Buzz
Throughout history, there have been numerous individuals who mysteriously disappeared, seemingly erased from existence. These vanishings continue to intrigue us, driven by the mystery that surrounds them. However, we often desire some form of resolution. While these 10 cases may not have definitive answers, they demonstrate that new breakthroughs can arise even after years or even centuries of silence.
10. Ludwig Leichhardt
Ludwig Leichhardt, a 19th-century Prussian naturalist, spent his later years exploring and researching the Australian outback. In 1848, he embarked on an ambitious journey from Australia’s eastern to its western coast, but he was never seen again.
Rumors suggested that Leichhardt’s group was either killed by indigenous tribes or that they perished in a river crossing. Every few years, another brave explorer ventured out to search for the lost expedition. The best discovery made was a set of trees bearing the mysterious marking “L.”
The first concrete evidence of the expedition’s fate was discovered by an Aboriginal rancher in 1900. He found a 15-centimeter-long (6 in) brass plaque inscribed with “Ludwig Leichhardt 1848,” attached to a gun butt left in a boab tree marked with an “L.” It wasn’t until 2006 that historians could officially verify the authenticity of the nameplate.
Today, we know that Leichhardt made it at least two-thirds of the way across his journey. However, the tale of the plate’s discovery was passed down through oral tradition, and its exact location remains unclear. It is believed to have been found somewhere near Sturt Creek, indicating that Leichhardt was likely headed toward Lake Gregory. Modern scholars suggest that the explorer likely met his demise in the desert, but there is still hope that traces of his expedition may eventually be uncovered.
9. Charles Kingsford Smith
Sir Charles “Smithy” Kingsford Smith was one of Australia's most celebrated aviators. In 1928, he made history with the first-ever Trans-Pacific flight from the United States to Australia. He also achieved the first nonstop Trans-Tasman flight from Australia to New Zealand and the first nonstop flight across the Australian mainland.
In 1935, Kingsford Smith was attempting to break the speed record between England and Australia. Flying the Lady Southern Cross, he and co-pilot John Thompson Pethybridge were en route to Singapore when they disappeared over the Andaman Sea, near Myanmar. A year and a half later, a piece of airplane undercarriage and a wheel washed ashore on an island in southern Myanmar. Lockheed Martin later confirmed the wreckage belonged to the Lady Southern Cross, but the rest of the plane was never found.
In 2005, filmmaker Damien Lay claimed to have discovered the wreckage of the airplane. His evidence was a sonar image he believed showed the remains of the Lady Southern Cross. This claim was met with skepticism by some, including explorer Dick Smith and Kingsford Smith’s biographer, Ian Mackersey. Smith argued the site was full of debris, and the likelihood of the wreckage being the famous plane was just 1 in 1,000. Mackersey believed the Lady Southern Cross would have disintegrated upon impact and could not have survived for 70 years.
Despite these challenges, Lay intends to excavate the site with the support of the Kingsford Smith and Pethybridge families, as well as the Myanmar government.
8. Jean-Francois De Galaup De Laperouse
In the 18th century, England and France were locked in a fierce battle for dominance over the seas. Following Captain Cook's successful exploration of the Pacific, France was determined to catch up, leading Louis XVI to order a scientific voyage around the world.
The expedition was led by Comte Jean-Francois de Galaup de Laperouse, an experienced naval officer. In 1785, Laperouse set sail with 220 men aboard two ships: L’Astrolabe and La Boussole. The voyage was initially a success, with Laperouse visiting South America, the Hawaiian Islands, Alaska, Spanish California, Korea, Japan, Russia, and the Polynesian Islands—all within a span of less than three years.
By early 1788, Laperouse had reached Australia. He departed in March, but before leaving, he sent a report to the naval ministry—the last communication anyone would receive from him.
Numerous French ships made unsuccessful attempts to locate the missing expedition. It wasn’t until 1826 that the truth was revealed by chance when Irish sea captain Peter Dillon bought some swords belonging to L’Astrolabe on the Isle of Tikopia in the Solomon Islands. Further investigation traced the swords to Vanikoro Island, where locals spoke of two large shipwrecks.
It wasn’t until the 1960s that the wreck’s identity was confirmed. Several scientific expeditions took place over the following decades, each revealing more about the mystery. In 1999, archaeologists discovered the site where the crew had camped on Vanikoro. In 2003, divers found a remarkably well-preserved skeleton encased in sediment. The most recent mission took place in 2008, though more are likely to follow.
7. Ettore Majorana
Ettore Majorana was a brilliant student of Enrico Fermi, renowned for his groundbreaking work in mathematics and physics, particularly his research on neutrino masses. On March 25, 1938, Majorana set off on a boat trip to Naples, only to disappear without a trace.
Numerous theories emerged regarding Majorana’s vanishing. Some believed he took his own life, while others speculated he was either assassinated or kidnapped to prevent him from contributing to sensitive military projects. Another theory, proposed by Italian writer Leonardo Sciascia, suggested that Majorana simply wanted to abandon his former life and start anew, perhaps in a monastery.
In 2011, the investigation into Majorana’s disappearance was revived when the Attorney General’s Office in Rome began examining a witness account from the late 1940s. The witness described a man resembling Majorana living in Buenos Aires. Additionally, a forensic team analyzed a 1955 photograph of the man and discovered multiple striking similarities.
In 2015, the Attorney General’s Office officially closed the case regarding Majorana’s disappearance. Based on witness testimony and photographic evidence, it was concluded that Majorana was living in South America as recently as 1959. There was no evidence of any criminal activity related to his disappearance.
6. Herschel Grynszpan
For many years, the whereabouts of Herschel Grynszpan remained one of World War II’s most enduring mysteries. On November 7, 1938, the 17-year-old Jewish refugee shot and killed Nazi diplomat Ernst vom Rath in Paris. Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister, seized the moment and used the assassination as a catalyst to orchestrate Kristallnacht, a violent anti-Jewish pogrom across Nazi Germany that targeted Jewish people and businesses.
Grynszpan was apprehended by the Gestapo and transported to Germany, where he spent the following years being moved between prisons and concentration camps in both Germany and France. When World War II erupted, his whereabouts became uncertain, eventually leading to his complete disappearance. Some speculated that Grynszpan had managed to escape and live in hiding in Paris, but most believed he met his end at the hands of the Nazis, either murdered by the Gestapo or dying in a concentration camp. In 1960, he was legally declared dead, with May 8, 1945, designated as his official date of death.
The story took a new turn last year when a photograph was discovered in the archives of Vienna’s Jewish Museum. The image, taken in 1946, appeared to show Grynszpan in a German relocation camp. The photograph was randomly taken with many others, but it clearly captured the face of a man who multiple historians have positively identified as Herschel Grynszpan. A facial recognition test later confirmed his identity with a 95-percent probability.
5. Lloyd Lionel Gaines
In 1938, the United States Supreme Court issued a historic ruling in the case of Gaines v. Canada. Cy Woodson Canada, the registrar of the University of Missouri Law School, refused to admit Lloyd Lionel Gaines because he was Black, instead offering to fund his tuition at a law school in a neighboring state, in accordance with state law. Gaines took the university to court and won, forcing Missouri to either admit him or establish a separate law school for Black students.
Afterward, Gaines dedicated his time to delivering speeches at various NAACP chapters. On March 19, 1939, he left the fraternity house where he was staying in Chicago to purchase some stamps but was never seen again.
Gaines’s disappearance was never officially reported, and as a result, it was never thoroughly investigated. The outbreak of World War II soon overshadowed the case, and public interest eventually waned. The most widely accepted theories suggested he was either murdered by white supremacists or decided to start a new life in Mexico, weary of the attention his new fame had brought him.
In 2007, The Riverfront Times published an investigative report on Gaines, echoing a 1951 feature by Ebony magazine. Although the newspaper didn’t present much new information, it did offer circumstantial evidence that Gaines may have spent the remainder of his life in Mexico. The reporter spoke to Sid Reedy, a fraternity brother of Gaines, who recalled meeting with Professor Lorenzo Greene, Gaines’s mentor. Greene had told him that he spoke to Gaines by phone in the late 1940s while he was in Mexico. Greene’s son later corroborated the story.
4. Owain Glyndwr
The last native Welshman to hold the title of Prince of Wales, Owain Glyndwr is best remembered for leading a rebellion against England in the early 15th century. Although a follower recorded his death as occurring in 1415, the final years of Glyndwr’s life remain mysterious, as does the location of his final resting place.
Despite it being over 600 years since Glyndwr’s death, efforts continue to uncover where his burial site is. In 2004, author Alex Gibbon suggested that Glyndwr was buried beneath St. Cwrdaf Church in Carmarthenshire, Wales. He speculated that a vault was reserved under the church for distinguished individuals.
However, experts disputed this claim. Adrien Jones, president of the Owain Glyndwr Society, revealed that members had known the true burial site of the former Prince for years, thanks to one of his descendants. John Skidmore, a relative, shared that Glyndwr’s burial had been kept secret for 600 years. He claimed that the Welsh hero spent his final years with his daughter, Alice, in Mornington Straddle, Herefordshire, where he passed away and was buried.
3. HMS Terror
Franklin’s lost expedition was no longer lost when a team of researchers discovered the wreck of the HMS Erebus in 2014. This discovery occurred nearly 170 years after the ship and its crew vanished in the Arctic while attempting to chart the Northwest Passage. Yet, the mystery of the HMS Terror, the companion vessel to the Erebus, remained unresolved, as it too likely met a similar fate.
In 2016, with new funding and revitalized interest, the Arctic Research Foundation launched another expedition and successfully found the wreck of the HMS Terror, remarkably well-preserved. The wreck was located in Terror Bay, which had been named after the ship nearly a century earlier. However, experts had originally predicted the ship’s final resting place to be almost 100 kilometers (62 miles) further north, prompting a reevaluation of the previously accepted theories about the fate of the crew.
It was once believed that the men perished while attempting to reach a nearby trading post on foot. New theories now suggest that some survivors may have intentionally boarded the Terror, re-manned the HMS Erebus, and attempted to sail it south along the Back River. This theory has sparked new debates among researchers studying the Franklin expedition. Given the excellent condition of the HMS Terror, clues aboard the ship may hold the key to resolving the mystery in the future.
2. Bobby Dunbar
The disappearance of four-year-old Bobby Dunbar in Louisiana in 1912 sparked nationwide attention. The case took a dramatic twist in 1913 when the child was discovered in Mississippi, living with William Cantwell Walters and Julia Anderson. Both the Dunbars and Anderson claimed the boy as their own. Ultimately, the court ruled in favor of the Dunbars, with Walters being charged with kidnapping. The boy would go on to live as Bobby Dunbar for the rest of his life.
In 1999, Margaret Dunbar Cutright became intrigued by the story of her grandfather, but certain details from the family’s version didn’t align with the accounts found in old newspaper clippings. She embarked on an investigation, which eventually caught the attention of the Associated Press. The reporter convinced Margaret’s father, Bob Jr., Bobby Dunbar’s oldest son, to undergo a DNA test. When the test results were compared with those of Alonzo, Bobby’s brother, the two did not match. The boy in question from 1913 turned out to be Bruce Anderson.
A 2008 documentary revealed that the truth caused a divide within the Dunbar family but provided a sense of justice for the families of Julia Anderson and William Walters. As for the fate of the real Bobby Dunbar, Margaret believes the initial theory was likely correct—Bobby probably fell into Swayze Lake while fishing and was attacked by an alligator.
1. Felix Moncla & Robert Wilson
Even though US Air Force pilots Felix Moncla and Robert Wilson disappeared more than 60 years ago, their names continue to resonate within UFO circles. On November 23, 1953, during an attempt to intercept an aircraft over Lake Superior, their plane mysteriously vanished. The official explanation stated that Moncla had crashed into the lake while chasing a Canadian plane. However, UFO enthusiasts believe the event, known as the Kinross Incident, involved the pursuit of a UFO.
In 2006, a new chapter emerged when a group of divers calling themselves the “Great Lake Dive Company” (GLDC) claimed to have discovered the wreckage of the plane at the bottom of Lake Superior. However, their claims raised doubts, especially regarding the credibility of GLDC and the statements made by their spokesman, Adam Jimenez.
The Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), one of the largest UFO investigative organizations in the world, launched its own investigation into the claims. Their findings were unsettling—they found almost no verifiable information on GLDC or Adam Jimenez beyond the company’s website, leading them to conclude that the Great Lake Dive Company was not a legitimate entity and that their claims lacked any substantial evidence. When confronted, GLDC refused to provide any further details, citing security concerns due to alleged threats from unknown groups.
Many in the investigative community dismissed the Great Lake Dive Company as a hoax. However, conspiracy theorists saw their refusal to provide answers as further proof of a cover-up, suggesting that the true events of what happened on Lake Superior more than 60 years ago were being concealed.
