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Do you know anyone who went missing?

423 replies

FuckThatBullshit · 20/03/2022 18:01

Inspired by another poster and it's an internet rabbit hole I regularly go down because I find missing people stories fascinating and spooky and obviously very sad. Do you know anyone who just... vanished?

OP posts:
Yeahthat · 21/03/2022 15:00

@ToffeeNotCoffee

I thought they'd more or less proved that Corrie Mckeague fell asleep in a wheelie bin drunk (he'd apparently been known to do this)?

Surely faking your own death is far harder to do in this day and age also? I note that most of the accounts on here of people who've either disappeared themselves or no someone who did to start a new life, happened before the rise of the surveillance state, ubiquitous internet etc.

Calennig · 21/03/2022 15:05

Where DH grew up man - married grown kids - went to meet new bussiness contact next thing car at really remote beauty spot with loads of remote paths - never seen again. Police were apparently good but no evidnce he was alive or dead and no-one knew the new bussines contact and nothing odd in his life. Took many years but in end he was declared dead - main theory was hed gone for a walk and come to harm - accidental or self harm - but a body was never found.

Sister of a friend - ran off at 16 with an older married man. Friends parents were very over bearing constant threatening her due to pnd and eating disorder that they'd take her child - she was married to babies father so why they thought that. Sister did get in touch - first relationship lasted 10 years was in another one with again much older man - she wanted relationship with her Dsis now an adult her husband and their child but friend found it hard and kept pushing for her to see parents - went LC in end.

IL close friends adult DS - he had years of serious mental health issue and drug abuse in and out of hospital and drug rehabilitation programs went off with new friends - they searched used professinals and took long while he and some others were basically being kept as slave labourers in completely different bit of UK - police did help at that point but there weren't any prosecutions in the end - took them years to talk about it - it was very surreal and upsetting situation for them all.

RomeoOscarXrayIndigoEcho · 21/03/2022 15:10

I got the year wrong but here's the person: charleyproject.org/case/rosemary-cosgrove

It's interesting the page doesn't mention the GP refused to stop her going. Several people spoke to the GP asking them to do something official that would remove her passport.

Georgeskitchen · 21/03/2022 15:20

Manchester is notoriois for young men going missing on nights out and ending tragically. A documentary was broadcast not too many years ago asking the question why there is such a high incidence of this. Many are convinced that these are not accidents (someone is pushing these young men into the canals) the police have constantly denied this.
Another unfortunate man went missing (around Christmas time I think) in Manchester and his body found weeks later in the Ship Canal.
Awful situation and I alway s fear for my son who lives in Manchester x

SartresSoul · 21/03/2022 15:24

My ex did, not sure if he was ever found. We didn’t date for long, I was very young and he was older than me. I thought he was too full on so ended things and he didn’t take too kindly to that. Last place he was seen according to the local newspaper was close to where I worked at the time which was in the city next to the one where he lived so I guessed he was trying to find me, not sure. I wasn’t at work that day.

I’ve checked social media a few times since to see if he’s on there/has posted and googled his name a few times too to see if there’s any updates but nothing since the article about him being missing.

Ozanj · 21/03/2022 15:33

Yes. They are alive and her family periodically contact the police who confirm it. But she has totally cut herself off from her new life.

itssunnyyay · 21/03/2022 15:36

Just remembered, a boy from my school in the year above went missing in Amsterdam whilst on a lads trip, a couple years after we left school. He had a habit of wandering off when drunk apparently. He ended up being found in the canal

dragonDan · 21/03/2022 15:42

My auntie. Mum's sister. The story goes she got on the ferry to Scotland (from Ireland) and no one has seen her since. This was back in the 50s / 60s. I don't think anybody even tried to hard to look for her which is sad.

Charmatt · 21/03/2022 15:48

A girl in our village went missing and was found the following day. She had been murdered. It was the first case to be featured on Crimewatch, but not solved until 26 years later.

I was a strange time - awful for her parents who felt like they lived in a fish bowl and the man who did it must be watching them. Everyone in the village had an initial interview with the police and my Dad had a second one which was more detailed because he had been jogging on the route she was abducted on at about the time she was taken.

I still know what I was wearing the night she was taken because we had to tell the police. It had an impact on the behaviour of the village for years, but that's nothing compared to her poor family.

She was a lovely girl, with no connection to the man who murdered her. He ultimately committed suicide in jail taking an overdose without given her parents any explanation why he did it. He was caught because his son was arrested for a driving charge and his DNA was taken. A partial match was found with the man who did it.

LaBrujaPiruja · 21/03/2022 16:12

My mum’s cousin had gambling debts and was missing for more than 20 years. Left a wife in a very precarious financial situation and 4 children, between 7 and 15. Returned one day, out of the blue, and wanted his wife and old life back. Wife and grown-up children not very happy about it. He’s on his own. His elderly mum took him in, after slapping his face btw, but passed away shortly after. I have only seen him once, at my great-aunt’s (his aunt’s) funeral a few years back and he was talking to his siblings but his children did not even say hello.

A friend’s grandad went missing for a couple of years. Successful businessman. Took a lot of money. Very weird. His children took over the business, saved it from bankruptcy and then, once it was clear the police had no idea where he was, hired private detectives who in the end found him in Brazil living with a young woman. He was in his late 70s and she was early 20s. He was then diagnosed with Alzheimer and returned home but the children put him in a care home. Despite his wife wanting to be the main carer.

cranberryhaddock · 21/03/2022 16:15

@Mumdiva99

When I was very young I had a boyfriend whose dad had gibe missing. He didn't like to talk about it so I don't know details. But do know it was along the lines of popped out for a pint of milk never to return.
An uncle of mine did this (told my aunt he was just going out for milk) and was found dead later having committed suicide. Sad It was thought that he couldn't cope with the news that a medical condition was worsening, but it was something that could have been managed. Very sad.
Clarabe1 · 21/03/2022 16:20

[quote Yeahthat]@ToffeeNotCoffee

I thought they'd more or less proved that Corrie Mckeague fell asleep in a wheelie bin drunk (he'd apparently been known to do this)?

Surely faking your own death is far harder to do in this day and age also? I note that most of the accounts on here of people who've either disappeared themselves or no someone who did to start a new life, happened before the rise of the surveillance state, ubiquitous internet etc.[/quote]
I think it is pretty much conclusive poor Corrie was in that bin. The weights and his phone signal sort of proved it. I read that a a biffa bins contents are compressed to the size of an oxo cube so the chances of finding his remains don’t look good. I just hope he knew nothing about it.

JellybeansJelly · 21/03/2022 16:36

My cousin - he just never came home. This was 30 years ago now and my mum was convinced she had seen him in the background in TV a few years later which gave everyone hope. He had a wife who has since remarried and has a family, and my aunt died never knowing what happened to her son.

ToffeeNotCoffee · 21/03/2022 16:40

Amy Lynn Bradley

She disappeared from an American Cruise Boat a few years ago. Her Dad saw her sitting on the balcony of his cabin at around 5am.

That was the last time anyone saw her.

It's suspected she was taken by a sex trafficking group.

There was a member of the band that was playing on board the cruise ship to entertain the cruise boat guests that remarked to her brother, 'sorry to hear about your sister going missing'

No one knew she was missing at that point.

He has later retracted that statement and now says he didn't say it.

Could a drugged Amy have been inside an instrument case, something large like a double base ? Or an amplifier ?

Too many unanswered questions but I suspect the band players may have known something.

StrictlyAFemaleFemale · 21/03/2022 16:46

Well I once saw a post on fb about a missing teenager and it was one of my girl guides. However it WASNT posted by her foster parents and she turned up within 24 hours, but my God those 24 hours went slowly.

A guy whose face I knew from lectures at uni went missing and was found in a field 2 weeks later.

SunshineCake1 · 21/03/2022 16:57

@Cocomarine. I agree with you. This does feel in bad taste.

If it was a thread about my mum is missing has anyone seen her then maybe, but this? No.

SunshineCake1 · 21/03/2022 17:01

@Meidid

Your post reminds me there are two sides to every story.

There really are.

The people I left told so many lies to make me sound crazy and dangerous.

It wasn't like that at all, nobody knew what my home life was like so there was noone to back up my story.

I always wonder when I see other appeals for people what the actual story is.

This resonated with me. I was moved from the place I loved and the mother told everyone it was because I stole from them. It took decades but now the whole village knows the real reason I was moved.

Phew. This has actually really got to me.

Cloudsanddaffodils · 21/03/2022 17:12

Every year our local police put up a poster of a young man found probably 10 years ago. No paperwork on him which could identify him and no family, colleagues or friends reported anyone missing who matched his description. Terribly sad.

LadyEloise1 · 21/03/2022 17:30

A woman went missing from a beach near Dublin, Ireland recently.
Her wonderful daughter put up posters and ran a high profile campaign searching for her Mum.
I hoped she would be found safe and well.
Sadly it was not to be, her remains were found on the Welsh coast.
The authorities in Ireland and Wales work together to identify remains.

Meidid · 21/03/2022 17:34

This resonated with me. I was moved from the place I loved and the mother told everyone it was because I stole from them. It took decades but now the whole village knows the real reason I was moved.

Phew. This has actually really got to me.

I'm so glad that people now know the truth. It's amazing that the people who are supposed to love us the most will happily make us look awful in a bid to make themselves look good and garner sympathy from everyone. You are amazing for going back and telling your truth, I can only imagine how difficult that must have been for you Flowers

This is why I don't think I ever could. People have been supporting my abusers for years, at this point I think it's probably better for them to believe I was a wrong un who disappeared, than to face the reality that they have been mopping the fake tears of liars and manipulators all this time.

Vanillabourbon · 21/03/2022 17:38

A boy I went to school with disappeared over 10 years ago now. Got on a train & no one has seen him since, he left everything behind. His family regularly campaign with the missing persons charity. So sad for everyone who knew him. Some people don't realise just how much they are loved.

Titsflyingsouth · 21/03/2022 17:43

My uncle. Hasn't been seen for several years. He has/had very serious mental health problems and couldn't cope with being around people.

BowerOfBramble · 21/03/2022 17:45

An ancestor of mine was another that left one day and never came back. Turned out he'd moved up north and had another family. I think secretly his family were pleased as he was a bit of a bastard.

I also have a friend whose parent would say they are "missing". They're not missing, they have a restraining order against the parent and don't want to be found. The parent regularly searches for them and cons other people into seeking the "missing" child, following up leads with workplaces and friends etc. It's actually scary. One of them called my mobile once asking me to get Friend to contact the parent as they were seriously ill etc - all bollocks of course. Parent is a dangerous and violent person and I know how much it stresses Friend out worrying that one day someone will believe one of these cock and bull stories and actually hand over their contact details. Sad

Clarabe1 · 21/03/2022 17:58

I was reading about how many previously unidentified people (Jane or John Doe) in America have been identified by recent developments in DNA. Sometimes over 40 years have passed. It’a a good thing that at least the family are able to provide a proper burial. The ones I always wonder about are Genette Tate and Suzy Lamplugh. I wish their families could at least get the bodies back.