Unexplained Disappearances Around the World

Worldwide statistics on those who go missing can be fairly difficult to establish as there are many countries who simply either don't report the cases or don't make the information public. Specifically, most developing countries in places such as Africa, Asia and Latin America don't seem to be recording these incidents properly. However, with that being said, experts have been able to estimate that approximately 8 million If adults were to be included into that equation, it's not clear by how much the number would rise. It's worth pointing out though that far more individuals under the age of 21 seem to go missing than those above 21. In 2019, the United States of America stated that 161,108 people over the age of 21 went missing, while over 448,000 under that age went missing. It's worth pointing out that the vast majority of these incidents are solved in one way or another, but of course, there are occasions where the missing are never found. Taking United States data into account, the missing over 21 accounted for 26% of the total. Meaning, if the same situation was true for every other country, the estimated number of missing people worldwide per year could be over 10 million. However, official statistics don't exist for this question, so that number shouldn't be taken with any degree of confidence or certainty, and is missing a whole range of factors. I was also hoping to find official statistics on the number of individuals that go missing every year in a rural setting, but if they exist, I couldn't find them either. Perhaps relevant here though, is that the extremely rural state of Alaska records missing persons at almost twice that of the national average. Now for this first incident, we're going to have to travel back in time to the late 1800s, England. During this time, author and journalist Ambrose Gwyneth Beers in 1893 documented a disappearance that took place 20 years prior on the 3rd of September, 1873. The following is Ambrose's official account paraphrased. A shoemaker by the name of James Byrne Warson lived in Leamington, Warwickshire, England. His shop was located on one of the byways leading off the route to Warwick. His friends and his family said that James was an honest, humble man that was well liked within the community and in his inner sphere. Like many, as was the culture, James enjoyed the pub and could be often found spending time with his friends sharing a drink. Outside of this, James looked after his health and enjoyed running out in the countryside and he was quite proud of his abilities and stamina. This is something he would boast about and would share his experiences running to and from Coventry from Leamington, a distance of around 40 miles. James had made a friendly bet with a man inside the pub whose name has since been lost to history who didn't believe that he could do it. On the 3rd of September, 1873, James, the man, Barham Wise, a linen draper, and Harms and Burns, a photographer, decided to make the trip to Coventry. The three men were in a wagon while James was on foot, running. At this point, things are about to turn weird, so let's get bizarre. The men would later state that for several miles, James was getting on well and wasn't fatigued. The men in the wagon were a short distance behind James, but the area was full of hills and at times, James would be out of view for brief moments. All the while, the trio were jibing James, though this was out of endearment, when in one such moment, when James was out of view, they heard him utter a terrible cry, and as they approached, James was no longer on the road. The men would later state it was like he fell and vanished before hitting the ground. The men claimed to have searched around the road for a time, but after finding no trace of him, they returned to Leamington. They went straight to the local police station and told officers what had just transpired and were quickly taken into custody. The police came to the conclusion that their fantastical story was nonsense and that James must have met foul play by their hands. The authorities did investigate the case, but no trace of James was ever found, and they couldn't find any evidence that would pin his disappearance on the trio. Public opinion was divided over this because the men were of good standing in their community and were considered to be truthful, though of course their reputation was damaged after this event, though they did maintain that their account was truthful and their sequence of events never changed. Ambrose would state, if they had something to conceal, their choice of means is certainly one of the most amazing ever made by sane human beings. It's worth mentioning here that while Ambrose engaged in journalistic type work, he also authored many writings, some fictional and some non-fictional, and with it being so long ago, it's not clear if this disappearance was fictional or otherwise, but this has been hotly debated. However, what isn't fiction is the fact that Ambrose himself would come to disappear under unusual circumstances in 1913. Ambrose had an interesting and quite an eventful history. Being born in Ohio in 1842, he was the 10th of 13 children. His parents decided to only use the first letter of the alphabet to determine the names of their children. Abigail, Amelia, Anne, Addison, Aurelius, Augustus, Almeda, Andrew, Albert, Arthur, Edelia and Aurelia. Ambrose would later become a soldier and served during the American Civil War as part of the Union Army's 9th Indiana Infantry Regiment, and he served in several key battles. After the war, he settled in San Francisco and became a famous author. He enjoyed travelling too, where he would document incidents that he wished to write about, as well as gathering inspiration for his fictional writing. This was in addition to his newspaper journalism work. By 1913, Ambrose was 71, divorced, and was focusing mainly on his writing, where he decided to visit areas where he had been on the battlefield all those years prior. His final destination was Mexico, where he would ultimately come to disappear without a trace. Ambrose's daughter did initiate an investigation, but no clues ever surfaced as to his whereabouts or what had taken place. Whatever happened to Ambrose remains a mystery and likely will remain that way forever. Now at this point, let's make the trip to Canada. The Warburton family, consisting of parents Doreen and Tom, and their children Gary and Andrew made the trip from Hamilton, Ontario to see relatives in Beaver Bank near Dartsmouth in Nova Scotia. The year was 1986 and the family arrived at their destination on the 1st of July. At the time, they were staying with an Aunt Helen and the Bulger family on Tucker Lake Road. Living opposite the Bulger family was the Carr family, of which the parents had twins around the age of Andrew who was 9 years old. Andrew and Gary would always play with the twins when they came to town and this day was no difference. All four decided that they wanted to go swimming and all parents agreed to this and at 3.40pm, the boys set off for a 20-minute swim in the nearby lake. It's not clear why, but Andrew was delayed for reasons that I'm not aware of and the three boys headed off without him. The path to the lake was directly behind the Carr family's home in the woodland. This path branches off into two directions, going right will take you to Tucker Lake, while veering left will take you deeper into the woods. The twins' mother, Violet, was the last person to see Andrew at 4pm on the back step of her home, but after that he was never seen again. Andrew never made it to the lake and when the boys returned home for dinner, the alarm was raised when only three returned. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police were made aware of the situation and arrived at 5.45pm. All the while, the families and neighbours were already out mounting their own search for the boy. Another young boy by the name of Hob Macdonald was thought to be the last person to see Andrew. Hob had just returned home from a summer camp and told the authorities that he had seen Andrew earlier next to Beaverbank River. Hob recounted that Andrew took off his sneakers, crossed the stream and then put them back on. This surprised Doreen and Tom because Andrew was afraid of the river due to a prior incident involving leeches and as a result, they said that Andrew avoided rivers. 45 minutes after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrived, tracking dogs were deployed inside the woods at 6.30pm. Shortly thereafter, 100 searchers flooded the scene and entered the woods. This was a very quick response by all measures. But sadly, the searchers didn't find any clues and at no point did the dogs find his scent. On the 5th of July, 1986, the Brandon's son reported this. Four days after Andrew disappeared into dense woods outside Halifax, their nine-year-old is still missing despite the best efforts of hundreds of people who were combing the area looking for him. Search efforts were maintained overnight, with about 400 people scouring the woods near Beaverbank, about 12.5 miles northwest of Halifax. In addition to the people in the woods, another 200 to 300 volunteers were on the site ready to help teams of tired searchers coming out for a break. The search coordinator, Mike McKenzie, stated that the response from the locals had shown an overwhelming solidarity among the community. He said that they had over 1,000 people out in the woods at times. According to reports, the searchers fully expected to find the boy given the efforts, but this search was unsuccessful and Andrew was thought to have remained in the woods lost and alone. On the third day of the search, the weather, which had been fine previously, took a turn for the worst when heavy rains poured through the area, forcing searchers to pull out of the woods for a period of time. The weather was said to have improved the following day when the searchers poured back in. Mike thought that the teams had made some progress when they stumbled upon some small footprints that they believed were created by Andrew. The footprint seemed to indicate that he was alone, but they said that they soon lost the tracks. Two helicopters were up in the air above the finding, but unfortunately the pilots never made any sightings. The authorities must have been left a bit dumbfounded given the extensiveness and scope of the search, involving many hundreds and upwards of 1,000 searchers at times. But this didn't provide any clues other than the finding of the footprints, which presumably must have stopped at some point. Given the futility and growing desperate, calls were made and divers, along with 400 members of the Canadian military, descended on the area. It seems that there must have been some confusion among the searchers because on the 7th, the Brandon Sun reported this. Several searchers claim to have seen the missing boy since Tuesday, but the area is heavily populated with deer and other wildlife. Mackenzie said overzealous searchers may have mistaken them for a fleeting boy. Mistaking a boy for a deer sounds very odd to me, but I presume these mistakes can and do happen in wooded areas. Though I'd like to rely on and hear from those who've spent extended periods of time in the woods in regards to likelihood of several, or perhaps many, misidentification incidents such as this from a whole range of people. Staff Sergeant Smith said that the reports were probably mistaken, as he didn't believe that the boy could have travelled as far as the searchers were reporting. Certainly strange, but again, it's best to hear from experts on this in regards to the ease of which these misidentifications can occur. According to search organisers, this was the biggest search effort in the history of Nova Scotia, with more than 3,000 people from all walks of life, engineers to woodmen, had scoured over 30 square miles of the area. Many are trying to keep an air of optimism in the face of fading hope from others present. Mike Mackenzie said that the searchers are still hopeful because of the large amount of fresh water in the area, as well as berries and other edible plants. Many searchers have been sitting silently in the trees overnight in the hopes of spotting the boy. The writer of the article goes on to relate a similar incident that occurred a month prior. Another boy, 15 years of age called Kevin Schneiderman, disappeared in a wooded area in Ontario. Two weeks after he disappeared, he was found passed away floating in the river. What was odd about Kevin's disappearance was that searchers believed that they were closing in on him at many points during the search. Searchers reported finding what they believed to be his footprints and fires left behind. They said that his tracks indicated long strides as though he was sprinting away. The question I would pose is what was Kevin running away from? Did he feel scared or threatened? Did he believe that a nearby third party wanted to do him harm? Was Kevin severely confused and suffering from an irrational fear of the searchers? Perhaps he didn't know that they were searchers and instead thought that they were out to get him. If he had been spooked beforehand and then later heard footsteps near him, he could have ended up unknowingly running away from the searchers. It's strange, but I have seen this behaviour discussed by search and rescue personnel in other cases, or at least searchers theorising that's what may be occurring. In the case of Andrew, bad news arrived on the 9th, eight days after the initial disappearance. Hundreds of military personnel were reportedly in the woods non-stop, and one soldier came across a pair of small sneakers which were identified as belonging to Andrew. Obviously, at this point, this was where the coordinated search effort and the military personnel were now focused. According to the Brandon CERN, searchers found the body at about 5.20pm, 100m away from the shoes. The body was found in an alder thicket in a gully of marshy ground, about two miles away from the home the Warburton's were visiting. It appeared he'd just got tired and put his head down to go to sleep, and that's how we found him, said Constable Dwayne King. The autopsy would later reveal that Andrew was likely to have passed away as a result of hypothermia. This was a heartbreaking disappearance, and unfortunately, in the end, Andrew wasn't found in time, despite the search effort being as extensive and enormous in scope as it was. I wonder if the sightings early on were accurate, but similar to the theory on Kevin, Andrew was fearful, and as a result, was running away from the searchers, mistaking them as a threat. Ultimately, we will never know, and the best we can hope for now is that other families learn from this incident and don't leave their children to venture out into the woods alone. The country of France is the second largest in Europe, and generally speaking, it is difficult to report on cases from other countries whose primary language is not English. Obviously, this is because the reporting is done in the native tongue, introducing a language barrier. However, when a British national goes missing abroad in these countries, we often get reports too, as was the case when David Wood went missing in the French Alps. David was 61 years old at the time and was on holiday with his partner, Valerie Armstrong, in the Tinney Valley region of the Alps. David was a highly intelligent individual who worked as a computer engineer and was a father of two. On the 2nd of August, 2016, David had planned a solo hike in the morning from his location at the village of Marie to a small town almost four miles away. I want to make it clear at this point that David knew this area well and the couple had stayed in the area for six weeks every summer since 2010. While David was generally in good health, he did suffer from mild hypertension, but in preparation for his holiday, he had gone on hikes every day to build up his fitness. This planned hike, apparently, is a common one that isn't too demanding on the body and offers some great sights, which presumably explains its popularity. The route runs through a valley next to a It's at this stage that things start to take a strange turn. An hour had passed since David took off and Valerie called his mobile phone to see how he was getting on. He said that he was enjoying himself and that everything was okay and that he was on his way back and was approximately 30 minutes away. After this time had lapsed, David still hadn't returned, so Valerie called him again. David said that he was tired and had sat down to take a rest, but still maintained that he was about 30 minutes away. This was the last time that anyone would ever hear from David and every call thereafter went unanswered. Valerie stated he was supposed to be back by 2.30pm in the afternoon since he had a conference call booked. He had to be back, it is completely odd that he went so far. After David failed to return and was no longer answering the phone, Valerie reported him as missing to the local authorities. The police arrived in good time and with them came helicopters, search dogs and hundreds of volunteers. David was seen on the path that he was hiking by a couple on a motorbike. He stopped them and asked them for directions to Marie. The couple said that he'd been hiking in the wrong direction, so they pointed him the correct way. He seemed so confused, the couple said. David's son, Danny, who was 32 at the time, quickly flew out to the area with his brother and stated, if he fell on the path or just off the path, he would have been found. The forest nearby is very dense and although he is quite an inquisitive person, he would not put himself in any unnecessary risk, so walking deep into it seems highly unlikely, especially as he knew that he had to be back home soon. These areas have also been heavily searched. One theory was that he may have fallen into the river, but authorities stated that it is unlikely that the rivers would have carried him away, as it hadn't rained in over a week and the current wasn't strong enough. After around three weeks of searching, no trace of David was ever found. The dogs never picked up his scent, those on foot never found any clues to indicate where he might have gone, and the helicopters never made any potential identifications either. David seemed to have vanished without leaving a trace behind. One theory speculated that because David acquired ear infections rather easily, he may have gained a bad case of that, leading to confusion and dizziness. Another stated that the sun might have affected him negatively or perhaps that he'd fallen and had a concussion. Regardless, whatever happened here left no trace or indication of what it might have been. It's not clear what happened to David, but nothing has ever surfaced. To finish, here is one last incident where unfortunately, less information was made available, but nevertheless, the details we do have are simply bizarre. Roger Bainbridge, who was 67 years old at the time, disappeared whilst on a holiday to Greece while visiting his sister, Maggie. Specifically, Roger had travelled to the island of Paxos and from there went on a solo day trip to Anti-Paxos, which requires a ride on a ferry to reach the destination. This was on the 26th of September, 2013, and it was at some point during this hike that Roger disappeared without a trace. The island is tiny, with an area of two square miles, but even so, Roger could not be located. Roger could definitely be placed on the island, as others in the area had seen him and interacted with him. He had a conversation with some of the hikers who walked with him for a short distance. Also, it's not like Roger had never hiked before, he had a lot of experience hiking and was a fell hiker in the Lake District, back in England. The police were notified and joined the locals who were already searching the island. A helicopter with thermal imaging equipment also joined the search, but again, no sign of Roger was found. Roger's son, Ian Bainbridge, said this. Time is of the essence, we just need to know what's going on. Not knowing anything is scary, we are trying to keep as calm as possible. None of the most likely explanations add up. If he had gone swimming and got into trouble, then some of his belongings would have been found on the beach, it's just bizarre. A year later, Roger had still not been found and Ian said, we're no further forward really, it's totally bizarre. We are just totally confused and amazed that we've not heard anything in a whole year. There's been nothing found, no body, no trace of dad, no credible theory really. We're still left with a lot of questions which realistically in this life, we may never get any answers to. It's worth mentioning that officers from the UK also made the trip to Greece to see if they could assist in the ongoing case, but they too failed. This case was described as an absolute mystery and even seven years later remains unexplained. Thank you for watching. If you found the video interesting, then please do leave a like and subscribe if you haven't already, it helps me a lot. If not, then feel free to leave a dislike, I'm just looking for your honest opinion, so do share. And do share your thoughts on the disappearances discussed. I'd also just like to say a special thank you to my patrons who keep this channel moving forward, so thank you very much for your support. I hope that you've had a great day or evening depending on where you are. Be safe guys, and I'll see you next time. Peace.