Famous people had disappeared, airplanes have disappeared, ships have disappeared and many more things have disappeared mysteriously without any clues of how and why. The most chilling feel comes when multiple people have together disappeared mysteriously in the night, from the beach or from the home. Many such cases occur every year and have happened throughout history. We will check some of the most famous multiple people disappearances in the world that are still unsolved. What happened to these people? Are some of them still alive? Where they murdered? Are they still hiding somewhere? Some of these cold cases send shocks through the spines and has been haunting many people around the world including the missing people’s family members. Let’s check, explore and open the case files of multi-people who vanished mysteriously without any traces.
Here is the list of 10 cases where multiple people disappeared mysteriously without any traces:
10. Disappearance of Patricia Spencer and Pamela Hobley
On October 31, 1969 Patricia Spencer, 16 and Pamela Hobley, 15 vanished mysteriously without any traces on their way to a Halloween party. They were “not considered as friends” at the time they disappeared. The pair had planned to attend a school homecoming football match in Oscoda, Mich and then to attend a Halloween party later. The girls had decided to skip a class that day to attend the game. Pamela’s boyfriend informed her parents that she hadn’t arrived at the party. Both the families got to know that the girls hadn’t attended the party and they are missing. The parents informed the police and eventually the case became a missing person investigation. An extensive search operation by the police yielded no fruitful results. Hobley’s family posted a $1,000 reward to those who bring the case to closure. Hobley’s sister, Mary Buehrle thinks that something horrible has happened to the girls. The girls were never seen again and their bodies were also not found. The case remains open and unsolved. The pair’s details have been put into the database of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, which released the pictures of their current age progressions. There have been many such recent efforts to close the case. Both the families have renewed their campaigns in 2014 to find the two. Many suspects were tried with no efforts to the mystery’s end.
9. Dunes Disappearance Case of Three Young Women
On July 2, 1966 three young women Ann Miller, 21, Patricia Blough, 19, and Renee Bruhl, 20 vanished from a crowded Indiana beach in Indiana Dunes State Park. They left their purses and keys on the beach before boarding a boat – they were not seen after that. The women left behind a beach blanket, still strewn with a yellow robe, a jar of tanning lotion, transistor radio and other items that was left abandoned till evening. This made a couple to alarm the police that day. The women were seen talking to a man in a boat, and then they boarded the boat that headed west. Harold Blough father of Patricia Blough contacted the park on July 4 triggering a search and initiating the Indiana State Police investigation. Dick Wylie, then Northwest Indiana bureau chief for the Chicago Sun-Times had investigated the case that time. Wylie, now 75 and retired never left the case and again tried to solve the case. The women were neither seen again nor were their bodies ever found. The baffling case still remains unsolved and is one of the famous mysteries surrounding multiple people disappearing.
8. The Fandel Children Disappearance
On September 4th, 1978 siblings Scott (aged 13) and Amy (aged 8) at that time, vanished from their home in the middle of the night under strange circumstances in Sterling, Alaska. According to reports the children had spent their evening at Good Time Charlie’s, a bar and restaurant in town, with their mother Margaret and their visiting aunt Cathy Schonfelder. After the evening’s time at the bar and restaurant Margaret and Cathy dropped the kids at the cabin, returned to the bar for several hours, then went home to bed in the two-room cabin between 2:00 and 3:00 am. Did the women check on the kids after returning back is a point of discussion on many forums and threads online? Margaret woke up the next day to find the children gone and assumed that they have gone to the school. That afternoon, the kids didn’t return and the mother in a state of panic reported the missing kids to the police. The police were unable to lay out exactly what happened to the children that night as there were no proper evidences at the scene. An extensive search operation by the police yielded nothing and none of the kid’s bodies were ever found. Police think that the children would have been a victim of serial killer Robert Hansen. There are several theories regarding this case and none of these have provided any clue to crack the case. The case is one of the most famous unsolved cold cases in the history of Alaska and is the most puzzling case that left the police baffled as to how the kids vanished in the nights.
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7. The Beaumont Children Disappearance
The Beaumont Children disappearance case is yet another case of mysterious mass disappearances in the world. On 26 January 1966, the three Beaumont children Jane, Grant, and Arnna Beaumont disappeared under mysterious circumstances from Glenelg Beach near Adelaide, South Australia. It was an Australia Day and the hot summer had gotten the children to the beach for relaxing. Jane, Arnna, Grant vanished at the age of 9, 7 and 4 respectively. The siblings had been on their-own that day, who had boarded the public bus at 10 am – a five minutes trip to the beach. While their father was at work and their mother Nancy was spending her time with her friend. Nancy had asked her children to return home at 2 pm for lunch. She waited for her children and grew concerned when several buses came without them. She called the police after which the Beaumont children were officially declared as missing. An elderly woman reported to have seen the children to have been playing under the sprinkler but she also saw someone else along with the kids. Later they were seen buying snacks at a stall – which is considered as a clue to the case as the kids weren’t having enough money to buy snacks. At 3 pm they were seen by a postman who knew the children very well. He saw them walking happily alone and away from the beach on Jetty Road. The mystery disappearance of the Beaumont children sent sensational waves across Australia. The case triggered one of the country’s largest missing person investigations. Even paranormal investigators were called in. No bodies were ever found after their disappearance. After two years, a mysterious letter claiming the captivity of the children was received by the parents. The letter said that he would release the children at a designated time and place. Happy about the letter, the parents reached the spot to find no one there. A second letter received afterwards read that an undercover agent was present and it also read that now the children will be held captive for ever. Many suspects have been sketched, many theories have been proposed and many years of search and investigations held with no results.
6. Sodder Children Disappearance
Sodder children disappearance is one of the most famous children disappearances in the world. On the late eve of Christmas in December 24, 1945, George Sodder’s house was destroyed by a fire. George, George’s wife and 9 of their 10 children lived in the house during the accident. All were rescued except their 5 children. Their bodies were never found and the family believed that the children survived. The family never built their destroyed home and instead the place was converted into a memorial garden to their lost children. They placed a billboard with the pictures of their children and a reward of $5,000 for those who give information to the closure of the case. There have been various theories put up by George Sodder and his wife that the children survived. One such leading theory was that the children were kidnapped by the Sicilian Mafia, perhaps in retaliation for George’s outspoken criticism of Benito Mussolini and the Fascist government of his native Italy. Further investigations during the 1950s yielded no results in the case. During the 1960s the family is known to have received a picture of one of their boys as an adult. The case was publicized online and media by one of their surviving daughter and their grandchildren in the 21st century.
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5. Disappearance of Albert Jennings Fountain and his Son Henry
Albert Jennings Fountain was a lawyer, Indian fighter, Republican politician in Texas and New Mexico. On February 1, 1896 Fountain and his 8-year-old son Henry disappeared near White Sands, New Mexico where only his wagon was left behind. Fountain was known to have made many bitter enemies during his 30 year tenure as politician. The suspicion of the Fountain and his son’s disappearance was centered on two rival landowners Oliver M. Lee and Albert B. Fall. The two disappeared when they were returning to their home in Mesilla from Lincoln, New Mexico. Apart from the wagon, list of things that were found at the site were several empty cartridge cases, his cravat and papers, and two pools of blood. A blood-soaked handkerchief with two powder-blackened coins was also found. The things that were missing were the victims’ bodies, a blanket, a quilt, and Fountain’s Winchester rifle. Murder was not ruled out from the case. Neither anybody was ever convicted for the case or murder of Fountain nor was their bodies ever found. The prosecution was greatly hampered as the bodies were never found.
4. Crew of Kaz II
Kaz II has been dubbed as the “ghost yacht” which is a catamaran that was carrying three crew members. The yacht was found drifting 88 nautical miles the north-eastern coast of Australia on 20 April 2007 with nobody on it. The mysterious disappearance of the crew members have been compared to that of Mary Celeste. The Kaz II departed from Airlie Beach on 15 April 2007 towards Townsville. On board the yacht were owner Derek Batten and his neighbors, brothers Peter and James Tunstead. Initially, the boat was spotted first by a helicopter on 18 April 2007 and it was reported that the boat drifting in the vicinity of Great Barrier Reef and the crew members were in severe distress. On 20 April, the boat was caught by the maritime authorities to find that the boat was empty without crews under strange circumstances. The boat was in good condition, the engine running, food laid out on the table, GPS system still on, radio was on and everything was set as if the crew was on-board. There was no foul play noticed in the boat according to a forensic report. Search operations already had begun on 18 April and continued till 25 April after which it was called off after the case was not solved. Many theories have been proposed such as pirate attack, possible seaquake and rough weather.
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3. Mary Celeste
Mary Celeste is one of the most famous maritime mysteries in the world. The case is more than a century old; this particular mystery has boggled many people around the world for many years. Mary Celeste set its final voyage on November 7, 1872 from New York to Genoa, Italy with Captain Benjamin Spooner Briggs, his wife, Sarah, and the couple’s 2-year-old daughter, Sophia and 4 crew members. On December 5, 1872 the ship was found adrift in the mid-ocean by crew members of Dei Gratia 400 miles east of the Azores. The Captain of the ship David Morehouse was taken into awe by the fact that the ship was Mary Celeste and he was more confused to find that all the crew members were missing. Except for the several feet of water in the hoard, the ship was undamaged, a life boat missing, unnatural alcohol was intact and 6 months of food stock was intact. The ship’s last log entry was at 5 am on November 25. Several theories have been proposed by various people and researchers on the sudden disappearance of the members of the ship. None of the proposed theories gave any hint to find the crew. They were never seen again nor heard.
2. The Springfield Three
Friends Suzanne “Suzie” Streeter and Stacy McCall, and Streeter’s mother, Sherrill Levitt went missing on June 6, 1992. The mysterious case started on June 7, 1992 and remains unsolved. They went missing from Levitt’s home in Springfield, Missouri. Suzanne Streeter and Stacy McCall were last seen at 2:00 pm on June 7, 1992, when they were leaving for the last of the few graduation parties they had attended that evening. At some point in the night the same day, they were also seen in Battlefield, Missouri. That day they decided to retire at Levitt’s home. They arrived at the home during the nights, but what happened after that to the women is a cold mystery. The women vanished between 2 am and 8 am on that day. McCall’s parents called the police from Levitt’s home after 16 hours of the women had disappeared. When the police arrived, they noted that there were no signs of struggle in the home and everything in the house was intact. Robert Craig Cox, a prime suspect in the case, a convicted kidnapper and robber and also the suspect in a Florida murder, told journalists that he knew the three women had been murdered and buried, and claimed their bodies would never be recovered. The police are uncertain about the claims of Cox and the mystery is still unsolved.
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1. Lyon Sisters
Lyon Sisters disappearance case is one of the most high-profile cases in the world that is still unsolved. Lyon Sisters – Katherine Mary Lyon (aged 10), and Sheila Mary Lyon (aged 12) disappeared without any traces during a 1975 trip to a shopping mall in Maryland, Washington, D.C. Neither the girls were found or their remains. A high-profile police search operation that time yielded nothing. In 2013, a cold case investigator with the Maryland police made a break-through in the mystery case. They focused on Lloyd Lee Welch who was serving a long jail term in Delaware for child abuse. During an original investigation, records showed that he had come forward a week afterward and claimed falsely to have seen the girls being abducted; he later failed a lie detector test but was not charged. However, a mug shot taken of Lloyd Lee Welch showed resemblance to the police sketch of the prime suspect. In July 2015, along with Welch two other were charged with murder of the girls. But, the case still remains unsolved as the bodies of the sisters were not found and they are declared as missing.