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People Who Just Disappear (Go Missing)

escargot said:
Just carrying a phone doesn't mean you have to look at it. :wink2:

Techy and I have a tracker so we can keep an eye on where each other is. It's helpful in our circumstances. I really wouldn't want to be without that.
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I quite like having my phone so that I can take photographs when the mood strikes me. I have it set to silent so I don't hear alerts coming in. But I am old enough to forget to take it with me quite often. My kids, when trying to get in touch with me only to find that I went out without my phone, have been known to shout "it's called a mobile for a reason!"
 
catseye said:
Try wearing it in the inside pocket of a jacket that's really hard to unzip, worn under a topcoat which fastens with buttons. It also means that I have to REALLY want to take that photograph.
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Same applies when cycling. You have to find somewhere safe to stop, remove the gloves and jam them up your armpit, possibly blow on fingers to thaw them, locate the phone, fumble around trying not to drop it...
By then the thing you wanted to snap has wandered off.
 
There's a lot to be said for never having owned a mobile phone! Ok I get that the camera function might be useful ... but there again knowing me by the time I'd remembered how to use it the scene would have changed ha! ha! That I can walk round the house with my land line is handy but that's about it! I dare say the way things are going I might have to get one but I'm putting it off as long as possible!
 
hunck said:
This is an interesting story on iplayer

Dead Man Running

From Inverness - local ‘alternative’ character known by everyone, busker turned jewellery/trinket market salesman, all round good guy, charity fundraiser, rumoured to be homelss/sleeping rough in woods although actually having a nice house, etc turns out to be sexual abuser accused by multiple young women, disappears & flees to California when facts emerge, fakes own death, goes on run.

Well worth a watch.

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I haven't watched it to be honest but I have read the background (a horrible man who should have got a longer jail term) it kind of proves that actually trying to disappear on purpose is very difficult nowadays


I guess back in the day before the electronic world it was fairly easy, in my wife family tree there is a bigamist and through various records we managed to find where he was a certain times of his life, but then he just disappeared from the public record (and we have searched and searched) for him but he disappeared without trace we think he probably got a job on a ship and jumped ship in Australia or Canada with some fake ID I would imagine it would be impossible to do nowadays
 
I always thought the council tip was a good way to dispose of any unwanted bodies, they even give advice (intended for dead wildlife) about double bagging , etc. on their website. But now you have to book and they have a notice up about "bag splitting" to take out any recyclable items. That and CCTV has probably made that method a bit more risky.

There used to be queues of people chucking black bags into a huge skip which was dragged off to landfill. Unless you were daft enough to use a weak bag or ask: "Which skip for body parts, Mate?" I doubt you'd get caught.
 
Robbrent said:
I haven't watched it to be honest but I have read the background (a horrible man who should have got a longer jail term) it kind of proves that actually trying to disappear on purpose is very difficult nowadays


I guess back in the day before the electronic world it was fairly easy, in my wife family tree there is a bigamist and through various records we managed to find where he was a certain times of his life, but then he just disappeared from the public record (and we have searched and searched) for him but he disappeared without trace we think he probably got a job on a ship and jumped ship in Australia or Canada with some fake ID I would imagine it would be impossible to do nowadays
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At the end when he’s cornered by police - Colorado I think - they said he just gave up, as if relieved to be able stop his running - must be a strain constantly looking over your shoulder. His picture was all over the local media so capture inevitable.
 
Tunn11 said:
I always thought the council tip was a good way to dispose of any unwanted bodies, they even give advice (intended for dead wildlife) about double bagging , etc. on their website. But now you have to book and they have a notice up about "bag splitting" to take out any recyclable items. That and CCTV has probably made that method a bit more risky.

There used to be queues of people chucking black bags into a huge skip which was dragged off to landfill. Unless you were daft enough to use a weak bag or ask: "Which skip for body parts, Mate?" I doubt you'd get caught.
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There have been instances of bodies being disposed of in domestic wheelie bins. Sometimes the killer is caught, occasionally not.

Saw a Forensic Mysteries-type programme years ago about a young teenage American boy who vanished from his home. There was no trace of him and his family were distraught.

Eventually the boy's friend admitted to having accidentally shot him with a gun they'd been playing with in the family kitchen. He'd panicked and bundled the body into the bin which was emptied soon afterwards.

As the killer had cleaned up the scene there was no evidence except a tiny mark on a wall where the bullet had glanced off.
If he hadn't voluntarily owned up the victim's family would never have known what had happened to him, and sadly the body was never found.
 
escargot said:
There have been instances of bodies being disposed of in domestic wheelie bins. Sometimes the killer is caught, occasionally not.

Saw a Forensic Mysteries-type programme years ago about a young teenage American boy who vanished from his home. There was no trace of him and his family were distraught.

Eventually the boy's friend admitted to having accidentally shot him with a gun they'd been playing with in the family kitchen. He'd panicked and bundled the body into the bin which was emptied soon afterwards.

As the killer had cleaned up the scene there was no evidence except a tiny mark on a wall where the bullet had glanced off.
If he hadn't voluntarily owned up the victim's family would never have known what had happened to him, and sadly the body was never found.
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Nowadays they would just check the cell phone towers and his phone history (from the provider) like I said a lot of crime detection has got a lot easier, with the advent of technology we are constantly being surveilled
 
I remember that one. Can't recall the TV show name - there are a lot of similar ones!

Some Googling came up with the disappearance of Bradley Blake Hansen in Phoenix, AZ.
I may have seen this if it was shown on one of the Freeview channels.

It starts at 35:30 in this
 
Robbrent said:
Nowadays they would just check the cell phone towers and his phone history (from the provider) like I said a lot of crime detection has got a lot easier, with the advent of technology we are constantly being surveilled
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Indeed. There's a current Ch4 TV series about that very subject called Murder Case: The Digital Detectives.

In the above case though the phone evidence would only be helpful if the phone were left switched on and sent with the victim in the bin.
 
Erinaceus said:
I remember that one. Can't recall the TV show name - there are a lot of similar ones!

Some Googling came up with the disappearance of Bradley Blake Hansen in Phoenix, AZ.
I may have seen this if it was shown on one of the Freeview channels.

It starts at 35:30 in this
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That sounds like the same incident, except that I remembered the shooing as an accident and the 'dumpster' as the family's own bin.
What we Brits'd call a 'wheelie bin' might be the same as an American 'dumpster' though, dunno.
It also seems that the body was in the bin for a week before being emptied as blood and the smell of putrefaction were later noticed in it.
The saddest aspect is that Jeremy Bach didn't try to save his friend's life. Instead he left Brad to die on the floor while he worked out to cover his tracks and escape detection.

Long detailed account here on the heretofore unknown to me SippingOnSomeCrime website.
Can't vouch for its veracity and the use of English is a little poor but there seems to be plenty of information.

The “No Body” case of Bradley Hansen
 
Here's a post from our own @gojiramonkey from a couple of months ago about how toddlers can wander off into danger.

LSS: Two year-old @gojiramonkey ran out of the house and ended up standing nearly chest-high in a muddy stream, stuck and imminently drowning. Police dog Karl saved the day.


#102

What's weird here, if @gojiramonkey doesn't mind my continuing to drag all this up, is that they remember not calling for help.
The water and mud would be cold and the situation obviously dangerous but they stayed quiet.
 
escargot said:
I'm sure @gojiramonkey knows. :nods:
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Maybe not, at the age of two. I couldn't tell you the reason for some of the things I did as a toddler (cutting open a stool so I could see the stuffing inside, grabbing hold of the element of an electric fire, etc). I did it because I did it. And also, subsequent diagnosis reveals, because ADHD means a very low ability to risk assess. And it's also possible that being chest high in water meant @gojiramonkey couldn't draw in sufficient breath to call out, their lungs may have been too compressed.
 
Vanished without a trace.

The case of a couple who vanished without trace 33 years ago on Tuesday is due to be featured on RTE’s Crimecall on Monday evening as gardaí continue to attempt to solve the mystery of their disappearance.

Conor and Sheila Dwyer lived at Chapel Hill in Fermoy, Co Cork. They were last seen at St Patrick's Church in the town on April 30th, 1991. Conor (62) and Sheila (61) had gone to the church for a funeral mass. The family of the couple spoke to Sheila by phone the following day. But they were never seen or heard from again.

A few days later a missing persons investigation was launched after concerns were raised about their whereabouts.

Gardaí went to the home of the couple and found that it was secure and all personal items such as clothes, passports and money were still onsite.

However, their car, a distinctive white Toyota Cressida registration number 5797 ZT was not at the house. No trace of the couple or their car has ever been found.

Their disappearance remains one of Ireland's most mystifying missing persons cases. Despite a major garda probe, both gardaí and the couple's family have been unable to determine their fate.

Retired garda Sgt Joe Watkins previously Virgin Media News that the couple basically went to a funeral, got in their car and were never seen again. He says that the disappearance of the married couple still haunts him.

“All of their property was there (in the house). There was money. There was passports. All of their possessions. If something was missing you would say they were emptying the wardrobe or something. That wasn’t the case.

They have two sons. There is no closure for them. Their parents were never located. The car is the link. That distinctive Toyota Cressida.”

Conor and Sheila were known locally as a nicely dressed polite couple who were well liked. They were quiet people who kept to themselves. ...
The Dwyer case will be featured on Crimecall on RTE One at 9:35pm tonight.

https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland...ago-to-feature-on-rtes-crimecall-1619068.html
 
catseye said:
Maybe not, at the age of two. I couldn't tell you the reason for some of the things I did as a toddler (cutting open a stool so I could see the stuffing inside, grabbing hold of the element of an electric fire, etc). I did it because I did it. And also, subsequent diagnosis reveals, because ADHD means a very low ability to risk assess. And it's also possible that being chest high in water meant @gojiramonkey couldn't draw in sufficient breath to call out, their lungs may have been too compressed.
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@gojiramonkey seems to remember a lot. They must have pondered the details of the time they nearly drowned.
 
ramonmercado said:
Vanished without a trace.

The case of a couple who vanished without trace 33 years ago on Tuesday is due to be featured on RTE’s Crimecall on Monday evening as gardaí continue to attempt to solve the mystery of their disappearance.

Conor and Sheila Dwyer lived at Chapel Hill in Fermoy, Co Cork. They were last seen at St Patrick's Church in the town on April 30th, 1991. Conor (62) and Sheila (61) had gone to the church for a funeral mass. The family of the couple spoke to Sheila by phone the following day. But they were never seen or heard from again.

A few days later a missing persons investigation was launched after concerns were raised about their whereabouts.

Gardaí went to the home of the couple and found that it was secure and all personal items such as clothes, passports and money were still onsite.

However, their car, a distinctive white Toyota Cressida registration number 5797 ZT was not at the house. No trace of the couple or their car has ever been found.

Their disappearance remains one of Ireland's most mystifying missing persons cases. Despite a major garda probe, both gardaí and the couple's family have been unable to determine their fate.

Retired garda Sgt Joe Watkins previously Virgin Media News that the couple basically went to a funeral, got in their car and were never seen again. He says that the disappearance of the married couple still haunts him.

“All of their property was there (in the house). There was money. There was passports. All of their possessions. If something was missing you would say they were emptying the wardrobe or something. That wasn’t the case.

They have two sons. There is no closure for them. Their parents were never located. The car is the link. That distinctive Toyota Cressida.”

Conor and Sheila were known locally as a nicely dressed polite couple who were well liked. They were quiet people who kept to themselves. ...
The Dwyer case will be featured on Crimecall on RTE One at 9:35pm tonight.

https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland...ago-to-feature-on-rtes-crimecall-1619068.html
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I wonder if there’s a lake nearby. It wouldn’t be the first time people & car disappearing have been found years later underwater.
 
There's a river which doesn't seem to be easily accessible from the road although there is probably some sort of slipway at the rowing club.
Google maps show the church where they were last seen.

chapel_hill.jpg
 
Erinaceus said:
There's a river which doesn't seem to be easily accessible from the road although there is probably some sort of slipway at the rowing club.
Google maps show the church where they were last seen.

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An Underwater Archaeological Impact Assessment (UAIA) was carried out in September 2010 relating to the Fermoy Weir and would likely have detected the car if it was in the river in the vicinity of Fermoy.
https://www.corkcoco.ie/sites/default/files/2022-06/underwater-archaeology-impact-assessment.pdf

More information regarding the Blackwater.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munster_Blackwater

https://www.britannica.com/place/River-Blackwater-Ireland
 
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ramonmercado said:
An Underwater Archaeological Impact Assessment (UAIA) was carried out in September 2010 relating to the Fermoy Weir and would likely have detected the car if it was in the river in the vicinity of Fermoy.
https://www.corkcoco.ie/sites/default/files/2022-06/underwater-archaeology-impact-assessment.pdf

More information regarding the Blackwater.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munster_Blackwater

https://www.britannica.com/place/River-Blackwater-Ireland
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A heart incident or stroke, car goes out of control into water, swept much further downstream than anyone would suspect?

The thing with people going into water is that search teams always seem to look far too close to where they might have gone in, when bodies are found they are much much further downstream. Hard to explain why a car wouldn't stand out though.
 
ramonmercado said:
Vanished without a trace.

The case of a couple who vanished without trace 33 years ago on Tuesday is due to be featured on RTE's Crimecall on Monday evening as gardaí continue to attempt to solve the mystery of their disappearance.

Conor and Sheila Dwyer lived at Chapel Hill in Fermoy, Co Cork. They were last seen at St Patrick's Church in the town on April 30th, 1991. Conor (62) and Sheila (61) had gone to the church for a funeral mass. The family of the couple spoke to Sheila by phone the following day. But they were never seen or heard from again...
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I knew this story rang a bell, and digging around my bookmarks I found a several years old RTÉ radio documentary on the case. (I recall I was actually looking for information on the book Out of Thin Air - about another mystery, an Icelandic one this time - but this case provided a satisfying distraction):

Doc on One - Thin Air - RTÉ 2008.

At the time of the documentary there was actually an added layer to the mystery: the disappearance of a man and his vehicle in the same area just over a year before.

Turns out that since the documentary was made, the earlier case has been solved:

Remains in river confirmed as missing Bill

HUMAN remains found in the wreckage of a car on the bed of the River Blackwater have been formally identified as those of a Fermoy man reported missing more than 20 years ago.

Gardai confirmed that the remains are those of former businessman and politician William 'Bill' Fennessy (pictured) who was last seen alive on March 30, 1990.

The remains were found in a car discovered by chance in the river last October by members of the Blackwater Sub Aqua Search and Rescue team during a routine dive...
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Source

Of course 'because this' does not mean 'so the other'. Even if it did - unless this happens more often in the area than being reported - then there would still be the mystery of why such similar accidents should befall two separate parties in roughly the same area and not so far apart in time.
 
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Spookdaddy said:
Of course 'because this' does not mean 'so the other'. Even if it did - unless this happens more often in the area than being reported - then there would still be the mystery of why such similar accidents should befall two separate parties in roughly the same area and not so far apart in time.
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Maybe because of a fault in the road surface, a visual problem that made a sharp bend appear to go straight on or something similar?
 
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