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'Low Strangeness' Disappearances (Missing Persons; Runaways; Crime-Related)

Interesting case.

A teenage girl who disappeared while jogging in north-west France but was found alive after a huge hunt has said she escaped an attempting kidnapping.

The 17-year-old was found in a state of shock in a takeaway about 10km (six miles) from where she had gone running. She was receiving medical care after vanishing on Monday in the Mayenne region, east of Rennes.

French media reports say she told police she had been held captive by kidnappers but managed to flee. Prosecutors said a kidnapping investigation had been opened and a man had been questioned in custody but released without charge.

The teenager, a regular runner who has not been named, left her home for the local Bellebranche forest at around 16:00 on Monday. The girl's father went looking for her after she failed to return home, and called the police three hours later. When searching his daughter's running route, the father found her phone and GPS watch, with traces of blood.

Investigators searching for the girl examined data from her running app, which showed her jog had abruptly ended in a rural area. A search involving some 200 police officers, rescue dogs, divers and a helicopter was launched.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-59231418

It was a hoax. Why did she do it? Looks as if there will be a proper investigation into that.

A teenage jogger who claimed she escaped a kidnapping in north-west France after disappearing for more than a day has admitted she lied.

In a case that has gripped the country, the 17-year-old was found in a state of shock in a takeaway about 10km (six miles) from where she had gone running in the Mayenne region, east of Rennes. She told police she was held captive by kidnappers but managed to flee.

But now the teenager has admitted making the story up, a prosecutor said. She admitted "having lied, not having been kidnapped and having gone on foot to Sablé-sur-Sarthe" - the area she reappeared in, said local prosecutor Céline Maigné. ...

When she reappeared she had scratches on her body and was taken to hospital. But the teenager eventually admitted to investigators that her injuries were "of accidental origin" and she "cut her T-shirt with a pair of scissors", the prosecutor said in a statement.

The teenager "will be subject to an investigation for reporting an imaginary crime", the prosecutor added. "The inquiry will need to take her personality into consideration in order to clear up the reasons for her behaviour which at this time remains unexplained."

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-59266211
 
It was a hoax. Why did she do it? Looks as if there will be a proper investigation into that.

A teenage jogger who claimed she escaped a kidnapping in north-west France after disappearing for more than a day has admitted she lied.

In a case that has gripped the country, the 17-year-old was found in a state of shock in a takeaway about 10km (six miles) from where she had gone running in the Mayenne region, east of Rennes. She told police she was held captive by kidnappers but managed to flee.

But now the teenager has admitted making the story up, a prosecutor said. She admitted "having lied, not having been kidnapped and having gone on foot to Sablé-sur-Sarthe" - the area she reappeared in, said local prosecutor Céline Maigné. ...

When she reappeared she had scratches on her body and was taken to hospital. But the teenager eventually admitted to investigators that her injuries were "of accidental origin" and she "cut her T-shirt with a pair of scissors", the prosecutor said in a statement.

The teenager "will be subject to an investigation for reporting an imaginary crime", the prosecutor added. "The inquiry will need to take her personality into consideration in order to clear up the reasons for her behaviour which at this time remains unexplained."

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-59266211
Maybe she has controlling parents and did it to escape for a while then lied intially so as not to get into trouble then found she couldn't keep the lie up? Or she met up with someone her family disapprove of? Or she's been ignored/feeling neglected so she did this just to get some attention?

I can think of LOADS of reasons why a teenager would do this.
 
Maybe she has controlling parents and did it to escape for a while then lied intially so as not to get into trouble then found she couldn't keep the lie up? Or she met up with someone her family disapprove of? Or she's been ignored/feeling neglected so she did this just to get some attention?

I can think of LOADS of reasons why a teenager would do this.

My feelings as well. Let's see what emerges.
 
Maybe she has controlling parents and did it to escape for a while then lied intially so as not to get into trouble then found she couldn't keep the lie up? Or she met up with someone her family disapprove of? Or she's been ignored/feeling neglected so she did this just to get some attention?

I can think of LOADS of reasons why a teenager would do this.
Was thinking about something like this today. When my teenage kids dragged home variously unsuitable excuses for humanity I'd cough, gulp and offer them a sandwich.

If I showed disapproval, my kid wouldn't feel able to admit to me when it all went pear-shaped.
 
Here's a low strangeness disappearance (a fugitive on the lam) that's now been resolved - at least to the extent of explaining where he went and who he became ...
Police identify body found in South Carolina home, and the person is not who they expected

When a neighbor went to check on 70-year-old James Fitzgerald on November 6, they found a decomposing body inside the home Fitzgerald had lived in for the last 15 years in the town of Seneca, about an hour outside of Greenville, South Carolina.

Police used autopsy results and fingerprints to positively identify the dead man, and it turns out his name, in fact, was not James Fitzgerald. ...

And he was no ordinary neighbor.

Authorities identified the body as belonging to Frederick McLean, a fugitive on the FBI's 15 Most Wanted Fugitive list, the US Marshals Service announced in a news release on Friday. ...

He was wanted by the San Diego Sheriff's Department in California on multiple counts of sexual assault on a child and was deemed at high risk for sexually assaulting young girls. One alleged victim, now an adult, reported McLean assaulted her more than 100 times, starting when she was 5 years old and ending about seven years later.

An arrest warrant was issued for him in 2005 and he was added to the fugitive list in 2006. ...
FULL STORY: https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/19/us/south-carolina-remains-identified/index.html
 
Can't find a better thread ...

Fugitive Scotsman arrested in Bergen op Zoom while jogging
The police arrested a fugitive man from Scotland in Bergen op Zoom this afternoon. The 56-year-old man was wanted internationally in connection with a seizure of about a ton of cocaine and at least 28 million 'Etizolam' pills (a sedative), according to the Public Prosecution Service.

The Scotsman was arrested by an arrest team while he was jogging, reports Omroep Brabant. In addition to the drug-related suspicions, the man was also wanted by Scottish police and the National Crime Agency for involvement in two arson cases.

According to Scottish media, it is Jamie Stevenson, also known as 'The Iceman'. According to Scottish media, the man has been on the run for 18 months. He fled the UK when he was released on bail.

Another man was arrested, but who that is and why he was arrested is not clear. Both men are extradited.

https://nos.nl/artikel/2415733-voortvluchtige-schot-opgepakt-in-bergen-op-zoom-tijdens-het-joggen
 
A young girl reported missing in 2019 was finally found in a basement hiding place with her noncustodial mother (who'd been suspected of kidnapping the child).
Young girl missing since 2019 found hidden under staircase

A young girl reported missing in 2019 was found hidden under a staircase by officers searching a home in New York’s Hudson Valley ...

The child was found in good health Monday night in a Saugerties home about 130 miles (210 kilometers) east of Cayuga Heights, where she was reported missing in July 2019, when she was 4 years old ...

Police said they initially suspected she had been abducted by her noncustodial parents.

Officers executing a search warrant found the girl hidden with her noncustodial mother in a cold, wet, makeshift enclosure under a basement staircase after about an hour of looking. They caught a first glimpse of the girl’s feet after removing some wooden steps, according to police.

Paramedics found the girl to be in good health. She was turned over to her legal guardian and reunited with her older sister.

The noncustodial parents and a third person were arraigned on charges of custodial interference and endangering the welfare of a child. ...
FULL STORY: https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-nyc-state-wire-fa4c8337d2052aefac66addd6cbbac00
 
New York police recovered a missing girl Monday night who had last been seen in 2019.

iu


Paislee Shultis, 6, was found alive in a hidden alcove in her noncustodial parents’ home more than 150 miles away from where she was believed to have last been seen, according to the Saugerties Police Department.

Police said they received a tip, then obtained and served a search warrant at a home on Fawn Road Monday, about 115 miles north of New York City. They allegedly found the girl in a damp, makeshift compartment beneath a basement staircase.

1644965105_Paislee-Shultis-Everything-we-know-about-her-disappearance-and-how-scaled.jpg


Three adults have been charged in connection with the case. Kirk Shultis Jr., 32, Kirk Shultis Sr., 57, and Kimberly Cooper, 33, each face charges of custodial interference and endangering the life of a child.

Cooper and the younger Shultis are Paislee’s biological parents, but neither of them have custodial rights.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/new-york-missing-paislee-shultis-found-under-stairs

maximus otter
 
Long time on the run.

Australian police have arrested one of the country's most wanted fugitives following a 12-year manhunt.

Graham Potter, 64, had been on the run since 2010 after he failed to show up in court to face conspiracy to murder charges in the state of Victoria.

Police arrested him on Monday morning after they were told he was thousands of kilometres away in Queensland. Footage of the arrest shows him standing in a dilapidated room before being handcuffed and taken away.

A convicted killer, Potter had earlier been sentenced to life imprisonment in 1981 for the decapitation and murder of a teenage girl. He was released after serving 15 years of his sentence.

On Monday, he was arrested at 08:45 local time (23:45GMT Sunday) at a house in Ravenshoe, in the far north of Queensland.

When he went into hiding, Potter was facing federal charges over an ecstasy and cocaine haul worth A$440m (£232m; $317m), in addition to the conspiracy to murder charges.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-60427542
 
Luckily, this "low strangeness disappearance" didn't last long ...
Officer finds boy, 2, in car stolen in Northern California

Authorities in Northern California found a 2-year-old boy still inside a car that was stolen before dawn in the San Francisco Bay Area.

An officer found the 3-foot-tall child and the missing car Sunday evening about 4 miles from where he’d been abducted.

... “He appears to be unharmed and healthy.”

Police said the 2008 Buick Enclave was taken while Jacob Jardine’s mother was unloading groceries at a motel at about 4 a.m. in the city of Sunnyvale, south of San Francisco.

The California Highway Patrol canceled an Amber Alert about the missing child 13 hours after it was issued for five bay area counties.

There was no immediate indication whether the thief or thieves knew the child was in the car when it was stolen ...
SOURCE: https://apnews.com/article/california-san-francisco-san-mateo-537e5cacfa7c6e92e63308c1018cc025
 
Owing to new developments, it would appear this Florida woman's disappearance isn't that big a mystery.

Missing Florida woman found inside her own septic tank, deputies say

... The Martin County Sheriff’s Office said deputies worked from Friday night into Saturday morning excavating the backyard of 57-year-old Cynthia Cole in her Jensen Beach home while investigating her disappearance. ...

Detectives said they found a woman’s body in the tank, which was buried four feet underground.

A medical examiner has yet to confirm the body’s identity, but deputies said they “have every reason to believe it is that of Ms. Cole.” ...

Shortly after finding the body, detectives arrested handyman Keoki Hilo Demich, 34, on second-degree murder for his alleged involvement in her death. ...
SOURCE: https://www.wfla.com/news/florida/m...ound-inside-her-own-septic-tank-deputies-say/
 
New York police recovered a missing girl Monday night who had last been seen in 2019.


1644965105_Paislee-Shultis-Everything-we-know-about-her-disappearance-and-how-scaled.jpg


Three adults have been charged in connection with the case. Kirk Shultis Jr., 32, Kirk Shultis Sr., 57, and Kimberly Cooper, 33, each face charges of custodial interference and endangering the life of a child.

Cooper and the younger Shultis are Paislee’s biological parents, but neither of them have custodial rights.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/new-york-missing-paislee-shultis-found-under-stairs

maximus otter
I'd think biological parents who lost custody would be the first place for police to look? Especially since the article states the child disappeared on the day the biological parents were supposed to turn the child over after losing custody.

There must be more to this story.
 
I'd think biological parents who lost custody would be the first place for police to look? Especially since the article states the child disappeared on the day the biological parents were supposed to turn the child over after losing custody. ...

As I understand it from earlier news items, the biological parents were suspected of involvement from the beginning. However, the authorities couldn't make the case for a search warrant. The key development was using additional data to convince a judge to issue the warrant so that authorities could search the house of interest.
 
An Iowa "survivalist" who faked his own death and disappeared 6 years go when charged with serious crimes has finally been tracked down and arrested in Washington state.
Survivalist who faked death to avoid trial is found after six years

A survivalist in Iowa is being accused of faking his own death to avoid having to go to trial for two child abuse image charges.

Jacob Greer, now 28, managed to evade authorities for six years after he slipped out of his ankle monitor in 2016. He had been released on bond after being charged with two counts of possessing child abuse images and was awaiting trial when he disappeared.

... Mr Greer's probation officer attempted to contact him, but could not get in touch with him. They launched a search for Mr Greer and eventually found his car along with a suicide note left inside.

But there was no body, and no sign of Mr Greer, so federal officials issued an arrest warrant for him. ...

After six years of searching for Mr Greer, federal authorities finally caught up with him.

On Tuesday, the US Marshals Service announced that they had apprehended Mr Greer in Washington state ...

Law enforcement found him in Spanaway, Washington, a town of about 35,000 people 14 miles south of Tacoma. ...

He faces up to 20 years in prison for possessing child abuse images involving a prepubescent minor. ...

The US Marshals said Mr Greer fled Iowa with "money, a bow, arrows, and a backpack full of survival gear." They believed his plan was to "live off the land in remote areas of the upper western states or southern Canada, hiding out in abandoned cabins."
FULL STORY: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/crime/jacob-greer-fake-death-iowa-b2052426.html?
 
A teenaged California girl went missing after attending a large party on 6 August. Her family feared she'd been abducted, but Adventures with Purpose has apparently discovered her and her vehicle submerged in a reservoir near the party site. Confirmation of her identity is pending, but the AwP statement indicates they're confident it's her.
Divers find body in search for missing California teen girl

Divers searching for a missing 16-year-old girl said they found a car with a body inside it in a Northern California reservoir, not far from where she attended a huge party weeks ago. Authorities were working to confirm the identity, the sheriff’s office said.

Volunteer divers with a sonar-equipped group called Adventures with Purpose said they found Kiely Rodni of Truckee on Sunday inside her car, which they said came to rest upside down under about 14 feet (4.2 meters) of water in Prosser Reservoir, about 55 feet (16.7 meters) offshore. ...

The Nevada County Sheriff’s Office said in a social media post that it was notified that a car and body were found, but that the deceased person had not been identified. ...

Adventures with Purpose search members Doug Bishop and Nick Rinn briefly described the search in a Facebook livestream Monday morning. Rinn said they were limited in the scope of details they could release. ...

“Once we confirmed it was indeed Kiely’s vehicle we immediately notified family, law enforcement and (the teen’s) dad and grandpa were on scene within minutes,” Bishop said.

Rodni was last seen Aug. 6 near the Prosser Family Campground in Truckee, attending a party with hundreds of young people, authorities have said. The campground is at the reservoir in the Sierra Nevada, about 165 miles (266 kilometers) northeast of San Francisco.

Her friend, Sami Smith was at the party with her and said Rodni had been planning to spend the night at the campground.

“I know that she wasn’t in the right mindset or state to drive. And if she were to have driven, she wouldn’t have made it far,” Smith told KOVR-TV.

Friends and family feared she had been kidnapped. Her phone had been out of service since the party, and her 2013 silver Honda CR-V had not been found. ...
FULL STORY: https://apnews.com/article/californ...-environment-8400111502466682cec38c5e06ddcd89
 
Headline news in the UK for the last week has been the disappearance of a student nurse named Owami Davies.

Missing since 6th July, having not taken her phone or bank cards.

A major police search was held to look for her.

She was found today, alive and well, over 100 miles from her home.

Lots of questions, very few answers so far.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-62649615
 
A teenaged California girl went missing after attending a large party on 6 August. Her family feared she'd been abducted, but Adventures with Purpose has apparently discovered her and her vehicle submerged in a reservoir near the party site. Confirmation of her identity is pending, but the AwP statement indicates they're confident it's her. ...

Update ... Authorities have confirmed the body found in the submerged car was Kiely Rodni.
Body discovered in submerged car confirmed to be missing California teen Kiely Rodni, police say

The body found inside a submerged car in Northern California Sunday has been confirmed to be missing teen Kiely Rodni, who disappeared at a campground party in the area about three weeks ago, police said. ...

After search crews found a body inside a car that was submerged in Prosser Lake, authorities said it was "more than likely" Kiely. An autopsy has now determined that to be true, according to a statement posted on Facebook from the sheriff's office.

Kiely's cause and manner of death were not released, and the investigation into her death is still ongoing, according to the statement. ...
SOURCE: https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/23/us/kiely-rodni-california-body-autopsy/index.html
 
This low strangeness 2018 disappearance off the Alabama coast was resolved with the alleged suicide's discovery and arrest in Oklahoma in 2020. Now he's about to disappear again - into the Mississippi prison system.
Man Admits Faking Death To Avoid Sex Abuse Charges

MOBILE, Ala. (AP) — A military veteran pleaded guilty in federal court Monday to faking his own death off the Alabama coast to try to avoid sexual abuse charges in Mississippi.

Jacob Blair Scott pleaded guilty to charges of sending a false distress call that led to a Coast Guard search, illegally shipping weapons across state lines and giving false information, according to court records. ...

A federal judge will sentence Scott in November. He was already sentenced to serve 85 years in prison in Mississippi after he was convicted of sexually assaulting a girl and impregnating her when he was 40 and she was 14.

Scott was facing charges of assaulting the girl when he faked his death in July 2018. The Orange Beach Police Department responded to a call for assistance and found a small boat in the Gulf of Mexico, about a mile away from shore, with a gun tied to it. The dinghy was empty except for a suicide note.

Authorities searched for a body for more than a week in the Gulf of Mexico.

Scott was captured in early 2020 at an RV park in Oklahoma, where he was living under another name.

A Mississippi jury in June convicted him of multiple sexual battery and child abuse charges. ...
FULL STORY: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/man-admits-faking-death-to-avoid-sex-abuse-charges/ar-AA10YwhF
 
I spent an afternoon last summer going through that Wikipedia list of mysteriously disappearing people, it can really give you chills that you could vanish so completely. But some of the more memorable stories that you stumble across in old books might not be quite as reliable as you might hope.

Leafing through a book by the Bords, I find Alex Cleghorn, a nineteen-year-old Scotsman out celebrating New Year in 1966 who was walking along a Glasgow road when suddenly his brothers noticed he wasn't beside them anymore. Five years later the mystery was unsolved and presumably still is. There's one not on Wikipedia.

NOTE: See subsequent 2010 posts in this thread for more on the Cleghorn case.

My first post at this forum, finally! For years, a Google search with Alex Cleghorn's name has only given the same basic facts. But in January, I came over this piece of news.

Chilling mystery of Glasgow teenager who 'vanished' in 1966​

The chilling mystery of Alex Cleghorn’s disappearance in the early hours of New Year’s Day, 1966, has never been solved.

Now, author Andy Owens – who is writing a book called The British X-Files – is determined to uncover the truth.

“Alex was first footing on Govan Road with his two brothers, who later said that suddenly Alex simply ‘wasn’t there’,” explains Andy.

“There are very sketchy details about this case in books and on websites, but I wondered if any Glasgow Times readers knew of anyone else who could provide me with further information on the case.”
/---/
Andy, who is a hospital porter who writes books, articles and a blog as a hobby, says he is an “open-minded skeptic” who has always been fascinated by unsolved mysteries.

“My main interest is reports of strange phenomena, and I have also written for the websites Spooky Isles and The Skeptic, and the magazine Fortean Times,” he says.

“I first read about the Alex Cleghorn mystery in a 1987 book called Modern Mysteries of Britain, by Janet and Colin Bord, and the details are repeated on various websites, but no-one knows much more…hopefully your readers might be able to help.”
/---/

Andy can be contacted by email at [email protected], by post at 65 Woodlands Avenue, Halifax, West Yorkshire HX3 6HJ, or by phone on 07393 520679.
 
Still no resolution.

Tests on materials found in a renewed search for a Royal Navy sailor who vanished in Gibraltar in 1986 have shown they are not human.

Simon Parkes, an 18-year-old radio operator from Bristol who is thought to have been murdered, disappeared while on shore leave. Police said the latest two-week search, was sparked by "new areas of interest" at Trafalgar Cemetery. The materials were tested by archaeologists and an anthropologist.

Hampshire Constabulary said: "Following the search operation, no materials that were examined have been identified as human."

The searches by specialist teams from Royal Gibraltar Police at the cemetery concluded on 30 September.

Det Insp Adam Edwards said: "We have kept Mr and Mrs Parkes informed of our progress and I'd like to thank them again for their support. We know this remains a difficult time for them and we hope our work will finally bring them the answers they so desperately want."

The case was reopened in 2001 after a shipmate, petty officer Allan Grimson, was convicted of two murders. ...

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hampshire-54505335

New dig but still no resolution.

Police have made fresh searches in Gibraltar linked to the disappearance of a Royal Navy sailor 36 years ago.

Simon Parkes was last seen in 1986 when his ship was docked in the territory while on its way back to Portsmouth. A huge search operation was launched for the 18-year-old, whose parents are still searching for answers.

Hampshire Constabulary said a new line of inquiry led to nine officers being deployed to Gibraltar to undertake excavation work at Town Range car park. The latest efforts to find the radio operator, who was from Kingswood near Bristol, were undertaken between Monday and Thursday and did not unearth anything to assist with the investigation. ...

His disappearance has previously been part of investigations by Hampshire Constabulary into serial killer Allan Grimson, a former petty officer, who was jailed for life for the murder of two young men and who was on board HMS Illustrious at the same time as Mr Parkes. Grimson was jailed in 2001 at Winchester Crown Court for the murders of naval rating Nicholas Wright, 18, from Leicestershire, and barman Sion Jenkins, from Newbury in Berkshire. He has always denied being involved in the disappearance of Mr Parkes.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hampshire-66469403
 
New dig but still no resolution.

Police have made fresh searches in Gibraltar linked to the disappearance of a Royal Navy sailor 36 years ago.

Simon Parkes was last seen in 1986 when his ship was docked in the territory while on its way back to Portsmouth. A huge search operation was launched for the 18-year-old, whose parents are still searching for answers.

Hampshire Constabulary said a new line of inquiry led to nine officers being deployed to Gibraltar to undertake excavation work at Town Range car park. The latest efforts to find the radio operator, who was from Kingswood near Bristol, were undertaken between Monday and Thursday and did not unearth anything to assist with the investigation. ...

His disappearance has previously been part of investigations by Hampshire Constabulary into serial killer Allan Grimson, a former petty officer, who was jailed for life for the murder of two young men and who was on board HMS Illustrious at the same time as Mr Parkes. Grimson was jailed in 2001 at Winchester Crown Court for the murders of naval rating Nicholas Wright, 18, from Leicestershire, and barman Sion Jenkins, from Newbury in Berkshire. He has always denied being involved in the disappearance of Mr Parkes.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hampshire-66469403

A new search.

Police in Gibraltar have launched fresh searches linked to the disappearance of a Royal Navy sailor 37 years ago.

Simon Parkes was last seen in 1986 when his ship was docked in the territory on its way back to Portsmouth.

Hampshire Constabulary officers have returned to the Town Range car park, where they carried out previous investigations last August.
Police have been made aware of a "further potential area of interest" within the car park. A team of detectives and specially trained officers from the police and military will be carrying out the work in Gibraltar, as part of "work to assess a new line of enquiry".

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hampshire-68005965
 
A new search.

Police in Gibraltar have launched fresh searches linked to the disappearance of a Royal Navy sailor 37 years ago.

Simon Parkes was last seen in 1986 when his ship was docked in the territory on its way back to Portsmouth.

Hampshire Constabulary officers have returned to the Town Range car park, where they carried out previous investigations last August.
Police have been made aware of a "further potential area of interest" within the car park. A team of detectives and specially trained officers from the police and military will be carrying out the work in Gibraltar, as part of "work to assess a new line of enquiry".

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hampshire-68005965
Poor lad. :(
Sound promising. There's even a suspect. Fingers crossed, eh.
 
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