Strange disappearances and crimes

[ENoeuf]

Started this as we’ve veered off topic on the AG thread.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/4450831-New-development-on-missing-Andrew-Gosden-case

@SunshineOnKeith I wondered if maybe the police knew something too but the family don't appear aware if they do. How did no one see her? I don't walk my dog there often as it's just too busy and too much stimulation for her. There would have been so many people about at that time on that day. There's no real detail, who had she been with, how was she when she left, happy, sad a bit drunk? There's details might be helpful to jog people's memories.

I looked briefly at that Reddit about unsolved missing person cases -- it's very disturbing, just as a warning. Particularly disturbing photos purporting to be the missing person.

Nicola Payne for me - she was 18 when she went missing on her walk home in Coventry, 30 years ago.

www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/vigil-held-nicola-payne-30-22452376

Her mum and dad ran the care home my Gran was in in the late 90s/early 00s and I just wish they could get closure about what happened to her. Someone must know.

[quote liveforsummer]@SunshineOnKeith I wondered if maybe the police knew something too but the family don't appear aware if they do. How did no one see her? I don't walk my dog there often as it's just too busy and too much stimulation for her. There would have been so many people about at that time on that day. There's no real detail, who had she been with, how was she when she left, happy, sad a bit drunk? There's details might be helpful to jog people's memories. [/quote]
Totally agree!

I find the lack of detail bizarre.
Porty seafront would have been rammed on NYD and there must be CCTV outside the various businesses and along the promenade. It's inconceivable that there's no further information. Her posters are all over Edinburgh. It very sad

The disappearance of Bobby Dunbar in 1912.

Stumbled across it on Tik Tok the other day. Toddler from a wealthy family went missing on a fishing trip near a swamp. Months later a travelling handyman with a small boy was questioned by the police. The boy was identified as Bobby despite an unmarried poor woman coming forward saying he was her son, and she had given consent for him to travel with the man to see family for a few days. He was ‘reunited ‘with his parents. She couldn’t afford to fight the case. The handyman was imprisoned for a couple of years for kidnapping.
Years later a family DNA search proved that the boy had never been Bobby Dunbar despite that family’s claims. They never found him.

Owen Harding. His story has stayed with me because it was right at the beginning of lockdown. Phone signal stopped after talking on the cliff then no trace.

Yes Owen Harding is heartbreaking and I can’t help but feel the efforts to search for him would have been impacted by lockdown 1. I’ve always assumed that either he had a horrible accident trying to get to his girlfriend’s or he died by suicide.
We know so much more now about how social isolation affects us and particularly teenagers.

A young woman from my town, Georgina Gharsallah. Went missing a few years back. She was rumoured to have been involved in drugs /prostitution so perhaps that's why her case didn't get the publicity?

Andrew Gosden, how come there's no cctv of him after he arrived at Kings Cross?

A witness reported hearing a woman scream and saw a parked car where Nicola disappeared from. Two men (one owned the car) were arrested, I think they even went to court but were acquitted due to lack of evidence.

There are a lot of similarities to Claudia Lawrence - locally lots of people know who is responsible but no one will talk.

[quote QueenofLouisiana]@ShaneTheThird re: Corrie, a body was found in several bin bags in a river in my local town- around 20 miles from where he vanished. There was a huge amount of speculation that it would be him. It wasn’t. It remains another unsolved mystery.[/quote]
I'm from this town too - i thought they'd arrested someone in relation to the bin bag findings?

Charlene downs
She went missing in Blackpool and has never been found
Police think her flesh went into kebabs and her bones into grouting
Two men where cleared of her murder
She came from a family who,to say the least,had rumours circling them and if she had been found,ss would have put her into care
I often think about her and how badly she was let down by everyone-her family,the police,the media,ss-everyone

I think about Charlene Downes too. Poor young girl was so vulnerable, her home life was far from protective and she has been let down so badly.

The Peter Bergman case is fascinating. I watched a You Tube documentary on it.

He checked into a hotel under a false name. Spent the next few days disposing of the property that he had with him i.e. clothes and other personal effects. Careful not to be seen by c.c.t.v. whilst doing so.

His body was found on the beach in Ireland. He died of natural causes. He was also at the end of his life and didn't have long to live.

Who was he really ?

He finished up the last few days of his life as if he was the subject of a spy novel.

I've seen the Peter Bergman film, it's fascinating. There's CCTV of him with a purple carrier bag that is full when he leaves the hotel and empty when he returns and no one knows why.

It looks like he went to the beach and undressed in order to drown himself but he actually died of a heart attack. How could he plan that?

And no one knows who he is - not a single friend, acquaintance, neighbour, co-worker, ever came forward. He even bought postage stamps in Ireland so he must have contacted someone.

How can anyone be so completely anonymous?

@JackieLavertysFreezer

Andrew Gosden, how come there's no cctv of him after he arrived at Kings Cross?

There probably was CCTV but the police took too long to think to get it by which time the footage had been destroyed/taped over as was the way then

Annie Borjesson's death is very sad and mysterious

www.ayradvertiser.com/news/18293849.mystery-ayrshire-death-files-marked-secret-swedish-gov/

There's a great podcast on it

Not sure if anyone has mentioned Luke Durbin.... Disappeared in Ipswich.... I've met his Mum and she's a lovely lady.... 💔

The other one that sticks in my memory is from the Missing programme on the BBC when the man drove off from the BBQ and totally vanished. The police spent a number of weeks looking for him and his car was eventually found in deep undergrowth in the middle of a roundabout... His family all turned up when they heard and it was heartbreaking...

Should have said car and body...

Lana Purcell from Camden has always been a weird one, she just vanished one day, hasn’t been seen or heard from since, she had a young daughter at the time. As far as I know she was an addict, which makes it stranger imo.

There's a podcast called The Missing that covers British missing persons cases, some of them have barely been covered by the media. Others are more well known like Luke Durbin and Damien Nettles.

Some are older people and family members are left trying to get their name out there as the police aren't interested. I was shocked at how many of these cases I had never heard of.

The first episode is about Andrew Gosden.

It’s so sad. There has been definite police assumptions over the years about victims and which deserve greater media coverage. I used to live in a town where a girl the same age, disappeared at the same time as Molly Dowler. Her mother made a massive campaign locally to try to trace her but police weren’t interested at all as they had an argument before she left. It’s like they weren’t worthy of support because the family wasn’t as “respectable”

The Irish Independent newspaper has an article today on a missing woman, Bernadette ( Bernie ) Cooper ( nee Hughes ).
She lived in London and Spain but was originally from Monaghan. She was involved in the pub trade in London and Benalmadena.
She disappeared in 1993.
Her relatives are appealing for information hence the newspaper article.
I have never heard of her before reading of the case this morning.

@Tillymintpolo from the outside (ie with no knowledge of any evidence) I'm not sure about Robert Black for the disappearance of Genette Tate. She was older than all his other confirmed victims. Also, her body has never been found. Robert Black didnt care about his victims being found. Once he was done he dumped his victims' bodies without significant concealment.

Peter Tobin was also in the area at around the same time. Genette Tate was in his victim age range and he did conceal the bodies of his victims but so far as I am aware he was more predatory and didnt snatch his victims off the street.

There have been quite a few cars filled with bodies found in lakes and rivers in the US some dating back decades. It's just sad to think that families have been wondering for years where these people went and they were there all the time. It's sad.