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It’s impossible to keep up with every person you’ve ever met for the rest of your life. You’ve likely lost touch with most of your classmates from high school if you moved away. And you might struggle to stay in touch with friends from college if you’ve realized you don’t have much in common anymore.
But sometimes people disappear from our lives suddenly and mysteriously. And it’s impossible to figure out what happened to them. Redditors have recently been sharing eerie stories about people that they know who seemingly vanished into thin air one day. Good luck reading through these tales without getting the heebie-jeebies, pandas, and be sure to upvote the mysteries that you’d like to solve.
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#1
An indigenous girl I grew up with. She went missing when she was in her early 20s and was missing for 20 years until they found her bones 3 years ago. People assumed what happened to her, but her family couldn't get closure until they found her. I live in BC, we have a road called The Highway of Tears, and indigenous women going missing is an epidemic that does not get enough attention.
Speak easy buttercup 18 hours ago
I recently watched a couple of documentaries on this! So sad for all these families! I couldnt imagine going thru this! 😢😢
RELATED:
#2
My roommate in college was the most boring, predictable guy you’d ever meet. Accounting major, always asleep by 10 PM, never went to parties. One Tuesday, I came back from class and all his stuff was completely gone. No note, phone disconnected, socials deactivated.
His parents called me panicking a day later. Two weeks later, the police showed up at our dorm. Turns out, 'boring' Dave had been running a massive, highly sophisticated counterfeit luxury watch operation out of a rented storage unit and fled the state right before a raid. Last I heard, he was spotted in Thailand. I still use the fake Rolex he gifted me for my birthday.
#3
My boss/owner of the company I worked for. He was always pretty hands off for such a small company. It was me, one coworker, and the owner. I saw the owner maybe 3 times over 4 years? We did low voltage/smart home installs. We had an app for scheduling and he’d put stuff on it super late every night, so I never knew what I was doing until I woke up in the morning. It was frustrating, but it worked. I always got paid on time and if he forgot to put something on the schedule he usually still paid me for the day.
One day, nothing shows up on the schedule. Whatever, boss is busy, we’ll figure it out later. Then again, and again etc. 2 weeks I don’t hear anything and nothing on my schedule, got paid for the first week but not the second. His phone is off, coworker hasn’t heard anything. Coworker finds boss’s daughter on Facebook and messages her to see what’s up.
He moved across the country without telling anyone, changed his number and everything. We had multiple contracts with builders, in the middle of like 6 different builds. I still had the company truck and hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment in my garage, same with my coworker.
We told the builders he went to open a new branch and I was now the head of this branch, everything goes through me. Just kept doing the jobs and collecting checks. Luckily I already had most of the permits/licenses I would need. Took a bit to get everything proper but we got there. Told the builders the truth after a few months and they didn’t [care] as long as jobs kept getting done. It’s been 4 years now and we’re still rocking. No idea what made the old boss disappear like that, but it worked out for me.
If you’ve ever watched a documentary about a missing person, there was probably some part of you that thought that would never happen to you. It’s so devastating that it’s hard to imagine that it can happen to anyone. But according to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) in the United States, there are currently 26,551 open cases of missing persons. And there have already been 65,830 cases resolved this year.
Thankfully, the vast majority of these cases will be solved. But Missing People, a registered charity in the UK, reports that there are certain factors that can make a person more likely to stay missing. If they have mental health issues, if they are homeless, if they’re left without adequate provisions, if there’s a risk they may take their own life, or if they have a history of violence, they might be less likely to return home.
#4
My best friend at primary school when we were 9/10. We spent nearly every weekend together, sleepovers, same sports teams, his parents took me on their family trip etc. He was from a RIDICULOUSLY rich family, his dad said he was in “scrap metal” but everyone suspected he was involved in something shady. Anyway, one day whilst he was at my house his mum had a massive stroke, it was awful. Over the next few weeks he rarely came into school as you’d expect, and then one day he just never came back in. The school tried calling, I tried calling his house, no answer. My parents tried calling too to no avail and in the end my dad drove me to their house so we could find out what was going on. The house was up for sale and they’d gone. No one ever heard from them again. I’ve tried multiple times now 28 years later to try and find him and his family online, it’s like they never existed. I think about you often and hope you’re OK Adam.
#5
My mom and I went over to my grandfather's house (as was our Saturday routine), and he was gone. We called it "senility" back then, but this guy had some bad dementia. We looked for months, and were about to have him declared deceased, when a cleaning lady at a hotel in Vermont called my mom. My mom had the foresight to put a note in his wallet that said "If you find this man and he seems lost or confused please call me at...". The story was he'd rented a car to drive to Quebec to visit his (long deceased) mom, wrecked in Vermont, and just decided that was his new life now. No idea how he had the money to survive, but he did. He was so mad when we picked him up.
#6
Yes so in HS I had a best friend, her name was Toni. One day after school Toni comes to me and asks if I have change for the pay phone (1980’s) I gave her every coin I had in my change purse because she was very upset. I asked her why she was crying and she said “I’ll call you later”.
I was a cheerleader, that night we were having a bonfire (school sponsored) at the stadium, a school spirit kinda thing. I already knew that Toni couldn’t make it because she had a date with a boy we both knew. He was supposed to pick her up at her house. It would’ve been their first date. She never did call me I just figured she was getting ready for her date. After the bonfire was over I went home, but it was kinda late so I didn’t call Toni’s house because her parents were very strict and I didn’t want her to get in trouble for me calling the house too late.
The next day the boy she was supposed to go out with said she never met up with him. And he wanted to know if she was with me and what was wrong, I call Toni , no answer. Police show up at my house and say Toni never came home last night did I talk to her or see her anywhere? Was she at the bonfire? They also talked to the date. Nothing. I told the police about her crying, about her telling me she was going on a date, all of it. They asked me if I thought she would run away, I told them I didn’t think so, but her parents were really mean to her so maybe?
Toni snuck out to go to her date, her parents wouldn’t allow it. So maybe her dad (the meanest one) caught her, and she ran away because of how mean he was? I don’t know, but the rumors started, ppl were saying I was with her and she was abducted, I got away and didn’t tell anyone because I didn’t want them to come back for me.
Meanwhile I was a cheerleader at the bonfire doing cheers in front of everyone. The rumors were wild and the police were waiting for me after school every day with more questions. They were convinced Toni ran away and I knew where she went. But I didn’t. I hoped she did run away because that would mean she’s alive! I was convinced she would call eventually to let me know she was ok. That never happened.
After years of torment, her sister threatened me multiple times because she thought I knew where Toni was. I read an update on the case probably a year ago saying that on her deathbed. Toni’s mother admitted that Toni’s stepfather beat her to death and took her body and disposed of it (he was a long haul trucker and he died before Toni’s mother).
All the accusations and bullying and everything and they knew what happened to her. I don’t think the sister knew, but the parents did and they didn’t even get punished for their crimes. It’s so sad that Toni died that way, she was so sweet and did not deserve that. I think about her a lot.
Unfortunately, certain demographics are also more likely to fall into the category of missing. In North America, there is a Missing Indigenous Peoples Crisis. More than four in five American Indian and Alaska Native women have experienced violence in their lifetimes. And although there were 5,712 reports of missing Native American women in 2016, only 116 of those cases were actually logged in NamUs.
Sadly, there are still no reliable reports of how many Native women go missing or lose their lives to violence every year. Researchers have found that they’re often misclassified as Hispanic or Asian on missing-person forms, so we can’t even trust the data we do have.
#7
Me.
I told my family back in my home country I was moving "down south" for a job. Didn't tell them I was actually flying out of the country for studies. Closed my bank accounts, took all my money in cash with me (less that 5k, even before the plane tickets), put all my belongings into two suitcases and flew away without telling anyone. I then purged my phone of any way to be contacted on my old number/whatsapp account.
Five years later I'm married and a resident in the US, and as far as I can tell my family thinks I just disappeared one day. According to our embassy in the US one time I was getting my passport renewed, they tried filing a missing person's report and couldn't because me leaving the country was in the books, so they couldn't start a search, but it seems they think I just up and disappeared one day.
Family is deeply conservative. Going dark was always the move, but when the opportunity to do so half the planet away presented itself in a way that was achievable, it was too good to pass up. I don't regret it.
#8
Yes - my brother on April 16, 2025. We still don't know what happened. We've found his car, dog, and wallet, all kilometers away from each other.
#9
A good friend of mine one day just disappeared. It was two days after his sister's wedding. Just gone. His apartment is empty, except his bed and some kitchen stuff. He didn't tell the landlord he was leaving. His boss came by the bar looking for him after the fourth day. Just poof, vanished.
Three years later, he's back, and in great shape. My friends and I walk into the bar where we hung out and he was sipping a whiskey. "WTH man where have you been? We thought you were d**d! We had a memorial service!"
Turns out he joined the navy.
His parents were LDS, but not regular mormons. They were part of one of the many, many weird offshoots that had some wild beliefs. For example, they still believe that only western-European whites and native americans can be members. Polygamy is a choice but they urge members not to make it. Cruciform vegetables are an affront to Jesus. Flying on airplanes is too. That kind of thing.
Well it was right after his little sister (21, lovely, smart, sadly devout) had her wedding ceremony (which he would not describe) in the temple. Afterwards, they had a little (dry) reception, and then him and his little brother were told by his parents them upstairs in the "bridal room". There, they met up with the groom's parents. Then the couple entered.
They watched the marriage consummate so that there would be no doubt in the church's eyes that the wedding was "valid" or something. He watched his little sister lose her virginity to a guy she had met just a month before.
I was good friends with his sister, too. This disgusted me. But it disgusted him enough that he went home, put all of his stuff in storage, and joined the navy. He's never spoken to his family since and has no plans to.
We know that this is far from the most uplifting article, pandas. But we hope that the stories make you realize how unpredictable life is and that we should cherish every moment we get with our loved ones. Keep upvoting the stories that touch you, and let us know in the comments if you have any similar stories of your own. Then, we have another Bored Panda article discussing people who disappeared for you to read next, right here.
#10
My highschool classmate disappeared while walking home after a party in our home town. He was 18 and home on spring break from his 1st year at college.
It still messes me up every year when the anniversary comes around. I still help whenever the troopers do a ground search for anyone. I've literally left work in the middle of the day to help search for missing people. Hunting season is always full of hope, maybe someone will find him or his clothes. His disappearance deeply affected me and no amount of therapy can "fix" it, I can't unhear his mother grieving him. I can't hug his little brother tight enough to squeeze the hurt out. Disappearances break people down in ways I didn't know were possible until it happened to me.
#11
My mom had a cousin who left the house a few days after she graduated high school and has been seen once since then. My mom's uncle was a career Marine Corps officer who served multiple tours in Vietnam and held his kids to the same standards as the Marines under him. On top of that they lived on a farm so the kids all lived the farm kid life.
About five years after she disappeared my mom and uncle were in the airport getting ready to fly to Florida to visit a different aunt and uncle of theirs and they saw a very stylishly dressed woman in a beautiful floral dress and once my mom saw her face she realized it was her cousin. My mom called her name, her cousin broke down in tears and ran over to hug her and my uncle. They talked for a few minutes and her cousin said she had to go and hugged bye, said she loved them and off she went. That was 50 years ago and there hasn't been a trace since.
#12
My childhood friend went to buy a motorcycle he found on Craigslist on the Oregon Coast. He entered the owners property and never came home. He left behind a toddler who he had sole custody of. We believe he was m******d. Another indigenous missing person that the police have forgotten. We miss you Zachary Porter.
#13
Yeah, actually. My buddy Mike from high school just... vanished one day.
We weren't super tight anymore by then, but we still hung out every few months. He was 24, worked at a warehouse, had a girlfriend, played in a [bad] band on weekends. Normal dude. A little quiet, smoked too much, but nothing crazy.
One Tuesday he didn't show up for work. His girlfriend called me that night asking if I'd seen him because he wasn't answering his phone and hadn't come home. His truck was still at his apartment, his wallet and keys were on the kitchen counter. Clothes still in the closet. No note, no goodbye texts, nothing.
We searched for weeks. His family put up flyers, we checked hospitals, the woods behind where he liked to fish. Cops said he was an adult and there was no sign of foul play, so they didn't do much. His girlfriend was a mess for a long time. His mom still calls me sometimes, years later, just to see if I've heard anything.
It's been 10 years now. He literally walked out of his apartment one day and disappeared off the face of the earth. Sometimes I still think about him when I'm driving past his old place.
#14
Yes. Was going to a tiny high school (I'm talking like, 10 students max) and befriended a quiet, shy girl. Her older sister also attended, and was always loud and extremely controlling of her little sister. I always felt bad for her. One day saw her get picked up by her parents, who were just like the older sister. Controlling to the extreme. The poor girl basically lived under their boots. You could tell by the way she carried herself and the look in her eyes that she was not okay. They did not like me trying to befriend her, either. She ended up going missing not long after. It's been like 18 years and I still don't know what happened to her. Part of me hopes she ran away and is living a better life. But the more practical part of me fears that wasn't the case.
#15
When I was about 7 years old (around 1977) my father disappeared (at the time I didn't know he was my stepfather, but my sister was his). They found his truck on the side of the road with all of his stuff in it. There were news bulletins and everything.
Five years later we are driving down the street and my mom suddenly curses and pulls over to the side of the road. She sees him going into a store. He had freaked out about being an adult and ran off. He ended up staying with us for about a year before leaving again. He didn't say goodbye, but he did tell her he was leaving.
My sister tracked him down a few years ago. I don't hate him like I used to, but I had no interest in seeing him again.
#16
My friend's father walked out one day saying he was getting dinner for the family and didn't come back. His mother alerted authorities. He was found about a decade later living with his other family in a town a few hours away. EDIT: I should have also noted that his original family took him back in at a later date.
#17
Had a friend who deleted every single social media account over night and changed her number to get away from a completely toxic ex. She became an absolute ghost.
#18
Unfortunately, yes.
A girl about my age and her mom. It was back when I lived in Venezuela. I got to know her through a friend and quickly connected, chatting almost every week or organising a little trip around her place for us to go to the beach.
Her mom was a sweet person, but smoked all the time and looked significantly older than she was.
In 1999, there was a mudslide that literally erased several suburbs of the coast, near Caracas, including their house.
I didn’t even try calling her place because I saw the photos of where they lived, and there was nothing. Then about a year later, I caught up with a friend in common, she confirmed that both my friend and her mom were amongst the thousands that disappear and nothing was found.
#19
A cult. One day they called to tell me they found Jesus. But then they told me what “church”. It was a known cult.
They tried converting me of course but that obviously didn’t fly. I tried warning them it was a cult but it was already too late.
I worried about them. I did some research on helping people in cults. I called back a couple weeks later to try. But the phone number was no longer in service. No success with email, snail mail, etc. They quit their job. Their family didn’t know where they were either.
This cult makes you move in with senior members so no bills or leases are in your name. You go off the digital grid so no one can find you. They instruct you to cut all ties with anyone you can’t convert and make sure they can’t “distract” you anymore.
I searched for my friend for many years with no luck.
Finally after the cult leader was dethroned the family reconnected. And then so did I. But my friend is obviously not the same.
#20
A friend had stopped talking in a group chat. Eventually his mother signed into his account to ask if we had heard from him. We learned later he drove out into the desert, got out his car, walked out into the desert, and was never found.
#21
A guy I was in the military with got out in 2002, had said he was going back home to "hide in the woods" until he died. Big outdoorsman, very intelligent in many things. There's been no digital footprint that any of his friend group have found. Whatever he did, he was very good at it.
#22
A couple of times.
A woman I knew casually in New Hampshire disappeared with her teenage daughter. I’m confident they were m******d but they’ve never been found.
And a good friend disappeared fishing back in the 80s and was never found. The theory was that he drowned but it was odd. It was a beautiful day, the river was calm, and he was an excellent swimmer. Very sad for his fiancée who never got over it.
Top Notcher 10 hours ago
You can be an excellent swimmer, and still slip and fall, knock your head on a rock, and be swept away by the stream.
#23
My step-mother’s first husband was missing for a long time but his body was eventually found. He was a closeted gay Mormon and went for a one-way walk in the mountains during the winter.
#24
An acquaintance of mine went missing almost 2 years ago. He and his fiancée had just had a baby, and then one morning he supposedly went for a walk and vanished. What makes it even stranger is that he left behind his phone and keys, which doesn’t sound like someone planning to disappear voluntarily.
There was also Ring footage released that appeared to show his fiancée driving near him and almost hitting him with her car shortly before he disappeared. Then she reported him missing only a few hours later. She kept saying that he had a mental break, although the day before, his mom had been staying with them from out of town to meet the new baby.
Add in the fact that she was previously involved in another tragic shooting incident involving an ex-boyfriend during a YouTube prank, and it’s hard not to feel like there are a lot of unanswered questions. It breaks my heart that his family doesn’t have the answers they deserve.
#25
I met someone from my home country in the country I currently live in and we became friends. She seemed really nice and fun, I even let her live with me for a little while.
Only weird thing was that she didn’t want any photos taken of her and had no social media presence, even her WhatsApp had no name or photo attached to it. When we asked her about it she said she’d had a stalker back home, didn’t seem to want to talk much about it, we left it alone.
One day out of nowhere I got a text from her saying she needed to cancel our plans that week because she was leaving. I obviously had some questions so I replied asking if everything was ok. The message never delivered and I never heard from her again.
Then came to find out she’d “borrowed” money from a friend and run. We have no idea if that was even her real name and are pretty confident the stalker story was fake and it wasn’t her first time doing this. Some people I know tried to track her down but no luck.
Hilarious part is she moved around with a bunny. Like, a live rabbit. Rabbit also lived with me for a while, he was cool. Unsure if he was also in on the con.
#26
My best friend in high school.
I'm old, so this happened before cell phones and GPS.
Friday at school he told me he was going to the Blue Ridge Parkway for the weekend.
He didn't show up for school on Monday; but I figured he was late/having a great time and decided to stay a day longer.
When he didn't show on Tuesday I was concerned. I called his house after school, but no one answered. Turned out his parents were up in the mountains with the State Police trying to find him.
It's presumed that he went off the road and over a cliff somewhere, but neither he nor his car were ever found.
#27
Girl I went to school with disappeared. Turn out her late mother’s family came to visit seen the father was struggling and took her to a different country but left her younger sister who had a different mother behind.
#28
Yes. My wife’s uncle walked out onto his farm one morning—something he did nearly every morning—about two years ago and hasn’t been seen since. There have been several searches of the farm and surrounding area, but not a trace of him has turned up. It’s definitely weird.
#29
Friend of mine suddenly stopped responding to messages, I was super sad but figured she had decided to cut me off, turns out she was killed in a terror attack.
#30
One of my closest high school friends moved to Japan to teach. He took a trip to Jakarta to hike in the jungle. He was never seen again.
#31
People really underestimate how desolate national parks are. How desolate nature can be. If you’re a few miles away on foot and you’re injured with no food or water- you might as well be on Mars. People still go missing or d*e from exposure all the time.
#32
We found out what happened, but...
A fellow student at our Master's programme in the UK disappeared when we were doing our dissertations, to never be seen again by any of us. He left a girlfriend behind, we were really close friends as well, meeting almost daily to catch-up, talk about football (the proper one) and cricket or hanging out at our local pub.
He didn't leave a message, just disappeared. It wasn't until 5 years after that one of our friends bumped into him in... Cheltenham.
For the non-Brits, Cheltenham is the home of GCHQ, Government Communications Headquarters, a branch of what Americans would call 'federal secret service'. He actually ignored our friend completely but she knows for sure he saw her and recognised her.
Obviously our friend group put two and two together, we had actually had a briefing on jobs with the GCHQ (our field aligns very well let's say) and one of the conditions was that you should be prepared to break contact with non-direct family. He is a very bright lad, speaks Arabic, Turkish and obviously English, so it is pretty clear to us what happened, but apart from that chance encounter we never heard what happened again.
#33
Yes actually. A young woman named Holly Painter. She was a family friend who lived down the street from us in the early 90s, in Scarborough, Ontario (Canada). My parents sometimes hired her to babysit my siblings, but once she reached adulthood she apparently was hanging out with a rough crowd and getting into trouble. It had been a while since she’d seen us. One day she supposedly jumped out of a moving vehicle and ran off, never to be seen again. It remains a cold case to this day, no body has ever been found. The person who last saw her is a person of interest i believe, but no one has been charged with any crimes related to her disappearance. At the time I was too young to understand the weight of the situation, and as an adult I hope she finds justice.
#34
My older brother vanished the day after 9-11. One day we were watching the awful news together, the next he was just gone. He was a young adult and free to come and go as he wished, and sometimes he did take off with his friends for a few days without a heads-up, especially since tensions were always high between him and the rest of us (unemployed but acting like he had some sort of authority over the younger siblings, picking fights, etc) but this time he just...didn't come back.
All his things were left behind, friends were still calling the house to talk to him with no idea what was up. This was before widespread adoption of cell phones and he didn't have a car, so tracking him would've been that much harder. The whole country was also obviously panicking and hysterical speculating about how the inevitable war would play out; my mom speculated he'd fled to Canada to avoid a potential draft. But he was also a light d**g user and hung out with friends who were into harder stuff, so there was also the idea he was with the wrong people at the wrong time.
Both of our parents are d**d, so I can't ask why they never put out a missing person report on him. I was a teenager and remember trying very hard not to interrogate the very likely possibility that my big brother was d**d.
Except he wasn't. After about six months (!), we found out his longtime best friend had a new job nearby and my dad went to ask if he knew anything about where my brother was. It turned out on 9-12 a couple friends of his were moving about 10 hours away and spontaneously decided to tag along and then just not inform his family? The best friend was in touch with him, and soon we were too. He still lives in that part of the country to this day and seems a lot happier and has his life together. Sometimes distance really makes the heart grow fonder.
#35
Yes. My friend Earl. He was a physicians assistant who I worked with. He was a very nice man, but one day he just didn’t show up. Most of his stuff was left in his house, but his car was gone. He had a lot of friends, but none of this knew where he went. He’s been going through a rough patch in life.
#36
My daughter's old friend and roommate disappeared 6 years ago. She was released from a mental health facility, walked away and hasn't been seen since. Everyone is still looking for her. We miss you Casi.
#37
My brother disappeared for 5 months and we were completely unable to reach him. Eventually the police tracked him down and discovered that he had moved across the country to start a new life due to our mother's control and a***e.
#38
Yes he ran away from home to USA and didn't tell anyone, back in his home country they say oh well to missing ppl. So no one except his mom cared. However the reason was bc his mom was racist towards his gf and drove her away. His mom died not knowing if he was alive. Which he was, eventually he made contact again after she passed.
#39
A friend back in college disappeared overnight. Texts wouldn’t go through, Facebook was deleted. They were here for school for many years, originally from a different company. No word from them, just vanished, which was very very uncharacteristic.
After a couple of years, I googled them, got an immediate result. My friend got deported, but their case was taken up by the US Supreme Court and MY FRIEND WON the case.
Anyway we’ve reconnected but it was a pretty wild story, even wilder than above but I’m omitting many details for the sake of privacy.
#40
My friend went missing when I was 15. They found his body stuffed under a log in the woods by my house when I was 19. We played, camped and partied in those woods all through those years, and Joe was there too.
#41
My first husband. We married in '86 and were divorced by '90 (give or take). I moved away from where we both lived, me mostly ghosting the friend circle we were both part of. Heard about all of them and him for a year or two and after a few years, I heard nothing.
When Facebook became a thing in 2005, I reconnected with some of the old friend group I had parted from and when I asked about my Ex, was told he disappeared and no one had heard anything about him for years. He never showed up anywhere on the internet and even his oldest friend (from childhood, who stood by him when we got married) hasn’t any idea what happened to him.
#42
Yes. My aunt disappeared in the mid ‘90s in northern Minnesota. Her car was found abandoned down a logging road. Dogs followed her scent back to the highway where they lost it.
Five years later, some hunters found her skull.
Absolutely no idea if it was foul play, s*****e, or even something like an animal attack.
#43
Daniel Lui. Knew him from school. Was a missionary pilot who disappeared while flying a nurse, patient, and family over the ocean. Only the nurse’s shoes and the patient’s pillow has been found.
#44
Best online friend. She had a turbulent real life and some health issues and one day out of the blue she vanished. Never came back online. And we talked daily before that, from halfway around the world. I legitimately thought she died, for like... three-ish years?
Then, for one singular day in March of 2021, she came online again. We talked, briefly, and she explained that real life had become to overwhelming for her to maintain her online life too, and, in order to survive, she had to log off. She didn't give the full story but homelessness may have been involved, and I wasn't going to pry. We just had a nice conversation, and then she logged off again and I haven't seen any activity from her since.
I do dearly miss her. I love her very much to this day and hope her life is happier and more stable, even if she never comes back online.
#46
A guy I went to high school with just up and vanished after graduation. He was a popular kid and played sports but nobody has heard from him in 12 years. Nobody remembers him either. I met up with one of his best friends from high school and asked about him and his former best friend didn’t know who I was talking about. Last week I pulled out my yearbook and his photo is in there but anyone I ask doesn’t know who he is or remembers him or his family at all. I feel like I’m being gaslit.
Bookworm 19 hours ago (edited)
Serious question: has OP checked if anyone else can see the picture of this friend? If so and no one else sees this person then OP should get checked out. Them being the only one to remember this person makes me worry there's something wrong with them/their brain.
#47
Yes, she just disappeared. There was a big search for her, and hundreds of people came out to look a few times. Her live in boyfriend was later charged and convicted of her m****r even though they didn’t find her body.
#48
Kid I knew got mad on a hunting trip in Alaska, stormed off without proper winter gear on. No snow on the ground yet, but cold. Dogs tracked his scent for a mile or more into the woods before they lost it. Either the cold or animals got him. Sad for his family either way, he was 18 at the time.
#49
Kid who had been my best friend when we were little (like preschool age) disappeared when we were teenagers. He had been camping with his family in northeast Alabama on the DeSoto Trail, walked away from the campsite, and just vanished.
Searches turned up nothing. The authorities thought maybe he was a runaway and might turn up back in the area he was from (Gulf Shores), maybe staying with a friend or something. But there was no sign of him. Several months after his disappearance, what appeared to be a fragment of human skull was found in the Cahaba River downstream from where he disappeared, but I don't think there was ever a conclusive identification.
I had hiked that trail before with my Boy Scout troop. The DeSoto Canyon is steep and very heavily wooded, with a swift flowing river at the bottom. It is not hard to imagine someone unfamiliar with it walking through the underbrush, suddenly stepping over a drop-off, and tumbling down the canyon. If his body got pinned under a rock or log by the current, it might not have been obvious to anyone searching along the bank.
EDIT: Thinking about this got me to searching, and I found an old news article saying that forensic examiners were eventually able to confirm that the bone fragment was indeed him. His mother died a few years ago. His father had drowned when we were seven, attempting to secure boats in a marina ahead of a hurricane when he was blown or washed off the docks. Tragic family.
#50
My grandpa's brother decided to move from New England to California, this was back in the 60s, he saved money for a year after graduating High School, bought a car and left.
Said he would send a letter once he got there. He never did. Probably died on the road and was buried as a John Doe somewhere along the way. Or his body was simply never found.
Still haunts my grandpa to this day. After a year they got the police involved, my great-grandparents even hired a PI to look for him, nothing at all. Decades later, once the internet became a thing they looked everywhere for obtiuaries, a facebook page or something. Nothing at all came up.
My great-grandma lived for another 50 years waiting for him to one day knock on her door. He never did.
#51
My great uncle Keith (my grandmother's brother) took off from Pennsylvania to live in California. San Diego I believe. For many years he didn't contact his large family back home. Then one day he came back with just a couple boxes of his possessions. I was around 6 or 7 then. He was the happiest family member. Joking around & always laughing or smiling for the few months he was back. Next thing I know my sister & I were told he's in the hospital. I still remember our mother getting us to wait by the phone one day & telling us he's dying & wants to say goodbye. I don't remember the conversation exactly. But I remember he was very loving about it & it was a quick few minutes with each of us. At the time they told us he died from smoke inhalation from being in a house fire. I'm not sure why they chose that. There was no funeral & his burial was just my grandmother with one other person, or something like that. Very unusual for my family. My mother told us years later someone left a note on her car after working at a local bar one night that said Keith died of AIDS & that's why he didn't get a funeral or anything. This was in the late 80's. I remember snooping in one of the boxes of his belongings maybe a year or two after he was gone & finding loving cards from a man named David. Only a couple cards revealed his name. Most of them were just signed "D".
My family was extremely a*****e. Although they seemed happy he returned & treated him as the most popular man in town for a little bit there; I regard their treatment of his final days as a disgusting form of their a***e. I also still regard him as my favorite family member. I admire his escape to California. But more than that, I remember feeling so shocked every time he spoke to me. That he would make a point to actually talk to me & want to speak to me more than a brief conversation. My family didn't ever do that. He was a good man that deserved recognition. Instead he was quickly forgotten again & never spoken about.
#53
My grandfathers brother nearing his end started to suffer from dementia. At this point he had spent a lot of time in the hospital but they said he didn't have long to live they could set him up at home and he can d*e peacefully there. So they had a hospital bed set up in the living on the first floor. He was there no problem and then one day only one of his daughters were home and everyone else went to to a wedding reception. The daughter went to bed thinking everyone will come home soon, it was around midnight. When the rest of the family came home, they see the grandfather is missing.
They have cameras so they saw he seemed to have woken up, was shocked, took off all the cords, got up and walked out the front door.
Police eventually found him. He went back to his old house he lived in 40 years ago looking for his wife who passed away for decades.
He died shortly after that. RIP to him. My fondest memory of him was when I was a teen both him and my grandfather were at the age where the doctor told them to stop drinking. These guys would do things like drink liquor and refill bottles with water or throw bottles behind the barn (my grandfather had a farm) and my grandmother would always find it but blame us teenagers for it first.
#54
My step aunt ran away as a pregnant teen in the 80’s and although there were sightings in the 80’s/early 90’s she has never been found. All of her main family except for her step-siblings (and some nieces/nephews and some great nieces/nephews) are all deceased now.. so I’m interested to see if she ever tries to reconnect.
#55
My friend Megan went missing in Kansas and was never found. She had a very a*****e boyfriend whose parents lived on a pig farm, not hard to connect the dots. No charges have been filed and no evidence of foul play has ever been found.
A girl I knew left her kid, went to Kansas and was found in a suit case on a walking trail.
A guy I worked with got into d***s, went missing in Florida I do believe and weeks later they found his body and chalked it up to an OD.
#56
When I worked as a 911 this woman called in and reported her husband missing. I talked to her and the story was so creepy. He just vanished while they were in another city and she had to go home without him.
#57
My cousin's daughter. She went missing a few months ago after running away and there hasn't been any trace of her since. No phone calls, no online presence, nothing. She did have issues with hard d***s and my Aunt was trying to get her help for that when she ran away so we're all assuming the worst but we'll never know for sure.
#58
Former classmate of mine a few years ago. No sign of struggle or anything at his place. Car left at his apartment along with his phone, wallet and keys. They found him d**d a little under 2 miles from his house in the woods. I never heard the official cause of d***h. I had known him since kindergarten. He passed away at 32. It took about 3 weeks to find him. He had just gotten his Journeymen Electrician certification and was super excited.
#59
A co-worker I once had disappeared from work during her shift. She was last seen on the office cameras getting into a car with her ex and she has never been seen again. This happened in 2017.
#60
Went to a top grammar school in the UK, most people were doing A level papers at 12-14 which is 16-18 year old work. The smartest kid went to Oxford doing mathematics, then immediately disappeared. Some friends hear from him occasionally - like every few years - when he’s back in the country, rumours are he joined MI6.
#61
My best friend from childhood. We spoke on Facebook regularly and kept in touch pretty much daily. He was a FaceTime uncle for my kids as he lived across country.
One day he just stopped responding. About 3 months passed by and I saw friends posting memories and memorial info on his Facebook. When I started asking people what happened. Nobody knew how he passed. Nobody knew where his body was. They just knew he passed away. I was losing my mind trying to find info.
He didn’t have any family as his mother and father had already passed. The funeral home cremated his remains and since nobody claimed them scattered his ashes. The funeral home then planted a tree in his honor.
It’s just something that I have never received closure on. It’s hard to explain the feeling. He was like my little brother for 35 years. It’s been 2 years since Eric left us.
RIP brother. I wish I was there to help and I hope you’re with mom and dad smiling again.
They don’t even know which tree on the lot it is.
#62
Not directly, but my Dad lost a friend in the weirdest circumstances. There was a group of boys playing in the river, in the shallows. One minute my Dad’s friend was there in knee deep water, the next he was gone.
The authorities were called. They searched. No body was ever found. Their best guess was, he was taken by a sinkhole that opened up in the riverbed, and sucked down into an underground lake or cavern.
They never even found his clothes.
#63
My Mom dropped me off with my grandmother in 1985, when I was 2, and no one ever saw or heard from her again. She said she was going to visit a friend in Florida. People went and looked for her, asked police for help, and my great aunt even hired a private investigator, but nothing.
Additionally, my Mom and Dad were divorced at this point, and my Grandmother wanted custody so she took my Dad to court over it. He didn't show up. My Grandmother died in 1986, leaving me with my step-Grandfather, since she had remarried some time before any of this. Then he remarried a couple years later and I was effectively being raised by my step-Grandparents, if that's even a thing. Then they had a daughter of their own, who was my "sister," but not really, and whom they showed clear favoritism for. I didn't have a great relationship with any of them and went no-contact a few years back.
This is all very fun to explain to people when inevitable questions about family come up...
#64
Uncle got divorced and had to sell all his properties that he owned even before the marriage and split the money. Got his half and disappeared. Was missing for 8 years, but would call my grandma once a year or so from random numbers to let her know he was alive.
He was eventually found in the Caribbean. He registered a fake church to dodge taxes so he could build homes for people who lost it in a hurricane, totally for free. He built like 50 homes for people until it was found out and his church’s status was revoked. So he came home.
#65
Yep.
13 years ago, a colleague of mine went for a walk. She was never seen or heard from ever again.
No dramatic ending. She was happy and showed no signs of depression. She just vanished.
#66
My friend Jimmy Fross disappeared in 1987 somewhere between the beach & his car in the parking lot. No trace of him has ever been found.
#67
A guy from high school deleted every social media account he had, changed numbers, stopped replying to everyone, and basically vanished overnight.
About six years later someone randomly ran into him working at a tiny bookstore in another state. Said he looked happier than anyone remembered him being.
Turns out he just got tired of everyone expecting him to stay the same person forever.
#68
My mom’s college roommate and BFF, when I was little. I don’t remember her much. She got into a relationship with a sketchy guy, who was apparently involved in the d**g trade. They went to Florida together for a vacation but only he came back. He claimed she left him to go back home on her own after a fight, and that’s the last he saw of her. There were theories that either he k****d her or she saw something she wasn’t supposed to, so the cartel he worked for k****d her. Either way, the whole thing was never solved and she’s been missing for 40 years, so I don’t think it ever will at this point.
#69
There was a girl that used to work behind the front counter at the gym i frequent. We'd chit chat every now and then as she was making me a protein shake. She just stopped showing up one day and I asked the gym owner what happened. He said she was missing after going out bar hopping the Saturday before. That was in 2012. She's still missing.
#70
My uncle. He was 56 but was having some memory issues. He left his apartment and never found. We think he didn't want my overbearing family and started anew or... thats the worst part. We hope wherever he is, he found kindness.
#71
Two coworkers at the 2000 Census in one of the NM offices disappeared.
One was found about 6 months later. She had been k****d by the dogs of a man at a house that she was supposed to visit to attempt a count. He hid her body to try to keep from getting in trouble for not controlling his pitbulls.
My other coworker was never found. No one knows what happened to him.
#72
One of my best friends from high school got into d***s in his mid-twenties. He was a regular on the bar/clubbing scene, popular at after parties, and a known cocksmith. One day he just didn't show up to work, then nobody saw him out at the clubs, and none of his many side chicks could get in touch with him. There was no search parties or anything, everyone assumed he just took off for California or something which was something he had talked about since we were in junior high.
Anyway, a few months roll by and some old farmer found him along a treeline in his pasture. To this day no details other than he had been dismembered and dumped.
#73
I had an eccentric old music teacher back in the day. He was an old drunk that would teach me music theory and ask for things like a bag of potatoes for payment. One day I noticed a book called “how to vanish without a trace” on his coffee table. Didn’t think much of it, but when I went back to see him in a couple weeks he was gone and the apartment was empty. Never heard from him or saw him again.
#74
A guy I went to high school with disappeared and is presumed d**d. He unfortunately had a psychotic break a few years prior, and was doing well with medication. One day, his car was found parked on a bridge with the door left open. It’s presumed that he jumped and was swept away by the intense rapids. His family discovered afterwards that he had stopped taking his medication for some time prior to his disappearance. He’s never been found.
Such a tragedy for him and his family. I didn’t know him well, as I went to a larger school, but he was a genuinely nice guy.
#75
My cousin disappeared when Russians invaded Afghanistan in December 1979. Never heard from him again. The US State Department responded by telling us that the USA would boycott the Moscow Olympics.
#76
Nothing as dramatic as some stories but one time the janitor in the building I was working in stopped coming in. Eventually they found his body in his apartment. He had been d**d for over a week and nobody noticed until I started asking why our waste baskets hadn't been emptied for several days. He was a really nice guy and it still surprises me that nobody wondered where he was for that long.
#77
My godfather. He was my parents' best friend while they lived in California; he reappeared in my life when I graduated from high school to give me a graduation gift, then just blipped out of existence. Last I knew anything about him was half my life ago and he was living in Chicago. John, if you're out there, I'd like to actually get to know you someday.
#78
Had a coworker not show up for work on a Monday. The sheriff made us wait 24 hours to file a report but we did send someone out to his house (he lived alone) and no one was home. After filing the report, his vehicle was found in a nearby national park but no sign of him or of foul play. They searched the park for a week and never found a sign of him. I always wonder what happened to him.
#79
Kinda; My story is more lighthearted.
In college, I had a group of five friends who took their sophomore spring break in the Bahamas. Only four came back.
One guy had it with school and life and just stayed on the islands. I never saw him again but heard he did actually acclimate successfully and made a new life for himself there.
#80
Me. Not seen or spoken to anyone I used to be friends with in years... just one day decided to completely take myself out of society and never returned.
#81
My cousin went missing in Humboldt County, CA.
He was working on a pot farm. He's been missing since 2018 and he hasn't been found.
I also went to school with a guy that went missing from a Greyhound station. I just googled it and he was found d**d under a tree with a rope tied to it.
#82
Yes, sort of? Had a really good friend who moved across the country decades ago to live with/meet someone she met online. About a year later, she changed her number and I lost contact with her. Years later I was talking to some of our mutual acquaintances and learned they hadn’t heard from her either. It got weirder as we started to share info and well… I am pretty sure she was running from something.
She was living pretty off the grid when I knew her. She wasn’t working, lived in a rented house and was paying cash for everything. It gets stranger, because she told me her name was spelled one way but told other people it was spelled differently. (Think the difference between Katherine/Catherine/Kathryn, while using the name Kathy.) Her last name was very common, so not having a spelling for her first name meant it was nearly impossible to track her.
She also had some severe scarring related to being run over by a vehicle. The story she told made only a little sense. Like it could have happened how she described it, but it would have been a really improbable accident.
She also gave me some life advice, that with hindsight and age, was really concerning. (She was in her early forties and I was just entering my twenties when I met her.)
I’ve thought about hiring a private investigator to see if they can find her, but I’m worried it could make things worse. (Like if she was running from something, I don’t want to scare her into feeling like she needed to run again.).
#83
College roommate sophomore year. One day his stuff was just gone. No goodbye, no forwarding address. Still wonder about that dude sometimes.
#84
Coworker, Portland Or, 1998. One day his father goes missing. No one knows where. Police report filed, friends and family polled, all his favorite places searched and staked out.
2 months later his car is found deep in the Gifford Pincho forest, burned, no sign of him or his body.
Police advised the family that Most Likely scenario is that he was m******d, but zero evidence, zero leads.
#85
A gentleman I knew on a wave and nod basis from my neighborhood went kayaking on the bay one perfect clear day. They found the kayak floating with his clothes perfectly folded inside it, but never found him.
What do you think ?
Bookworm 19 hours ago
Add my Uncle Sonny (ok 2 or 3 times great uncle Sonny). He lived with his wife and kids in Missouri. During the late 50s, early 60s he gets a job offer and goes to Florida to work for several months. Never comes home. His mom and wife d*e, each convinced the other knows where he is and won't tell her. Enter DNA testing. Find unexpected relations in North Carolina. We get in touch. Turns out Uncle Sonny simply decided to start over. He met someone in Florida and eventually they move back near her family. She never knew he had a first family. No one knows why he did this.
Bookworm 19 hours ago
Add my Uncle Sonny (ok 2 or 3 times great uncle Sonny). He lived with his wife and kids in Missouri. During the late 50s, early 60s he gets a job offer and goes to Florida to work for several months. Never comes home. His mom and wife d*e, each convinced the other knows where he is and won't tell her. Enter DNA testing. Find unexpected relations in North Carolina. We get in touch. Turns out Uncle Sonny simply decided to start over. He met someone in Florida and eventually they move back near her family. She never knew he had a first family. No one knows why he did this.
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