of waking up with some kind of head injury, so bad it was bleeding. Following this, his recollection was hazy at best, with the most prominent memories suggesting he had camped in various areas in Queensland, as well as working on farms and fishing boats and even, on occasion, sleeping on the streets.

Slowly, his name had come back to him (allowing him to apply for a Medicare card). He would ultimately be reunited with his family, who continue to work to restore as much of his memory as possible. Whether a physical attack would cause him to lose such vast amounts of his memories or whether, as the family suspect, dissociative fugue is to blame, remains to be seen. The case, though, is certainly one of the most intriguing of recent times.^[7]

3 Philip Sessarego—Lived Out SAS Fantasy

The case of Philip Sessarego isn’t the most mysterious, but it is most definitely intriguing, not least due to the lengths the British soldier would go to restart his life anew, particularly concerning his desire to join the ranks of the elite Special Air Service (SAS) special forces unit, which had twice turned him down.^[8] His daughter would later speak of how this rejection from the unit had caused her father to enter into a “fantasy state.” He would dress how many “SAS men” dressed and purposely drink in establishments known to be frequented by members of the unit. Then, in Croatia in 1991, he would simply disappear. (Some accounts state that he was seemingly killed by a car bomb.)

However, in 2000, a strange and intriguing book would appear on The New York Times’s bestseller list, entitled Jihad! The Secret War In Afghanistan. It was authored by an equally strange and intriguing gentleman named Tom Carew, who had made statements in (then) recent years of having served with the SAS for over two decades. He’d spoken of how he had trained mujahideen fighters against the Soviets in the 1970s and 1980s.

Carew would also become a regular talking head following the 9/11 attacks. However, the more he appeared in public, the more his claims began to unravel, not least when other SAS soldiers would essentially accuse Carew of being a fraud. By the time the BBC’s Newsnight program was involved, it was discovered that Carew was, in fact, Philip Sesserago, the same man who had tried so hard to join the SAS years previously. Interestingly, Sesserago would again disappear, eventually using the name Philip Stevenson in Belgium. In 2009, he was discovered dead in a rented garage, apparently the victim of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning.

2 Brenda Heist—‘Just Snapped’ One Day In A Park

Another person who seemingly looked to start a new life for herself was Lititz, Pennsylvania, resident Brenda Heist. While going through a divorce in 2002, she would simply walk away from it all, leaving her two children of eight and 12 years old, and vanish without a trace.

Following a widespread search and investigation, including the charging and clearing of her ex-husband, she was declared legally dead in 2010. That was until one day in 2013, when she wandered into a Florida police station and claimed that she was, in fact, Brenda Heist who had disappeared from Pennsylvania 11 years previously.

She would claim that after driving her kids to school that day in 2002, she had gone to a park, where she sat and cried. A group of “three strangers” approached her and asked if she wished to join them on their way to Florida. She would explain how she “just snapped” and went with them, leaving her old life behind. Needless to say, she would ultimately end up using drugs and, at times, living rough on the streets.

Brenda, who had been using the alias Kelsie Lyanne Smith, realized she’d made a dreadful mistake by 2013, and she went to the police station and began attempts to reestablish contact with her family. However, all attempts on her part were rebuffed, with her two children, now young adults, refusing to allow her back into their lives.^[9]

1 Richard Hoagland—Commits Fraud To Escape Impending Fraud Charges

The story of Richard Hoagland is at least as strange as any other on this list and is seemingly one orchestrated by Hoagland himself. On the afternoon of February 10, 1993, he would call his wife and explain how he was feeling unwell and was on his way to a hospital in Indianapolis. However, when his wife later attempted to track him down and find out which hospital he had arrived at, it would come to light that not only had no one calling himself Richard Hoagland been checked in, but no one under that name had even contacted any hospitals.

When his wife would make a report of the strange circumstances to the police, they would discover that Richard had not taken any substantial amounts of cash or credit cards, nor had he taken any clothes or a passport. The only lead of any type was the discovery of his car at the Indianapolis International Airport. However, the airport records show that no one bought any tickets under the name of Richard Hoagland.

In the summer of 1993, Hoagland’s two young sons each received a card in the mail containing $50. In them were the words, “Maybe sometime soon we will get to see each other. I bet I won’t even know you. It has been so long. Mind your mother. Bye, Dad.”

No one would hear or see anything of Hoagland following this, and by 2003, he was officially and legally declared dead. However, in 2016, it would come to light that Hoagland was not only alive and well, but he had hijacked the identity of Terry Symansky, who had died in 1991. Furthermore, he had remarried and even fathered a child while living in Florida (Symansky’s home state). It would turn out that Hoagland was the subject of an investigation for fraud at the time of his disappearance and made the decision to start again.^[10] Incidentally, the woman he married in Florida was completely ignorant to his schemes.

Scores of people go missing every day. An overwhelming majority of such cases end up resolved, often quite promptly. Still, far too many families of missing persons never know closure, be it reuniting with their lost loved ones or finally learning of their fate.

When someone vanishes without a trace, it’s not uncommon for that person’s last words to others to stand out in their memories. These final words can be ominous, poignant, or quite unremarkable. They may offer disturbing hints as to the missing person’s fate, or they may be innocuous statements which in no way foreshadowed what was to come. The following are accounts of ten people who disappeared, as well as the last things they said to 911 operators, coworkers, friends, or family.

SEE ALSO: 10 Unsettling Cases Of Famous People Who Disappeared

10 ‘They’re After Me. More Than One.’

Michael “Mike” McClain spent the evening of April 20, 2019, at the Tropical Lounge nightclub in Nashua, New Hampshire. The 29-year-old resident of nearby Manchester was at the club with friends and, by all accounts, had no reason to abandon his life.

That night, a dispute occurred between two women at the club. They stepped outside, at which point the situation escalated. A crowd formed. Mike, who knew one of the women, broke the fight up, but the police had been called. They dispersed the onlookers, and it was at this point that Mike’s friends lost track of him. A bit before 2:00 AM the next morning, Mike called his boss and said, “They’re after me. More than one.” This ominous statement prompted her to call him back, but there was no answer. Mike hasn’t been seen since that night.

Mike’s family knew something was amiss when he didn’t return calls on Easter or call his sister on her birthday. It is believed that he left the nightclub on foot. His phone was last pinged at a McDonald’s a few blocks down the street from the Tropical Lounge at around the time he called his boss, but there are few other clues for investigators to go on. His credit cards have shown no activity, and he hasn’t posted anything on social media. He remains missing as of this writing.^[1]

9 ‘I’m Putting Dinner On.’

Will Cierzan, 58 years old, was a longtime employee at Six Flags Magic Mountain and enjoyed watching sports, collecting Coca-Cola bottles, and cooking. He spent the afternoon of January 26, 2017, at his home in Santa Clarita, California, watching golf on TV with his nephew. After the nephew left, Will began to make dinner. At around 4:30 PM, his wife, Linda, called him, and Will said, “I’m putting dinner on.” When she called again at roughly 5:00 PM, Will was in a good mood and said that the chicken was cooked.

However, when Linda arrived home at around 6:00 PM, Will was nowhere to be seen. Dinner was cooked, the oven was turned off, and Will’s coat, keys, and wallet were all present. Nothing had been taken from the wallet. The family’s dog was at home, and Will’s truck was parked outside.

A few cryptic clues would emerge. In February 2017, it was revealed that some of Will’s blood had been found in the house. Surveillance footage from a neighbor’s house showed that a white SUV backed up to Will’s garage a bit after 5:00 PM. It left only a few minutes later. Police stated that this vehicle belonged to a family member. Neither of these leads panned out.

In May 2017, detectives named Will’s nephew as a person of interest. However, he cooperated with investigators, and no arrests were made. In December 2018, a human skull was found not far from Valencia, Will’s neighborhood. This skull has not been linked with Will, though, and may very well be unrelated. Will’s fate is still unknown.^[2]

8 ‘I’m Scared.’ / ’Never Mind.’

June 21, 2013, was a busy day for Brookelyn Farthing of Madison County, Kentucky. The 18-year-old and her younger sister, Paige, took their driver’s license tests that day. Afterward, they attended their grandfather’s 70th birthday party. That evening, Brookelyn, Paige, and a cousin went to a second birthday party, this one held out in a field.

Paige and Brookelyn’s cousin decided to leave the party early on. This was fine with Brookelyn, who had made plans to sleep over at the home of a friend who was also at the party. Plans changed, however, when Brookelyn’s friend decided she wanted to spend the night at a boy’s house. The two argued, and the friend left.

Toward the end of the party, Brookelyn was seen leaving with two young men (names withheld). One of the men was dropped off, and the other man took Brookelyn to his house in Berea. It was from here, at around 4:00 AM on June 22, that Brookelyn called Paige and asked if their cousin could come pick her up. However, the cousin had had too many drinks and was in no condition to drive. Brookelyn didn’t want her mother to have to come get her, so she called her ex-boyfriend, who worked third shift. He agreed to give her a ride home when he got off work. It was at this point that the man who’d brought Brookelyn to the house left.

Before long, Brookelyn’s ex-boyfriend received several texts from her:

“Can you hurry,” “Please hurry,” and then “I’m scared.” However, another text came in, telling the ex to “never mind” and that Brookelyn was going to a party in neighboring Rockcastle County, the edge of which Berea is near. He asked who she was going with, but there was no response. Brookelyn hasn’t been heard from since.^[3]

The owner of the house later returned to find it on fire, and firefighters would find some of Brookelyn’s belongings still inside. The man speculated that the fire could have been started by a cigarette she was smoking when he left. He said he left her there because he was friends with her ex-boyfriend and did not feel comfortable being there when he arrived. He also confirmed that Brookelyn had spoken of a party in Rockcastle County. Brookelyn’s whereabouts remain unknown, and no arrests have been made in the case.

7 ‘I’ll Call You Back.’

Marion Barter, a primary school teacher in Australia’s Gold Coast, lived a seemingly normal, happy life. Things changed, however, when her third marriage ended in the mid-1990s. A few years later, in 1997, Marion abruptly sold her home and went on a trip to England.

Her family received no further word from her until July 31, when a message from Marion appeared on the answering machine of her daughter, Sally Leydon. Marion later called again from a pay phone. Marion said she was in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, and was having tea and scones with some old women and that she was having a good time. The conversation played out in several chunks, as Marion had to add money to the phone. Finally, Marion ran out of coins, and the phone call had to end. Her last words to Sally were, “I’ll call you back.” Marion, 51 years old at the time, hasn’t been seen or heard from since.^[4]

Sally believes her mother truly was in England, due to the delay effect on the calls. The case became stranger in October 1997, however, when thousands of dollars were withdrawn from Marion’s bank account. Sally learned from a bank worker that the money was withdrawn in Byron Bay, New South Wales. Police in Byron Bay never found any sign of Marion.

Marion remains unaccounted for.

6 ‘Can You Send Me A Picture Of My Son In The Movies?’

At 9:30 PM on July 13, 2019, Erika Gaytan of El Paso, Texas, sent a text message to the father of her seven-year-old son: “Can you send me a picture of my son in the movies?” Erika, 29, was attending a concert at the El Paso County Coliseum, so this request didn’t seem too strange. What is strange, if not outright unacceptable, to Erika’s family and friends is the notion that she would have just abandoned her son.

Erika was at the concert with a date, her attendance confirmed by social media posts. According to the date, after the concert had ended, she was waiting for an Uber to pick her up. The date left at this point.

It is worth noting that at the time of her disappearance, Erika was facing criminal charges, both for credit card abuse and criminal mischief. Her next court date was July 26. However, El Paso detectives do not believe this is why she vanished. They do, however, consider her disappearance suspicious and have asked anyone with information to come forward.^[5]

5 ‘I Love You, Pop.’

Chase Allen Lackey, age 25, was a member of a recreational softball league. On June 30, 2017, he played a game, watched by his father, Craig. Craig will never forget Chase’s last words to him that day: “I love you, Pop.”

The next day, Chase was seen walking his dog outside his Houston-area apartment. Neither he nor his dog have been seen since. Nothing was stolen from Chase’s apartment, and his truck remained untouched.

Although investigators characterized Chase has having lived “a normal life,” foul play is suspected in his disappearance. Few details have been publicly released, but apparently some of Chase’s friends had been involved in illegal doings.^[6] However, no arrests have been made in the case, and two years on, both Chase and his dog remain missing.

4 ‘I Just Want To Talk While I Have The Chance.’

Matthew Weaver moved from his parents’ home in Simi Valley, California, to his own apartment in Granada Hills, Los Angeles, in the summer of 2018. Things were looking good for the 21-year-old power line worker, and he had plans to travel the world. These aspirations were seemingly not meant to be.

On August 9, Matthew told his father that he was going out with a new a female acquaintance. Matthew picked her up at around 9:30 PM and dropped her off during the early morning hours of August 10. During this time, they reportedly “had a private talk.” Matthew then drove to Topanga, an area in the Santa Monica Mountains. Near sunrise, he posted a Snapchat picture of a scenic view and is believed to have entered a hiking trail. A few hours later, Matthew’s female friend received some strange text messages. They read: “Like some crazy is going onsh— is going on” and “I jusst to talk while i have the chance.” There was no further communication from Matthew.^[7]

Matthew’s last known location, according to Snapchat and cell phone records, was near Rosas Outlook. At 1:30 AM on August 11, several hikers in the area called 911 after hearing cries for help. At around that time, California Highway Patrol officers reportedly also heard screams and possibly someone yelling, “He’s got a gun!” Matthew’s car was found near a hiking trail, but the keys weren’t located until January 2019, when hikers found them a mere 25 feet (7.6 m) from where the car had been. That same month, high-resolution drone photos of the area enabled Matthew’s family to find a baseball cap and a torn T-shirt which they believe were Matthew’s. Despite these strange clues, Matthew remains missing.

3 ‘Don’t Ever Say Goodbye.’

During the summer of 2013, Candice L’hommecourt of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, celebrated her daughter’s first birthday. Among those in attendance was Candice’s older sister, 25-year-old Shelly Dene. Not long after that, in August, Shelly vanished without a trace. Shelly’s last words to Candice were, “Don’t ever say goodbye.”

Shelly was known known for her adventurous spirit and love of travel and had spoken of a taking a trip to the Yukon. Over the next several months, calls and texts to Shelly went unreturned. Concern greatly increased in November, when Shelly’s phone was disconnected.

Shelly was finally reported as missing. A clue came in the form of a witness report that a man was seen taking suitcases from Shelly’s apartment around the time that she went missing. However, by the end of 2014, police had exhausted all leads.

Candice has expressed her frustration with the police, who she says are reticent to work on Shelly’s case because of her First Nations heritage and her “high-risk” lifestyle. While Shelly’s family acknowledge that she had dealt with drug and alcohol addictions, Candice noted that:

[Police] label every First Nations person that is missing or murdered [as having] a high-risk lifestyle or a high-risk profile. They keep blaming the victim for what has happened to them. They don’t blame society and what’s wrong with society . . . these things shouldn’t be happening to innocent people, no matter what type of lifestyle they live.^[8]

Shelly Dene has not been found.

2 ‘Things Are Going To Get Better.’

Olivia Medel didn’t have much, but she had her two children, Enrique and Delfina. The single mother worked hard to support them, and things were good until Olivia lost her job. After this, the family had to move from Kansas City, Missouri, back to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where the children had originally been born. Though it wasn’t easy at first, Olivia found work in Albuquerque. Enrique, however, began to fall in with the wrong crowd.

It started when Enrique, then 13, began to hang out with a teenager named Andy, who was around six years older. Olivia had a bad feeling about Andy, but now that she was working again, she couldn’t keep an eye on her son all the time. Sometimes, Enrique would disappear in the middle of the night. Eventually, he was expelled from school for having a gun. Olivia believes the firearm was Andy’s idea.

On March 16, 2011, Enrique, now 14, spoke to his mother. He said, “Mom, I know you’re going through a hard time, but things are going to get better.” Olivia never saw her son again. Enrique’s uncle spotted him that night outside an Allsup’s (a convenience store). The uncle told Enrique to go home, but the latter said he was going to stay with some friends. He stopped answering his phone later that night and has been missing ever since.^[9]

Olivia felt that the police didn’t take her seriously when she reported her son missing, taking Enrique for a runaway. Ultimately, investigators did question Andy several times. The shady youngster gave inconsistent answers and was also found to be in possession of some of Enrique’s belongings. So far, however, no arrests have been made, and the case seems to have gone cold.

1 ‘No, I Need The Cops.’

In 2013, Brandon Lawson, 26, was living in San Angelo, Texas, with his longtime girlfriend and their four children. The oil field worker had found a new, more stable job with better hours and was set to start soon. But then Brandon didn’t come home on the night of August 7. This led to an argument with Ladessa, his girlfriend, on the evening of August 8. He had dealt with drug issues in the past and had recently relapsed, so Brandon staying out all night was cause for concern. At around 11:53 PM, Brandon grabbed his cell phone, a charger, his keys, and his wallet and left. His pickup truck was low on gas.

Before long, Brandon called his father, Brad, and asked to stay with him for the night. Brad said Brandon was welcome, but since the former lived three hours away in Crowley, he advised Brandon to go back home and work things out with Ladessa. A few minutes later, Ladessa called Brandon and suggested that he go stay with his brother, Kyle, if he was still angry and didn’t want to come back home. Kyle lived only five minutes away. Brandon must not have been into the idea, because Ladessa then called Kyle, saying she was worried about Brandon.

At 12:34 and 12:36 AM, Brandon tried to call Ladessa, but she didn’t answer either time. At 12:38, he called Kyle and said he’d run out of gas on Highway 277, not far from Bronte. Kyle called Ladessa, who left a gas can on the porch for Kyle before going to take a bath. Kyle and his girlfriend, Audrey, left to pick up the gas can at 12:45. At 12:48, Brandon tried to call Ladessa again but got no response.

Here’s where things become really strange. At 12:54 AM, Brandon made a disconcerting 911 call. Parts of the 43-second call were unintelligible. Brandon spoke of running out of gas and being in a field. He said he “accidently ran into” some people before there was background noise that may have been gunshots. The operator asked Brandon if he needed an ambulance. Amid indeterminate background noise, Brandon first replied in the affirmative but then changed his mind and said, “No, I need the cops.” Brandon did not respond to the operator after this, though the unidentified background noise seemed to get closer to him before the call ended.

Four minutes later, a passing trucker spotted Brandon’s pickup truck parked awkwardly on the highway and called 911 about it. At 1:10 AM, Kyle and Audrey found Brandon’s truck and were surprised to see a Coke County sheriff’s deputy there, too. There was no damage to Brandon’s truck. Kyle and Audrey initially assumed that Brandon was hiding in the field since he had an outstanding warrant in Johnson County. They surreptitiously called Brandon and managed to reach him one last time. Brandon said he was ten minutes into the field and bleeding and implored his brother to get to him quickly. The call ended, and Brandon responded to no further calls or texts.

Multiple searches for Brandon yielded nothing. Neither his bank account nor his cell phone showed any activity after that night. A few months after Brandon’s disappearance, investigators decided that Kyle was a suspect. They questioned him, and Kyle volunteered to take a polygraph test. He passed. Brandon is still missing.^[10]

Thousands of people embark on cruises each year to enjoy vacations, holidays, and honeymoons with family and friends. But not everyone returns home from these trips.

Several people have vanished aboard cruise liners, leaving their friends and families heartbroken and confused. Here are 10 times that people mysteriously disappeared from cruise ships.

10 Ships That Simply Vanished Without A Trace

10 Amy Lynn Bradley

While on a family cruise to the Caribbean, Amy Lynn Bradley mysteriously vanished from the Royal Caribbean International Cruise Line’s Rhapsody of the Seas. The American woman was only 23 years old when she disappeared from the vessel on March 24, 1998.

Early that morning, Bradley went missing. She had danced all night with members of Rhapsody’s band, Blue Orchid. She left the band around 1:00 AM, and her father noticed her sleeping on their cabin balcony around 5:30 AM.

Her dad returned to the balcony at 6:00 AM to check on Amy, but she was no longer there. Her father reported her missing to the authorities on the cruise line, and the ship docked at Curacao, Antilles.^[1]

The cruise line and the Netherlands Antilles Coast Guard spent days looking for Amy, but the search ceased on March 29. There have been many theories about her disappearance, but none have been proven to be true.

9 George Allen Smith IV

In July 2005, George Allen Smith IV and his wife, Jennifer, were celebrating their two-week-long honeymoon on a cruise from Greece to Turkey when he mysteriously disappeared. It is believed that he went overboard due to an accident on the ship.

Smith vanished after a long night of drinking and gambling at the ship’s casino. A passenger aboard Brilliance of the Seas claimed that he heard men arguing in the Smiths’ room. Another passenger heard furniture being moved around inside the room, and Jennifer was later found passed out in a hallway.^[2]

Jennifer claimed that she did not remember much from the previous night, and nobody ever admitted to knowing anything about Smith’s disappearance. Some theories claimed that he was thrown overboard by the men with whom he was arguing. Others believe that he accidentally fell into the water after drinking too much.

In 2015, the FBI closed their investigation into the disappearance of Smith. They said that his death could have resulted from an accident, but his family was never convinced. They believe he was murdered.

8 Rebecca Coriam

In 2010, Rebecca Coriam started working for Disney Cruise Line and spent months visiting several ports in the Bahamas. On March 22, 2011, while working on the Disney Wonder, Coriam disappeared.

She was last seen on CCTV footage in the crew’s lounge talking on an internal phone. She was wearing men’s clothing and seemed visibly distressed. After hanging up the phone, she walked away, never to be seen again.^[3]

When she failed to report for her shift, crew members started looking for Coriam. After they were unsuccessful, the United States Coast Guard and the Mexican Navy were alerted and joined the search. But her body was never found.

Some theories claim that she was swept overboard while at the pool. Others say that she jumped or fell from the deck. Her family hasn’t received any answers as to why or how she went missing while aboard the cruise ship.

7 Daniel Kueblboeck

Daniel Kueblboeck, a German pop star, was famous for a short time on the talent show Germany Seeks the Superstar. He disappeared after reportedly either jumping or falling from a cruise ship. The 33-year-old was aboard an AIDA Cruises ship for a holiday from Hamburg to New York when he went missing. The cruise ship was off the coast of Canada when the incident occurred.

Witnesses aboard the ship claim they saw someone jump overboard around 6:00 AM the day he went missing. A month earlier, Daniel had posted on Facebook about being bullied as a kid, how it had affected him deeply, and that he still did not feel better mentally or physically.

Authorities believe that he jumped into the water on purpose. The search for his body was called off after four days.^[4]

6 John Halford

On April 6, 2011, John Halford went missing while aboard Thomson Cruise’s Thomson Spirit. The 63-year-old man disappeared while on a holiday cruise in Egypt. Authorities believe that Halford went missing sometime between 11:45 PM on April 6 and 7:30 AM on April 7. According to authorities, he was last seen at the ship’s bar drinking cocktails.

Halford’s suitcases were found sitting outside his cabin’s door, which is required for guests on the last night of the cruise. The luggage contained gifts that he had purchased for his wife and children. When the cruise ship docked the next morning, he was not in his room or anywhere else on the ship. His body was never found.^[5]

10 People Who Mysteriously Vanished While Traveling

5 Christopher Caldwell

Christopher Caldwell and his fiancee, Crystal Tinder, went on a Carnival cruise in July 2004 to Mexico. Carnival Cruise Line’s Carnival Fascination was near Miami on the final night of the trip when Caldwell disappeared.

That last evening, he and his fiancee had gone to dinner with some friends they met on the cruise. They all had a few drinks and decided to hit up some of the nightclubs after dinner.

Crystal then decided to head in for the night, but Caldwell chose to stay in the casino for a while. He told her he would be back shortly. But he never returned to their cabin.^[6]

Surveillance video showed Caldwell leaving the casino at 2:17 AM, and one crew member admitted that a bartender had seen Caldwell on the promenade deck around 3:30 AM. The bartender said that Caldwell had appeared to be very drunk, but the barkeep did not help his customer back to his room.

Caldwell was never seen again. It was believed that he had fallen overboard, and the coast guard spent 36 hours looking for his body. They eventually called off the search, and Caldwell was presumed to be dead.

4 Fariba Amani

Fariba Amani was enjoying a cruise with her boyfriend, Ramiz Golshani, when she mysteriously vanished from the Bahamas Celebration cruise. The 47-year-old mother of two from Canada disappeared on February 29, 2012, somewhere between the Bahamas and Florida.

Ramiz last saw her at the ship’s gift shop, and then he headed to the casino by himself. When he returned to their cabin, Fariba was not there. He eventually fell asleep. When Ramiz woke up, Fariba still had not returned. He spent an hour searching for her on the ship.^[7]

Ramiz alerted the crew about her disappearance shortly after arriving at port. The coast guard began an 84-hour search that spanned 25,900 square kilometers (10,000 mi²), but they were unable to find Fariba.

Police and the FBI also failed to find any evidence or trace of her during their investigation on the ship. The whereabouts of Fariba remain unknown, but her family suspects that Ramiz may have had something to do with her disappearance.

3 Annette Mizener

In December 2004, 37-year-old Annette Mizener embarked on a nine-day cruise with her parents and daughter. On the final day of the trip, she disappeared from Carnival’s ship The Pride.

She was last seen when the ship was around 48 kilometers (30 mi) off the coast of Ensenada, Mexico. Authorities believe that she fell or was pushed overboard, but some strange facts emerged about her vanishing.

Mizener’s beaded purse was found with beads missing near a smoking deck. But her family said she would have stayed away from there. A passenger stated that a nearby camera for that deck was covered, so there was no footage of her.

The captain of the ship waited about three hours before finally turning around and dropping rescue boats to search for Mizener. However, he only did this because he was ordered to do so by the coast guard. Her family believes foul play was involved, but her case remains unsolved.^[8]

2 Merrian Carver

Merrian Carver’s disappearance from a cruise ship around Alaska in 2004 is one of the more absurd stories. The 40-year-old woman vanished from a Royal Caribbean ship that nobody in her family even knew she had boarded.

On the second day of the cruise, a cabin attendant noticed that the bed had not been used and reported it to the boss. The supervisor said, “Just forget it, and do your job.” The attendant did as she was told, although nobody ever used the room. Carver was never seen again.

After the ship docked, her possessions were packed away. The authorities weren’t notified that she was missing. In fact, the police only learned of her disappearance when her father filed a missing person’s report days later. As her family hadn’t known that Carver was on the ship, the police needed time to trace her there.

The cruise line took three more days to confirm to authorities that she had been on the vessel, which was 26 days after she disappeared. By that time, the trail had gone cold.^[9]

1 Hue Pham And Hue Tran

In 2005, Hue Pham, 71, and Hue Tran, 67, took a seven-night Mother’s Day cruise in the Caribbean with their daughter and granddaughter. The couple, who had been married for 49 years, mysteriously vanished while on the Carnival Cruise Line ship.

On May 12, a ship employee found two passports, two pairs of flip-flops, two driver’s licenses, medication, and a wallet containing cash and credit cards. The passports belonged to Hue Pham and Hue Tran.^[10]

A full search and rescue mission began after family members realized the couple was missing, but the mission failed to find anyone. Authorities believe that the couple committed suicide by jumping into the sea together. Their son, Michael Pham, testified before Congress to urge tougher regulation of safety practices on cruise lines.

10 Eerie Last Words Of People Who Then Vanished Without A Trace

About The Author: I’m just another bearded guy trying to write my way through life.

In popular culture of the past there are many jobs that were so ubiquitous they have become an ingrained part of the public mind. Unfortunately, many of these once iconic professions are now gone or are reaching a point of near extinction. Below we list ten iconic careers that are now going the way of the dodo. While some of us may not have been alive when these jobs were commonplace, due to our vicariously experiencing them through old movies and TV shows, it still feels like we missed out. Join us as we wax nostalgic for the good old days.

Meter readers were once a very common part of everyday life, no one thought much if a man came around the back of our house in the middle of a day—it wasn’t a burglar, just the meter reader. The meter readers often talked to their customers, knew them personally and could report if something seemed wrong, especially with an elderly person. However, companies are now switching to digital devices that send signals without the need for someone to come and check them, leading to the end of an iconic job and the loss of jobs for many who once enjoyed the profession. While the companies claim they will try to train people for other jobs now that the meter reader job is gone, it is likely many will simply lose employment.

Travel agents have been a part of our culture for a long time. They are skilled at getting us the best deal on our vacation and navigating all of the complexities for us. However, with the advent of the internet the need for travel agents is dwindling greatly. In the past five years travel agent jobs have already dropped by 14%—a trend that is likely to continue. Now that people can book their flights, rental cars and hotel rooms online, while seeing all of the options and deals side by side, travel agents aren’t really needed anymore. According to one expert, if you have used an online site to take care of your travel needs, you have contributed to destroying the jobs of travel agents everywhere. In our new internet based society, it seems that middlemen everywhere are being cut out of the deal, and jobs are being lost in the process.

In times past wherever we went to get gas, there would be a gas jockey waiting to pump our gas for us, wash our windows, check our oil and make sure our car was in tip top shape for our continuing journey. However, the existence of full service gas stations has dwindled greatly. Except for two US states, Oregon and New Jersey—where customers are not allowed to pump their own gas—full service gas stations basically don’t exist. While there are occasional gas stations that do it for the nostalgia and customer connection, it is increasingly rare to see this. Many feel that this is not good because many of the services the gas jockeys would offer, such as checking under the hood, are not performed by consumers on their own initiative. This makes the road more dangerous, and leads to consumers’ cars not being in nearly as good a shape as they should be.

In days past the job of an elevator operator was not only ubiquitous but it was also absolutely vital. Before the high tech elevators we have today, they had to be operated manually. The operator had to use levers and such to make sure that it was level with the floor, and advise people to watch their step. Some likened controlling the earliest elevators to learning how to drive a car. However, as time has gone by elevators no longer need to be operated by hand—they simply need buttons to be pressed. Some places still keep elevator operators around as a homage to the old days, but they spend most of their time doing clerical work and performing customer service.

Back in the early days of bowling, before automatic machines had been invented to replace the pins, kids would stand in the alley behind and wait to set the pins back up. One former pinboy recalled that he was paid about eight dollars a night, and would get broken ribs, smashed fingers and all sorts of bruises. Apparently some would throw the ball at incredible speeds, and the kids trying to fix the pins would be trying to watch for ten projectiles headed in their direction. According to one story, the automatic machines were invented after one man became fed up when a pinboy walked out on him in the middle of a game. He was so frustrated that he decided to invent an automatic machine for resetting pins to ensure such a problem would never occur again.

It is hard to say if the postal service will completely fall apart, but things don’t look good for the United States postal workers. Saturday mail delivery is being canceled, although parcel delivery still exists and three thousand and seven hundred locations are being closed, with over a hundred thousand workers losing their jobs. The culprit behind this is, once again, the internet. One of the mainstays of the Postal Service has not been parcel delivery but mail delivery, and with people increasingly using email or other more instantaneous methods of communication to convey messages, mail delivery is quickly becoming a thing of the past. And for those who sort mail, their jobs are being taken over by machines. In ten years, there may no longer be a mailman for the dog to chase.

When one thinks of the theater they always think of film reels being put in a huge contraption and then attended diligently by a skilled movie projectionist. However, unfortunately the man who sits in the projection booth and operates the projector may soon be out of a job. Again we have digital technology to thank for this. As progress marches onward, uninhibited by nostalgia for the past, movies are being put on hard drives and everything is becoming digital. Eventually all movies will be digital and film projectors as we know them will be a thing of the past.

This one is included not so much because the job is disappearing, but because there are so many misconceptions about this in popular culture that I felt it warranted inclusion. The truth is that the profession of dog catcher sort of once existed, but those who performed the function were referred to as “dog whippers”. The main function of those tasked back in the 16th through 19th centuries was actually to keep dogs out of the churches and more generally to deal with stray animals and keep them locked up. As time has gone by, the positions have evolved to control all animals, and also protect animals from those who would hurt them. However, an important misconception to note is the old saying “he couldn’t be elected dog catcher”. The truth is that there is no evidence that a dog catcher has ever been an elected position; it has pretty much always been a job that has been appointed by an executive.

Back in the day, and especially in old movies, telephone operators were not only everywhere, they were absolutely integral. If you wanted to get connected to anyone you needed a telephone operator. Now, however, they have almost completely disappeared. At first they were just relegated to long distance calls, then a few other odd situations, and now you really just don’t speak to telephone operators at all. In the past few years, some of the last remaining centers housing telephone operators have been closed down, the job is simply no longer necessary. Many who once dealt with operators on a daily basis have trouble imagining a world completely without them, but with current technology the position is defunct.

In the old days—again popularized by many TV shows—the milkman was often a friend of the family and a familiar presence. His position was vital. Due to the advent of refrigerators, and new methods that preserve milk for longer, the profession has dwindled to the point that it hardly exists anymore. Many consumers were worried about theft, because in many cases the milk would wait outside the door, where anyone could take it. While the profession had dwindled, it has still not completely disappeared. Around five percent in the United States still have their milk delivered to their home and there have even been new companies created for the purpose of providing this service. Perhaps milkmen will have a renaissance.

You can follow Gregory Myers on twitter where he dreads the day that robots will make writers obsolete.

There was a time when there was no greater calling than that of an explorer. So much of the world was still unknown to us and it was up to a few brave and curious adventurers to probe the deepest, darkest corners of the planet to illuminate the rest of us.

It was dangerous work and many lives were sacrificed during the pursuit of this noble endeavor. As you are about to see, some men who probed the unfathomable abyss were never heard from again.

10. The Vivaldi Brothers

Not much is known about Vadino and Ugolino Vivaldi. We know that they were two brothers from the Republic of Genoa who lived during the second half of the 13th century and that they were both thriving maritime merchants. Whether or not the siblings had a history of exploration and adventure, we cannot say, but in 1291 they set off on a very ambitious journey – to try and find a sailing route from Europe to India via Africa. 

Basically, it was the cape route that they were looking for – the sea lane that traversed the South Atlantic Ocean, rounded Africa at the Cape of Good Hope, and then crossed the Indian Ocean. It served, basically, as the most important shipping route in the world for centuries, but the Vivaldi brothers attempted to sail it almost 200 years before it was actually discovered by European explorers. 

Suffice it to say that things did not go to plan. The brothers left Genoa in May 1291 aboard two galleys, possibly named the Sanctus Antonius and the Alegrancia. They were known to have made it out of the Mediterranean and to have sailed off the coast of Morocco, but once they hit the open ocean, they were never heard from again.

9. John Cabot

Like the Vivaldi brothers, Giovanni Caboto was an Italian explorer, but he sailed under the auspices of King Henry VII of England, hence the anglicized version of his name, John Cabot. The adventurer undertook three voyages for England, but it is his second journey in 1497 that he is most famous for. Simply known as the Cabot Expedition, this trip saw the intrepid explorer reach the coast of North America, becoming the first European to do so since the Vikings. The exact spot where he landed is still under debate, although the Canadian Government recognizes Cape Bonavista in Newfoundland as Cabot’s landfall.

Since this voyage was a success, Cabot intended to repeat it a year later, with the full backing of the king. This time, he had more ships, and they had been loaded with merchandise, suggesting that Cabot was looking to trade. 

The fleet set off from Bristol in May 1498. We know that one of the ships was damaged early on during a storm and had to return to England. From that point on, the expedition and John Cabot himself simply disappeared from the historical record. Possible outcomes for them included the obvious – that they were lost at sea – or that they reached Canada, but shipwrecked and died at Grates Cove on the Avalon Peninsula.

However, some historians believe that Cabot did make it back to England in 1500 and died there a few months later, although this doesn’t really explain why there is no mention of his return or death. 

8. Henry Hudson

A hundred years after Cabot, there was another navigator who sailed under the English flag and explored the northeastern coast of North America. He was Henry Hudson, the man who gave his name to the Hudson River, the Hudson Strait, and a few other places.   

There are quite a few similarities between Henry Hudson and our previous entries. Like Cabot, he undertook several successful voyages to the New World during the early 1600s. Then, like the Vivaldi brothers, Hudson embarked on a very ambitious mission that proved to be his doom. In his case, it was the search for the Northwest Passage, the sea route that connected the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans by passing through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. 

The first man to successfully complete this route was Roald Amundsen in 1906, so we already know how things went for Hudson who attempted it 300 years earlier. The explorer set off from London in 1610 aboard the Discovery with a crew of 23, including his son, John Hudson. He reached the Arctic Ocean, but got trapped in ice in James Bay and had no choice but to go ashore and wait out the winter. 

Miraculously, the expedition only lost one man during the coming months but, by the time spring came around, most of the crew wanted to return back to England. They mutinied and placed Henry Hudson, his son, and seven loyal shipmates in a boat and cast them adrift, and they were never seen again.

7. La Pérouse 

During the late 18th century, the Age of Enlightenment was in full swing, and expeditions of scientific exploration were the new hot ticket. Following the voyages of James Cook, France felt like it was lagging behind England slightly, so in 1785 King Louis XVI ordered his government to organize an expedition around the world and complete Cook’s exploration of the Pacific.

The man chosen to lead this scientific mission was Jean-François de Galaup, Count of La Pérouse, a senior naval officer who had distinguished himself fighting against England during the Seven Years’ War and the American Revolution. La Pérouse was given command of two frigates – La Boussole and L’Astrolabe – fully stocked with the most modern scientific equipment of the day, plus a sizable library, and a crew that included multiple scientists.

The expedition left France in August 1785 and, for three years, things went very well. La Pérouse started by sailing to South America, then rounding Cape Horn and traveling northwards all the way to Alaska. He then crossed the Pacific and reached East Asia before heading south to Polynesia. In January 1788, the two ships reached Australia, where they docked for a month-and-a-half. They left in early March and were never seen again.

Their disappearance was considered a national tragedy in France and several rescue missions could not find a trace of what had happened to them. Even King Louis XVI, on the day of his execution, was reported to have asked his captors on the way to the guillotine if there was any news of La Pérouse.

It wasn’t until almost 50 years later that sailors found remnants that suggested that both ships smashed against the reef of an island called Vanikoro and sunk, but this still did not explain the fates of the crewmen. Local oral history said that survivors spent months on the island, building a schooner before setting out to sea again and disappearing once more.

6. Douglas Clavering

Scottish naval officer Douglas Clavering made a name for himself as an Arctic explorer, leading an expedition that surveyed Greenland and the Svalbard archipelago in 1823. That, however, had nothing to do with his mysterious disappearance. After making his successful return to England, Clavering was given a different commission as part of the West Africa Squadron, Britain’s recent anti-slavery initiative. 

The squadron was formed in 1808, following the passing of the Slave Trade Act, and it consisted of a fleet of Royal Navy ships that patrolled the waters off the coast of West Africa in an effort to suppress slavery. Captain Clavering became part of this squadron in 1825, after being appointed commander of the brig-sloop HMS Redwing. 

Although the West Africa Squadron seized around 1,600 slave ships during its 50-year existence, little is known of Clavering’s personal involvement. What we do know is that two years after his appointment, the Redwing set sail from Sierra Leone and was never seen again. Bits of wreckage that washed ashore suggested that the vessel might have caught fire, perhaps from a lightning strike.

5. Baron von Toll

In 1900, geologist and explorer Baron Eduard von Toll was commissioned by the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences to lead a new Russian polar expedition to the arctic to survey an archipelago called the New Siberian Islands. Specifically, he was to search for the mythical Sannikov Land and prove, once and for all, whether or not the island actually existed.

This landmass had been first spotted a hundred years earlier and, ever since then, several explorers claimed to have seen it, including von Toll himself during an earlier expedition. This made him perfect for the mission so, in June 1900, he set off for the arctic with a 19-man team aboard the Zarya. 

Unfortunately for von Toll, Sannikov Land did not exist and this proved to be his undoing. After two years in the arctic, his team gathered plenty of scientific data, but no sign of the elusive island. With the expedition coming to a close, von Toll tried one last bold gamble. After the winter of 1902 passed, he and three crewmen left the Zarya and went on a separate journey using sleighs and canoes to maneuver easier through the archipelago. They were supposed to rendezvous with the rest of the team on Bennett Island, but the thick ice prevented the ship from getting anywhere close. From that point on, the fate of von Toll and his three crewmen became a mystery. Months later, a search party found their camp on Bennett Island along with several notes written by the explorer, but no trace of the men could ever be found.

4. Joshua Slocum

In 1898, Canadian sailor and adventurer Joshua Slocum turned into a worldwide sensation after becoming the first man to single-handedly sail around the world. He had spent the last three years traveling 46,000 miles aboard his sloop named Spray. Slocum then wrote an account of his experience titled Sailing Alone Around the World, which became an international bestseller.

Slocum’s success also provided him with some financial stability, which allowed him to buy some land and settle down. However, the old seadog soon realized that he was more at home on the open ocean than on terra firma, so he resumed his sailing, often traveling between the United States and the West Indies or South America. 

Unfortunately, it was one such trip that led to Slocum’s demise. In November 1909, he left Massachusetts and headed for the Caribbean aboard his trusty Spray. He was last seen resupplying in Miami before disappearing. Neither man nor ship was ever found. Although the obvious scenario suggests Slocum perished at sea, especially since he apparently never learned to swim, there is another idea that suggests that the adventurer faked his disappearance in order to start a new life away from his family.

3. Roald Amundsen

In the pantheon of polar explorers, the name Roald Amundsen probably rings out greater than any other, but not even he was spared an untimely and uncertain demise.

In 1906, Amundsen led the first expedition that successfully navigated through the Northwest Passage. Five years later, he became the first man to reach the South Pole. Those were his two biggest claims to fame, but Amundsen stayed involved with arctic exploration until the very end.

On May 25, 1928, the polar airship Italia crashed somewhere in the Svalbard archipelago. This prompted an international rescue mission, which included an aging Amundsen, who boarded a Latham 47 flying boat prototype with a team of five to help search for the wreckage. The plane left Tromsø, Norway on June 18 and disappeared without a trace over the Barents Sea. 

The wreckage of the Italia was eventually found and multiple survivors were rescued, but the same could not be said for Amundsen’s Latham 47. Even modern searches using the latest sonar technology and underwater vehicles have yielded no results so, for now, the final resting place of one of the greatest arctic explorers remains a mystery.

2. Michael Rockefeller

Michael Rockefeller was born into the fabulously wealthy Rockefeller family, but unlike his predecessors, he eschewed the worlds of business and politics and opted, instead, for a life of adventure. 

After studying history and economics at Harvard, Rockefeller took an interest in ethnology and anthropology. In 1960, he joined an expedition to serve as the sound man on a documentary about the Dani people in Western New Guinea, back then part of the Netherlands. While there, Michael encountered another group of people called the Asmat, who fascinated the young Rockefeller with their artwork.

The following year, he funded his own expedition back to New Guinea, hoping to study the Asmat people in detail and even organize an art exhibition back in New York. The team consisted only of him, Dutch anthropologist Rene Wassing, and two local Asmat teenagers. For three weeks, the expedition went well, as Rockefeller visited and traded in 13 different villages, amassing a sizable collection of Asmat artifacts.

Things went wrong on November 16, while the team was sailing down a river to the next village. Some powerful waves and crosscurrents overturned the boat, plunging all four men into the water. The two Asmat teenagers quickly swam ashore and went to get help, but Wassing and Rockefeller had no choice but to hold onto the overturned raft and drift down the river. After an entire night like this, Rockefeller tried to make it to shore…and that was the last time that anyone ever saw him. Wassing was spotted from a helicopter and rescued the following day.

Rockefeller’s official cause of death was drowning, but in the years that followed, a story went around that he had actually been murdered and cannibalized by the people from a village called Otsjanep. However, by then, Western New Guinea was no longer part of the Netherlands, so no official investigation was ever carried out.

1. Peng Jiamu

We end with the most recent entry on our list, which goes to show that even in modern times, there are still plenty of unknown parts of the world that hold hidden perils. By 1980, Peng Jiamu had already established himself as one of China’s premier biochemists, having taken part in multiple scientific expeditions over the previous 25 years to study the wildest, most remote regions of the country. That year, he left to explore the Lop Nur, a desert in the Tarim Basin. Five days into the mission, Peng vanished without a trace, seemingly swallowed by the vast emptiness of the desert. 

It appeared that the scientist left the camp alone in the middle of the night to search for water and got lost in the desert. This was very puzzling given that Peng was an experienced explorer who would have known better. Add to that the fact that extensive searches by the Chinese government uncovered no signs of him and this prompted several conspiracy theories that suggested that Peng could have been murdered by his colleagues, kidnapped by the Russians or Americans, or even defected of his own will. The truth remains a mystery.

It’s terribly unsettling when someone goes missing. Loved ones must deal with uncertainty and terror as they struggle to find out what happened. Police officers and detectives work around the clock to find answers. All the while, the missing person is just… gone. In the best case scenarios, that person is miraculously found and returned to their loved ones. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen.

When the missing person is well known, the emotional upheaval is magnified even further. In the case of pro athletes and amateur sports stars like the ones on this list, their disappearances brought shock to many. Fans who’d grown accustomed to watching them compete heroically were left without answers about their fates. Sadly, the star athletes on this list were never seen again after going missing. Loved ones may yet hold out hope, but answers haven’t come. What happened after their final known moments may never be revealed.

10 Bison Dele

Bison Dele was born Brian Williams but asked others to refer to his chosen name after reaching the NBA. His basketball career started slowly, but Dele persisted through the 1990s. While hopping from team to team, he won a championship with the Chicago Bulls in 1997. Two years later, the Detroit Pistons offered him a $35 million contract. It should have been the culmination of his long career as a journeyman, but he turned it down.

In fact, Dele walked away from the game altogether that year. He was seeking something else in life. So he bought a yacht and sailed halfway around the world. Dele was in the South Pacific Ocean in 2002 with his girlfriend, Serena Karlan, his older brother, Miles Dabord, and the captain Dele had hired named Bertrand Saldo.

Something horrible happened out in the deep ocean near Tahiti. Dele, Karlan, and Saldo disappeared. Months later, Dabord reappeared with the yacht, but there was no sign of the other three. Immediately, people wondered whether Dabord had killed the group. Journalists descended on Tahiti looking for clues. Reports suggested potential problems between the brothers, but nothing conclusive came out.

The FBI had little evidence to go on in the deep sea disappearance. As it turned out, they didn’t have much time to seek justice, either. Dabord died of an insulin overdose less than three months later. He took whatever knowledge anyone may have had with him in death. Dele, Karlan, and Saldo have never been seen again.^[1]

9 Mamie Konneh Lahun

Mamie Konneh Lahun was Sierra Leone’s best long-distance runner. In fact, as a 24-year-old in 2014, she was quickly developing into one of the world’s best marathoners. Her coronation came at the London Marathon that year when she finished 20th. The running world was ecstatic with the impressive finish for the young runner. Analysts believed Lahun had a bright future in the sport. But then, after the race, she just disappeared. Officials were flabbergasted. She had no money on her, no belongings, and no passport. She just had her running outfit on her back. But instead of celebrating what should have been a great marathon finish, she just vanished.

Initially, Sierra Leonean officials worried something awful had happened to her. London police investigated, but they never turned up anything. Sports directors began to wonder whether Lahun had absconded from the event to declare political asylum. If she did, she never came forward to make the immigration request. She was simply gone. Lahun’s loved ones received a shot of hope when a news report later suggested she had been found “safe and well.” However, those reports were later retracted. Investigators were back to square one, with no insight into her whereabouts.

Back in Sierra Leone, her friends were shocked at the situation—and sad about the end of her promising running career. “It’s tragic because her result was just so good,” Lahun’s manager told The Guardian. “She doesn’t know how good she is.” A fellow Sierra Leonean athlete agreed. “If she comes [home], it’s good for her career,” runner Idrissa Kargbo said after Lahun vanished. “If she doesn’t, her career is over. She will have to forget about running.” To this day, Lahun has never been found.^[2]

8 John Brisker

John Brisker was a formidable basketball player. The powerful forward starred for the Seattle SuperSonics in the 1970s. Fans loved his physical play. He was talented and volatile—a difficult court combo but a successful one. But after years of skirmishes with opponents, Brisker tired of basketball. In 1975, he left the NBA.

He soon became a father and was drawn to new business goals to support his family. In 1978, he opened an import-export business. The new venture meant he had to travel to Uganda. At the time, the African nation was ruled by dictator Idi Amin. Political dissidents were under fire. A violent and oppressive group was in charge. That year, while on a trip to the capital city of Kampala, Brisker spoke to his girlfriend by telephone. It was the last time anyone heard from him.

Soon, outlandish (and almost certainly false) tales of Brisker’s death spread. Some said he was killed by Amin’s supporters and served “banquet style” to the dictator. Another rumor alleged he was shot at a dinner party after dishonoring a local politician. One particularly crazy conspiracy claimed Brisker left Uganda for South America, where he died in the Jonestown Massacre. There was never evidence to support those theories, but Brisker’s disappearance was a mystery.

His family didn’t even know where he was. One brother thought he might have actually gone to Nigeria instead of Uganda. Mainstream news outlets got in on unfounded claims, too. In 1980, the Associated Press claimed he’d been shot. That report was never substantiated, either. In 1985, Brisker was declared legally dead. Today, no one knows what happened to the former NBA star.^[3]

7 Trevor Moore

Trevor Moore was one of the best young sailors in America when he disappeared on the open ocean. He had been a key part of the 2012 U.S. Olympic sailing team. In the skiff event that year, he placed 15th—an impressive showing at just 27 years old against high-level international competitors. His future in the sport looked very bright. After that early achievement, he began prepping wholeheartedly for the 2016 Olympic Games. Sadly, he never made it to the event.

On a calm day in June 2015, Moore took a boat out onto South Florida’s Biscayne Bay. It was an otherwise normal day. The weather was good. Moore knew the bay well. He’d been sailing in the area since he was just seven years old. But something happened in the water, and Moore vanished. The Coast Guard was called in and spent days searching for him. Sadly, they never found any sign of the sailor. Moore’s loved ones were heartbroken after they called off the search.

Immediately, loved ones began to wonder what had happened. The Olympian was just 30 years old, so an onboard medical emergency was unlikely. But still, nobody had any answers. The sailing star’s college coach told The Washington Post that something unexpected must have happened on the boat. “The more time you spend around the water, you learn to love and respect the powers of the ocean,” Scott Iklé told the newspaper. “I think for all of us, something happened, and we’ll never know what.”^[4]

6 Urgel Wintermute

Urgel “Slim” Wintermute was the most talented member of the University of Oregon’s juggernaut 1939 basketball team. The lanky, slim center was the star of the “Tall Firs.” The group was known by that name thanks to their impressive height and the fact that their home arena was in the tree-covered Pacific Northwest. Wintermute led them to glory in the NCAA Basketball Tournament that year too. Ducks coach Howard Hobson called him “the best center in the country” in 1939. “I’ve always said that he was the best defensive center I’ve ever coached,” Hobson added. “In fact, he’s the best collegiate defensive center I’ve ever seen.”

Slim’s pro career came long before the NBA was formed. So, sadly, he had limited opportunities after Oregon. He played a few years on a pro team in Detroit and later coached another one in Portland. But basketball soon faded from his life, and Wintermute’s on-court exploits became memories.

The tall star took a job at Boeing in the 1950s. For years, he peacefully worked and raised a family while remembering his glory days. But in 1977, he vanished. Slim had been in a boat on a local lake with a friend. His buddy went to take a nap, and when he woke up, the basketball legend was gone. Neither detectives nor family members believed the friend had anything to do with Slim’s disappearance. But they had no answers for why he’d gone missing.

The former Oregon star had suffered a heart attack seven years earlier, and cops wondered if he’d had another medical emergency and fallen overboard. But even after dredging the lake, Slim’s body was never found. To this day, no one knows what happened to the hoop legend.^[5]

5 3 Congolese Handball Players

The 2014 World Junior Handball Championships were supposed to be a wonderful event for athletes. Held in Zagreb, Croatia, the tournament featured hundreds of players from dozens of countries. Among the nations invited was the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The war-torn central African country sent a group of female handball stars to Croatia with high hopes. Sadly, during the tournament, three of their athletes vanished. According to local news reports, 18-year-old Laetitia Mumbala Mayunga, 19-year-old Julie Betu Mvita, and 20-year-old Mirnelle Kele Mazenga all absconded from the DRC’s team hotel.

At first, Croatian leaders expected them to turn up soon and claim asylum. Considering the DRC’s significant internal problems, it’s likely the political plea would have been granted. But when tournament directors went to the hotel to investigate, what they saw puzzled them. All three women had left behind their passports, which they would have needed to claim asylum. All of their personal belongings were in their hotel too. Cops initiated an investigation, but nothing came of it. Weeks went by, and the women weren’t found. They never turned up to claim asylum, either. After six weeks and no answers, police declared the young women had simply vanished into thin air.^[6]

4 Jim Robinson

During his boxing career, Muhammad Ali fought 50 different men in 61 fights. Many of those bouts were iconic, and Ali’s legend has withstood the test of time. Zealous fans have gone to great lengths to collect memorabilia from the boxer’s career. In 1999, one fanatic named Stephen Singer decided to take things a step further. He wanted the signatures of all 50 of Ali’s opponents.

So over the next four years, he went on an expedition for autographed memorabilia. He tracked down old boxers and bought photos and artifacts at auctions. By 2003, he had spent about $35,000. For the money, he’d been able to obtain the signatures of 49 of the men who fought Ali. The only one missing was a little-known boxer named Jim Robinson. And no matter what Singer did, he couldn’t find the former fighter.

Robinson faced Ali—then known as Cassius Clay—in the legend’s fourth fight in Miami in February 1961. Jim was a last-minute replacement for another fighter. Ali wasn’t a superstar yet, but his talent was undeniable. Robinson was overpowered and knocked out in the first round. While Ali’s career flourished, Jim languished in low-level Miami bouts. He ended up winning just 14 of 46 career fights. When his time in the spotlight ended, Jimmy vanished.

“He was a man of limited skills and education, and when his boxing career was over, he just kind of disappeared into the sunset,” Singer told ESPN during his search. “He was like hundreds of fighters who look to boxing for the American dream, and when they fall, there’s no net to catch them. There are lots of Jimmy Robinsons.” By the early 2000s, Singer was so confused by Robinson’s disappearance that he contacted journalist Wright Thompson. The sportswriter spent six years searching for Jimmy, but he came up empty. Nobody knows what happened to Robinson after his bout with Ali.^[7]

3 Angelo Cruz

Angelo Cruz was a New York City streetball legend. Growing up in the Bronx in the 1980s, Cruz made a name for himself on playground courts across the city. He was short, at just 5’7″, but he was lightning quick and blessed with great court vision. His rough-and-tumble street story resonated with Puerto Rican immigrants to the area. As he grew into a teenager, his basketball exploits became a source of local pride.

Cruz’s affiliated hoop career was varied. He played in high school games and tried to make a go of it in college, but nothing stuck. Too short for the NBA, he emigrated to Puerto Rico to pursue his basketball dreams. Everything came together on the island, and he became a superstar. He won two league championships on Puerto Rico’s pro circuit. He even represented the island at the 1988 Olympic Games. But time inevitably wore on.

By 1994, Cruz was retired from basketball and returned to New York City. He struggled with life after the game, though. Friends watched as he descended into drug use. He would go on benders and disappear for long periods of time. He always turned up, though. And while loved ones were worried about him, the ex-street ball legend acted as if nothing was the matter.

Then, in 1998, he disappeared again. This time, he never resurfaced. Family members held out hope that he would come back, but with each passing month, the likelihood diminished. Nobody has ever learned where Cruz ended up. By 2011, he was memorialized with a charity basketball game held in his honor.^[8]

2 The Cameroon Olympic Disappearance

The 2012 Olympic Games were London’s chance to show off its cosmopolitan beauty to the world. For some athletes who traveled thousands of miles, London also meant freedom. During the games, seven athletes from the African nation of Cameroon fled their team dwelling. Five of the central African sports stars were on the country’s boxing team. Soon after they left Cameroon’s quarters, they turned up at a London boxing gym. All five claimed political asylum and were quickly accepted into Britain.

Even though their Olympic careers ended early, they badly wanted a new start in a safe place. Other Cameroonians understood that drive. “The conditions in Cameroon are very difficult,” one of them told The Guardian at the time. “There are no opportunities here, and if you have the chance to go to the UK, it’s understandable that you would want to stay there.”

Sadly, two other athletes who disappeared from Cameroon’s contingent were never seen again. The two stars who went missing were later identified as women’s soccer goalie Drusille Ngako and men’s swimmer Paul Edingue Ekane. Their Olympic visas granted them access to the UK until November 2012. After that, they were required to apply for asylum if they wanted to stay. But according to the BBC, that never happened. In fact, neither Ngako nor Ekane ever turned up again. Now, a decade later, no one knows where the two athletes went after walking away from their Olympic dreams.^[9]

1 Rico Harris

Rico Harris had all the talent in the world as an amateur basketball player in Los Angeles. His storied high school career in the early 1990s became the stuff of legend. One former teammate praised him profusely, years later remembering Harris’s game-changing abilities. “He could do it all,” the teammate told Fox Sports. “He was Lamar Odom before Lamar Odom.”

During his amateur career, Harris’s name was on virtually every list of the best young basketball players on the west coast. But things weren’t as easy for Rico off the court. The volatile star wore out his welcome at several college stops. He lost scholarships and fell out of favor with coaches. As his NBA dreams faded before they ever began, Rico turned to other leagues. He tried his hand with the short-lived International Basketball League. In 2000, he signed on for “a brief stint” with the Harlem Globetrotters. Harris wasn’t a fit there, either, and the showy team jettisoned him.

Back on the streets of Los Angeles, Harris floundered. During an argument with another man, Harris was hit over the head with a baseball bat. He was just 24 years old, but the attack left him with a traumatic brain injury. Any hope for a basketball comeback was dashed. A decade later, Harris was trying to get on with his life. Then, in 2014, he landed a job interview in Washington.

On the drive from Los Angeles to Seattle after a brief visit with his mother, he was in constant communication with his girlfriend and mother. During one phone call with the former, he said he was going to stop and rest for a bit. Harris pulled off the highway to sleep. Nobody ever saw him again. His car was found hours later with a dead battery and no gas in the tank. There were no signs of foul play. An air and ground search of the area turned up nothing. Cops and family members were baffled, but they had no answers. Just as it had been with his untapped potential years before, Rico Harris had simply vanished.^[10]