Buzz
Although many people vanish without leaving any trace, with various theories attempting to explain why or how they disappear, there are some peculiar cases where a strange common factor exists. These involve the sudden emergence of an eerie, cloud-like mist or fog that vanishes as quickly as it arrived, taking those it envelops with it.
Not every case of these mysterious disappearances ends with the individuals vanishing without a trace and never being seen again. In some instances, these events seem to act as a type of portal, instantly transporting their victims across vast distances. Below are ten of the most perplexing incidents involving such strange, mist-like phenomena.
10. Businessman Transported Thousands Of Miles - 1959
After checking out of a roadside hotel in Bahia Blanca, Argentina, a businessman entered his car and prepared to resume his long journey home. Almost immediately after settling into his seat and starting the engine, a dense, white mist appeared out of nowhere and seemed to surround his vehicle.
He couldn't see anything beyond the fog pressing against the car windows. A sense of panic began to rise, and he thought he might have even blacked out, as the next moment, he found himself standing in a field beside a desolate road, far from any familiar place. His car was nowhere to be found, nor the hotel he had just left behind.
A passing heavy truck jolted him back to reality, and he hurried to the side of the road to flag it down. He asked the driver for a ride to Bahia Blanca so he could find his car. The driver appeared astonished. He informed the businessman that Bahia Blanca was over 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) away, and they were currently in Salta. The businessman glanced at his watch and was stunned to see only minutes had passed.
The driver then took the businessman to the nearest police station. Upon hearing his strange account, the police contacted their colleagues in Bahia Blanca. To their astonishment, the officers there confirmed that the businessman had indeed stayed at the hotel. Even more chilling, when a policeman went to check the registration of the businessman’s car, he found it parked outside the hotel. Remarkably, the engine was still running, and the keys were still in the ignition.
9. Girl Mysteriously Transported Miles From Home - 1968
Graciela del Lourdes Cimenez, an 11-year-old girl, was enjoying a typical summer day in August 1968, playing outside her home with friends in the small town of Cordoba, Argentina. She later recalled a ‘strange white cloud’ that suddenly appeared and moved directly toward where she was standing.
She tried to turn around and run back home, but as she did, she realized she could no longer see her house. In fact, nothing was visible except for the strange white mist that now seemed to enclose her from every direction.
Before long, she found herself in an unfamiliar, bustling square. She noticed many children around, though none were familiar to her. Not knowing where she was, she approached the first house she came across and knocked on the door. After explaining that she was lost, the surprised residents told her they were in Plaza Espana, a city far from her home.
8. Couple Unconscious For Two Days - 1968
In May 1968, several months before Graciela's strange experience, Dr. Gerado Vidal was driving with his wife through the area of Chascomus, Argentina, when a mysterious cloud appeared to engulf their vehicle.
In what felt like the blink of an eye, both Geraldo and his wife regained consciousness in their parked vehicle, now in daylight. Even more astonishing, they discovered that 48 hours had passed, and they were no longer in Argentina, but instead on a quiet road in Mexico. They were now 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles) from where they had been. As a final surprise, their car still had a full tank of gas.
No explanation was ever found for what happened to the husband and wife, but scorch marks on their car suggested it had been exposed to heat for an extended period. Some researchers have proposed that they may have been transported to Mexico almost instantly after being trapped in the fog (as unlikely as this theory seems), where they remained in the heat for the next two days until they regained consciousness. (It is assumed their windows were down.)
7. Pilot Disappears Into Misty Cloud - 1914
Not every disappearance involving strange white mist results in the individuals returning to share their experiences. One such case is that of Chilean Air Force pilot First Lieutenant Alejandro Bello Silva, who vanished into a mysterious mist and was never heard from again in 1914.
The young and skilled pilot was participating in a series of examination exercises when witnesses saw his plane fly into a 'strange cloud formation.' They expected the plane to emerge shortly after, but when several minutes passed without any sign of it, they became deeply concerned. Despite an extensive search, neither the plane nor Silva was ever found. It was as if he had flown into the cloud and simply vanished into thin air.
The disappearance became a major news story in Chile, and the search for his plane was periodically revived by various individuals. Interestingly, a phrase was coined in Chilean culture based on this incident to describe people who vanish without a trace on their way somewhere. These individuals are said to be 'more lost than Lieutenant Bello.'
6. Entire Regiment Vanishes - 1915
Around a year after the baffling disappearance of Alejandro Bello Silva, amidst the mud, death, and chaos of World War I’s trench warfare that ravaged much of Europe in 1915, an entire regiment of the British Army seemed to vanish entirely without a trace.
Later accounts would describe how the regiment marched toward a strange, low-lying brown cloud that blocked their path. They had been advancing toward enemy forces as part of the Gallipoli Campaign. The opposing side had been forced back by the regiment’s advance, and the battle-induced fire in the nearby woods intensified. The regiment continued to push forward.
Once the final man of the regiment was enveloped by the cloud, it was said to have begun to drift away—against the wind. However, when the cloud finally disappeared, there was no sign of the hundreds of British soldiers that had been expected. Instead, only the ground remained. It was as if the soldiers had vanished without a sound or a struggle.
It was assumed that Turkish forces had captured the soldiers, but they consistently denied this. In 1965, Frederick Reichardt publicly shared the few details that are known about the soldiers' fate. Notably, the detail about the cloud moving against the wind caught the attention of UFO researchers, leading to debate within the UFO community about whether this could have been a mass abduction.
5. Fighter Pilot Disappears Into Mysterious Cloud - 1952
In a case similar to that of Lieutenant Silva, Commander John Baldwin, an experienced fighter pilot, flew into a peculiar cloud while patrolling the skies during the Korean War in March 1952.
A full squadron conducted an extensive search of the area for several hours, but no sign of a crash was found, nor were any distress signals or emergency calls received. Baldwin was flying an F-86 Sabre at the time of his presumed disappearance.
Commander Baldwin is not the only pilot to go missing during the Korean War. In fact, the aerial combat between US and Soviet fighter jets during this time marked the first major use of such advanced fighter planes in one-on-one engagements. Many of the pilots who were shot down disappeared and were presumed to have been captured or killed. What sets Baldwin's case apart, however, is the fact that his plane was never recovered, and he wasn't engaged in battle at the time of his disappearance.
4. Family Enters Mist and Is Abducted - 1974
In 1974, after returning home to Essex from a visit to his wife's parents, John and Susan Day, along with their three children, realized that their drive had taken over three hours longer than expected. Even more perplexing, they had no memory of why their trip had taken so long. Following the family's unsettling experiences with intense nightmares and general sleep disturbances, John agreed to undergo hypnotic regression to uncover what had truly occurred that night during their journey home.
The results of the regression session revealed that about 30 minutes into their journey, the family drove into an unusual mist that appeared out of nowhere. In the distance, an intense light glowed in the fog, and when the light hit the car, it lifted off the ground. The family and their vehicle were taken aboard a strange craft, where they were examined by Nordic-looking beings in tight-fitting outfits, who carried out various tests and procedures on them.
3. The Vanishings at Mount Nyangani
The nickname “The Mountain That Swallows People” perhaps speaks volumes about the mysterious Mount Nyangani, located within Zimbabwe's Nyanga National Park. This place has become infamous over the years due to a string of unexplained disappearances, making it a place shrouded in mystery.
A curious aspect of these disappearances is the thick, cloudy mist that often envelopes the area. Many local legends link this mist to the spirit world, suggesting that strange and otherworldly beings reside within this foggy terrain.
Mainstream science attributes the mist, which frequently hovers over the mountain peaks of the park, to weather and atmospheric phenomena. However, even the weather is steeped in local folklore. Many locals believe the weather around the mountains has a life of its own, creating strong winds and dense fog at the most inopportune moments, leaving hikers disoriented and often lost—never to be seen again.
2. The Black Mist of Casa Grande Mountain
Locals believe that after nightfall, the roads and paths surrounding Casa Grande Mountain in Arizona become shrouded in a peculiar black mist. According to legend, anyone caught within this mist will experience overwhelming unease or, more mysteriously, be transported to another dimension or time.
These tales are thought to stem from the Hohokam Native American tribes, who once inhabited the region before mysteriously disappearing around AD 1100. The remnants of their civilization still stand, with some ruins remaining an enigma to this day. The legends suggest that the black mist of Casa Grande Mountain embodies the ancient, living spirit of the desert, possessing its own will and demanding respect at all times.
1. Tokyo Bank Manager Sees Car Vanish1963
One of the most unusual disappearance stories tied to strange, misty clouds involves Mr. Kinoshita, who was managing the Kashika branch of Fuji Bank in Tokyo at the time. On the morning of November 19, 1963, he was driving with two other passengers, a staff member and a potential client, heading to a golf course.
During the drive, Kinoshita noticed a strange black car ahead of them. Though there was nothing obviously odd about the vehicle, he couldn’t help but focus on it. He observed an elderly man seated in the back, casually reading a newspaper as they drove.
Suddenly, “a puff of something gaseous, like white smoke or vapor,” burst out from somewhere near the black car, completely surrounding it. As the fog dispersed, the car was gone. Kinoshita later estimated that the entire event, from the appearance of the mist to the car’s disappearance, lasted only a few seconds.
