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Original poster

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:
AudTheDeepMinded · 20/03/2022 19:30

I knew a girl in passing at Uni (same halls one vacation when we both worked in conference services). She stuck in my mind because a friend and I ended up calling an ambulance for her when she suddenly became very ill. Turned out she had sickle cell anaemia. Fast forward a few years and she was on bloody Crime Watch as missing believed murdered. I called them because I thought her medical history and some things I'd learnt at the time might have been of relevance. As far as I know she's never been found but they strongly believe she is dead.

LadyLothbrook · 20/03/2022 19:31

Yes. Friend disappeared around 8 years ago from small seaside town. No trace of his whereabouts and he left behind a fiance and baby as well as teen daughter from previous relationship.

Steelesauce · 20/03/2022 19:34

I knew a teenager who went missing and was found murdered. It shook the whole village, very bizarre when I see it on TV. Another was a friends adult son, was missing for 2 weeks then found dead in the river. Still none the wiser if it was accident, suicide or suspicious and I doubt she'll ever get the answer.

Horaceandgus · 20/03/2022 19:35

My ex and father to my son
He was in and out of contact-it wasn’t unusual to say ‘see you Thursday’ and then not see him for 18 months
Anyway he’d come round to see our son,said he was going to his mums then going to tesco and that he’d see us the next day
He never arrived so I put it down to the fact he’d taken himself off again
A few packets of stickers arrived for our son a few days later-then nothing-again not unusual
About 7 years later I saw his brother had put a post up on fb saying they’d not seen him for ten years and if anyone had seen him to get in touch
Looks like he’d come round,said he was going to his mums and just got on a train and disappeared
Part of me thinks he’s dead-there is no way he’d not contact any of his family for ten years-he was close to his brother-part of me knows he’s a selfish twat who only thinks of himself and he’s found another woman to sponge from

Who knows?

DuesToTheDirt · 20/03/2022 19:36

Yes. He was missing for 2 or 3 years and then sadly his body was found. He had been walking (no one knew this for sure at the time) and had an accident.

DuesToTheDirt · 20/03/2022 19:39

I often think about Esther Dingley. I read about her and her boyfriend and thought what an ideal and free life they had, ditching the ratrace, travelling in a campervan and picking up work where they liked. Then a week after that she went hiking on her own, didn't come back and it turned out not to be so ideal. It was several months before her body was found.

BionicEar · 20/03/2022 19:46

Have experience of two separate family members who both disappeared and then resurfaced years later. Mental health was big factor in both cases. One had a family who went with them, but we’re not in touch with family as they split whilst missing.

Friend went missing, found several weeks later having committed suicide.

For those left behind it is really hard and painful to describe the sense of grief and loss that overshadows your life. You are always left wondering what went wrong and if there was anything you could have done to prevent it.

Cailleachian · 20/03/2022 19:48

A former neighbour of mine went missing. He had moved away by that time, but I saw the posters and recognised him.

He was found down a gully a few weeks later. Its thought he'd fallen on a walk, broken his ankle, been unable to climb back up, then frozen to death. Quite sad really, his children were only teenagers.

Featuredcreature · 20/03/2022 19:52

There was a woman who with hindsight was clearly neuro divergent who lived in the neighbourhood when I was a kid. She was always on her own and loved swimming and dogs, she had two german shephards who she took pride in. These were the days when everyone knew who had farted last in your street. She went on holiday to Greece and was never heard of again Sad no way that she just upped and offed and left her dogs.

Tomeeornottomee · 20/03/2022 19:54

My stepbrothers best friend went missing aged 15, mid 1980s. He came from a very troubled family, dv and alcoholic parents. He was at school one day, just never turned up the next. I believe it took his parents about a week to report him missing and personally I think the police didn’t take it seriously at all. There was no campaign to find him, not even any missing persons posters out up in the village we lived in. No police officer questioned my SB. One of his sisters came to our house to beg my SB if he knew anything to tell her but he genuinely knew nothing. About 10 years later his older brother was found dead in the local park of an overdose. 2 of his 3 sisters had addiction issues and the third (the one who came round to ours) emigrated to New Zealand when she was in her early 20s. Very sad and sometimes I think about what happened to him and googled his name but nothing ever appears 😞

jay55 · 20/03/2022 20:09

Yes, lad from my year at school disappeared. Body was identified years later (had been found in totally unrelated area).

Girl in my sister's class was just gone at 13, turned out she had been shipped off to be married. She was back at 18 with a couple of kids.

Blairwaldorfsbestbag · 20/03/2022 20:12

A girl who my partner went to school with went missing in 2003, she left her baby at home with family to pop to the shop .. 5 minutes away. Was never seen again.. she was only 17 and her baby 11 weeks. It’s devastating and something I think about often.

MumsMetHer · 20/03/2022 20:18

Someone close to me joined a cult. Didn't want to be found. I believe the police now know her whereabouts and are willing contact her if either parent's health seriously declines.

My father knew a man through work who had lost his wife in one of the very strict Muslim countries (maybe Saudi, but I can't recall with any certainty). They were there on business. He opened the door for his wife to get in the taxi first, and whilst he walked round to the other side, the taxi driver drove off. He never saw his wife again.

incompetentcervix · 20/03/2022 20:20

My friends brother went missing 30 years ago. He's never been found. We don't know why or what happened at all. Not knowing is horrific

VeryMuchFlaggingMinty · 20/03/2022 20:25

Yes...a friend's dad in the late 1980's. As per the cliche he went out for a packet of cigarettes early one evening and simply never came back.

Police were involved, even interpol as he had family overseas. Never found a trace of him or a body.

He missed his kids growing up to be lovely people and 6 beautiful grandchildren.

Friend's mum eventually went on to remarry very happily after the requisite time period has passed for the marriage to be dissolved on ground so abandonment.

noirchatsdeux · 20/03/2022 20:26

Yes. When I was about 13 I started at a new high school about 3 weeks after the new term had started...another girl started with me on the same day.

Less than a week later she'd disappeared. Next thing, she's the subject of a news report - believed to have run off with an older man. She was missing for the best part of year, ultimately discovered in the same city, less than a mile from her home...the place belonged to a relative of the man, every time the Police came to visit, she'd hide in a tiny cupboard that was concealed behind a bookcase.

She never returned to the school...I tried googling her to see if there was an update, but couldn't find anything.

Starlitexpress · 20/03/2022 20:31

Friend of a friend, walked out of the house, leaving everything behind, including money, phone and passport. Husband and grown up children now haven't seen her for more than 10 years.......

PaperMonster · 20/03/2022 20:37

My husband. For a few months. We’re no longer together. It was a traumatic time.

bunnypenny · 20/03/2022 20:38

My father knew a man through work who had lost his wife in one of the very strict Muslim countries (maybe Saudi, but I can't recall with any certainty). They were there on business. He opened the door for his wife to get in the taxi first, and whilst he walked round to the other side, the taxi driver drove off. He never saw his wife again.

Wtf?

Seemssounfair · 20/03/2022 20:38

My Uncle went missing many years ago, leaving his wife and 3 young children. He was an alcoholic and it was always assumed he had got into trouble and they waited for a knock on the door with bad news for many years. He turned up alive and well nearly 25 years later in the 1990s. He had a new partner and grown family.

There has been 3, unconnected, young lads who have gone missing locally over the last 3-4 years, each of their bodies were found eventually with no suspicious circumstances, one recently after being missing for nearly a year. Every single day he was missing his mum posted on local fb pages seeking information and asking him to come home. Not fascinating, just tragic.

NorthWestBuyer · 20/03/2022 20:41

I'm not convinced this person was officially missing but a colleague of mine went on holiday to Florida for 2 weeks. The day she was due back at work she messaged a manager to say she had pulled a neck muscle and would be off sick. She said she would send a drs note but never did and we never heard from her again. It took many, many months to end her employment contract. Letters were signed for at her address but never responded to. She lived with a husband and teenage children. It was bizarre. HR were clear that no one was permitted to visit her home or attempt to contact her informally as it could be considered harassment.

CIaireFraser · 20/03/2022 20:41

Yes, my brother.

He was living in London and his life was very chaotic. He was desperate for a new start, so we arranged for him to come and stay with me in while he looked for a job in my city. I'd been to the council and he was going to look at a flat that was coming up in a few weeks.

I sent him a train ticket and he texted me from the station on the day he was due to leave London to say he was on his way. I went to meet him from the train, but he didn't get off it.

That text from the station was the last I heard from him. That was almost 20 years ago. Nobody has heard from him or seen him since.

I'll never stop missing him or wondering what happened to him.

overreactionreally · 20/03/2022 20:42

Corrie mckeague
Claudia Lawrence
Ben needham
Andrew gosden

Alll devastating with no closure .

WeatherwaxOn · 20/03/2022 20:46

Not happened to me personally, but to people I know. Neither in the UK.

  1. Sibling with a history of MH problems went missing. A body was found in a remote spot several months later and confirmed to be the missing person.
  1. An elderly relative went missing. Small community and the person was well known and well liked with regular habits. They seem to have deviated from their normal routine and no trace of them has ever been found.
itssunnytoday · 20/03/2022 20:56

My sister had a friend when we were younger who's sister went missing when she was around 10, missing for 2 weeks until she randomly turned up in their front garden one day.. no idea where she was or why she was missing but quite scary