Buzz
While most missing persons are usually located safe and sound within a short span, some, unfortunately, are discovered lifeless. Often, when someone leaves, the motive is clear—whether it's to escape something (such as debt or law enforcement) or to pursue something else (a new relationship or a fresh beginning).
It’s extremely uncommon for someone to vanish without a trace, but on rare occasions, even well-known individuals seem to disappear inexplicably. Here, we examine some truly perplexing cases.
10. John Lansing Jr.
In 1829, John Lansing Jr., former Chief Justice of the New York State Supreme Court, stepped out to mail a letter and mysteriously vanished. Lansing had enjoyed a distinguished legal career. He served in the Congress of the Confederation in 1785 and participated in the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Despite struggling with a stammer, which hindered his political career, Lansing still ascended to the position of Chancellor of New York in 1801. In 1800, he oversaw People v. Weeks, the first documented murder trial in American legal history.
On the night of his disappearance, December 12, 1829, John Lansing left his Manhattan hotel to send a letter by boat. It was the last time anyone saw him. Several theories emerged about what happened to him: some speculated he accidentally fell off the dock, others believed he was mugged and murdered, with his body hidden, while a more sinister theory suggested he was assassinated by political adversaries. This last theory gained credibility when the grandson of publisher Thurlow Weed claimed his grandfather had evidence that Lansing was killed by powerful political figures, though he never revealed their identities.
It’s unlikely the truth will ever be uncovered, and Lansing’s body has never been recovered. However, there remains an empty tomb in his hometown of Albany, New York, with his name engraved on it, waiting for him to return home.
9. Solomon Northup
Solomon Northup, author of the acclaimed book Twelve Years a Slave, vanished without a trace in 1857. His book, later adapted into an Oscar-winning film in 2013, details the true story of his kidnapping and eventual sale into slavery. His brutal treatment under the tyrant Edwin Epps makes for particularly harrowing reading. Northup's book was an instant success, selling 30,000 copies within its first two years.
Following his escape, Northup reportedly became involved in the Underground Railroad, helping other slaves flee to freedom, and spent years trying, unsuccessfully, to prosecute those who had kidnapped him. In Washington, DC, he was initially denied the right to testify in his case due to his race. Eventually, he was permitted to file his suit in New York, but after several delays, the case was dismissed.
In 1857, he set off on a speaking tour in Canada and was never seen again. Despite a letter from 1863 claiming he was still alive, no further information emerged. Various theories exist about his fate: some suggest he became a Union Army spy and was captured and killed, others believe he was kidnapped and re-enslaved, or perhaps he simply wandered off and died in obscurity, buried in an unmarked grave.
Regardless of what ultimately happened to Solomon Northup, his contributions to the abolition of slavery and to the moral awakening of the United States and the world continue to echo long after his disappearance.
8. James William Boyd
In 1865, Captain James William Boyd, a Confederate officer, was freed after being captured by the Union. He was supposed to meet his son and travel to Mexico, but he mysteriously disappeared. A conspiracy theory emerged claiming that he was killed after being mistaken for John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln. Boyd was said to resemble Booth and share the same initials, although this lacks strong evidence. The theory has been proposed, dismissed, mocked, and fictionalized by many historians and writers, most of whom have relegated Captain Boyd to a side story in others' narratives.
What is known is that Boyd was held as a prisoner of war by the Union until February 1865, when he was released to return home and care for his seven children, as his wife had passed away during his imprisonment. His son allegedly received a letter instructing him to meet Boyd in Brownsville, Texas, but Boyd never showed up, and no further communication was ever received.
7. Charley Ross
In 1874, four-year-old Charley Ross was playing with his older brother Walter in their garden in Philadelphia when they were lured into a horse-drawn carriage. While five-year-old Walter managed to escape further down the street, Charley was taken and was never seen again.
Charley Ross's kidnapping is significant for two key reasons: it marked the first well-documented case of a ransom note being sent in the United States, and it also led to a shift in the legal system. Before this, kidnapping was considered a misdemeanor, but in 1875, Pennsylvania reclassified it as a felony.
In total, 23 ransom letters were sent to the Ross family, demanding $20,000. The authorities, inexperienced in dealing with kidnappings, further complicated matters when the mayor’s office offered a reward of $20,000 for Charley's safe return. This led to a flood of false sightings, tips, and hoaxes from people eager to claim the reward, making the search for Charley even more difficult. Even years later, individuals claiming to be Charley showed up at the Ross family home.
The case took a twist when two men were shot by police during a robbery. One of the men, Joseph Douglas, confessed to being involved in the kidnapping. However, both men died at the scene before they could provide any additional information. One of their accomplices was tried and convicted of complicity in the abduction, but he never disclosed Charley’s whereabouts or what happened to him.
In 2012, 22 of the ransom letters were uncovered. The following year, they were sold at auction for $20,000, ironically the same amount that had been demanded in the ransom.
6. William Cantelo
William Cantelo, the inventor of an early machine gun prototype, was known to operate a laboratory in the basement of the pub he ran in Southampton, England. Neighbors frequently reported hearing what sounded like rapid gunfire emanating from below. In the 1880s, Cantelo informed his sons that he was going on a business trip to sell his new invention, but after that, he disappeared without a trace.
Initially, it was believed that Cantelo had met with some sort of mishap during his travels. However, the mystery deepened when his sons came across a photograph of another inventor, Hiram Maxim, whose likeness to Cantelo was striking. Maxim is credited with creating the Maxim Gun, a significant advancement in machine gun technology.
Cantelo’s sons were convinced that Maxim might have been their father and hired a private investigator to uncover the truth, but their efforts came to no avail. There is some evidence suggesting that Maxim had visited Southampton and possibly met Cantelo—though it's still uncertain whether he was Cantelo himself. Regardless, Maxim went on to amass great wealth, while Cantelo’s sons were left with a pub riddled with bullet holes in the basement.
5. Louis Le Prince
Louis Le Prince, a key figure in the birth of cinema, is often mentioned alongside the Lumiere Brothers and Thomas Edison. As a young man, he was captivated by the work of Jacques Daguerre (known for the Daguerreotype process) and became intrigued by photography, eventually receiving a patent for his Le Prince Single-lens Cine Camera in 1888, even before Edison.
Despite his groundbreaking contribution to film, Le Prince vanished under mysterious circumstances in 1890. After boarding a train in Dijon destined for Paris, he disappeared without a trace. Various theories abound regarding his fate, from the mundane, such as suicide due to financial ruin, to the more speculative, including suggestions that he deliberately disappeared to avoid a scandal involving his sexuality, or that his brother may have killed him over a dispute about their mother's will. Le Prince’s widow even alleged that Thomas Edison orchestrated a hit to eliminate him and secure the credit for the invention of the motion picture.
Regardless of the mystery surrounding his disappearance, one thing is certain: Louis Le Prince’s Cine Camera captured the world’s first moving images in the famous Roundhay Garden Scene of 1888.
4. Flannan Isles Lighthouse Keepers
The three lighthouse keepers stationed at the Flannan Isles Lighthouse, situated on Scotland’s remote Flannan Isles, vanished on December 26, 1900, and have never been seen again. It was against the rules for all three to leave their posts at the same time, especially during a storm when the lighthouse would have been crucial for guiding ships through treacherous seas. So, what could have caused them to abandon their duties?
What is known is that when the relief keeper arrived, he found the lighthouse completely abandoned. Further investigation revealed that the men had been working right up until December 15, as indicated by their logs. A ship passing by the lighthouse on that night reported the lamp was not lit, an important fact that was not recognized at the time.
Upon inspection, the light itself was found to be in perfect working condition.
We may never truly know what happened to the three lighthouse keepers, although several theories have been suggested. One theory proposes that, after previously being fined for not securing equipment, the men went together to secure everything ahead of an approaching storm. They were either swept off the rocks by a giant wave or blown over the cliff by a fierce gale. Another theory posits that two keepers ventured out to check the ropes, and when they didn't return, the third went in search of them, only to meet the same fate. In 1912, the English poet Wilfred Wilson Gibson published a poem, “Flannan Isle,” which imagined a more enigmatic end, filled with images of overturned chairs, untouched meals, and supernatural overtones, although these were never supported by any factual evidence.
3. Ambrose Small
Ambrose Small, a wealthy Canadian millionaire and theater magnate, disappeared on December 2, 1919, from his office at the Grand Opera House in Toronto, Ontario, the same day the sale of his theaters was set to close. Small was eager to see the deal through, pushing the signing date forward by two weeks.
Despite the sale bringing him over $1 million, Small never withdrew any of the funds, and the money remained in the bank when his disappearance was discovered. His wife did not report him missing, believing he was simply ‘in the arms of a designing woman.’ It wasn't until January 3, a month later, that his disappearance was finally reported in the press.
At the time, several theories circulated about what happened to Small, including one that suggested his wife had murdered him and disposed of his body in the furnace at the Grand Theatre. Another theory proposed that the police were complicit in his disappearance, helping him vanish without a trace.
2. Bobby Dunbar
In 1912, four-year-old Bobby Dunbar disappeared while on a family vacation in Louisiana, leaving his family frantic with worry.
Hundreds of volunteers joined in the search, scouring the riverbanks, cutting open the bellies of alligators, and even using dynamite in an attempt to force the lake to reveal the boy's body. Bobby seemed to have vanished without a trace until, eight months later, he was discovered alive and well in the care of William Cantwell Walters from Mississippi.
Walters was convicted of kidnapping despite his insistence that the child was actually his nephew. Upon the child's return to his mother, she reportedly cried out, 'Thank God, it is my boy,' before fainting in relief.
William Walters was found guilty of child abduction and sentenced to life imprisonment, though he served only two years. In 2004, DNA testing revealed that the boy 'rescued' from Walters was not Bobby Dunbar, but likely the nephew Walters had claimed. The fate of Bobby remains uncertain, though the most plausible explanation is that he drowned in the river on the day he vanished.
1. Belle Gunness
Belle Gunness, a notorious Norwegian-American serial killer, disappeared from her farm in Indiana on April 28, 1908, after claiming the lives of as many as 40 victims. Through methods that would now be recognized as catfishing, Belle established relationships with men who responded to her personal ads seeking investors for potential romantic partnerships. She corresponded with her victims for months before luring them to her farm, where they brought their life savings in cash, often without informing anyone of their destination.
The scheme proved shockingly effective, with several men, many of whom were nostalgic for their homeland of Norway, showing up at her doorstep carrying $1,000 or more in paper-wrapped bundles, only to disappear without a trace, never to be seen again.
At one point, it was believed that Belle had perished in a fire at her home, where authorities discovered the remains of three charred bodies, presumed to be her children, and a badly burned female torso. Her on-and-off partner, Ray Lamphere, was arrested, questioned, and charged with arson. However, further investigation at the farmhouse unearthed numerous bodies and body parts that had no connection to Lamphere.
It was later suggested that the headless torso found at the scene did not belong to Gunness but to her missing housekeeper. It is true that Gunness had withdrawn substantial sums of money from her bank shortly before the fire. Lamphere allegedly confessed before his death that he had helped Gunness start the fire and had driven her to the train station, assisting her in her escape. Despite numerous reports of sightings afterward, her whereabouts remain unknown.
