• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

People Who Just Disappear (Go Missing)

Fanari_Lloyd said:
I remember being horrified when his brother told me. It seemed such a stupid, pointless accident to happen to someone just out for a bike ride. And it shows how easy it is for the land (or in this case the growing crop) to conceal a body. A lot of the crop fields have open gateways that you can just ride or walk into, I’ve done it myself. Some have footpaths around the edges. I can imagine someone just biking in, not even going fast, ready to pull up and rest and then that :(
Click to expand...
It often makes me wonder what purpose or meaning there could be to life given it can be snuffed out so easily. One minute you’re a living, breathing, conscious organism making plans for tomorrow and the next the pilot light is extinguished and you’re gone forever. In the grand scheme of the universe we’re each no more significant than an individual bacterium.
 
Fanari_Lloyd said:
I’ve mentioned before about the brother of a friend of mine just going missing for weeks. No activity on his bank account, etc.
His brother knew of no reason he would just vanish and they were pretty close.

His body was found weeks later in a field of wheat, next to his bike. He liked biking out around the villages and it was supposed that he went through the field gate on his bike, possibly just to rest or have a drink of water and was still on the bike when it must have hit a stone or a clod of earth. His neck was broken and the wheat just carried on growing and hid him.
I remember being horrified when his brother told me. It seemed such a stupid, pointless accident to happen to someone just out for a bike ride. And it shows how easy it is for the land (or in this case the growing crop) to conceal a body. A lot of the crop fields have open gateways that you can just ride or walk into, I’ve done it myself. Some have footpaths around the edges. I can imagine someone just biking in, not even going fast, ready to pull up and rest and then that :(
Click to expand...
When you first posted that I told Techy about it and sternly forbade him from riding off the road into fields.
Male cyclists, especially of a certain age, might do that.
Not on an expensive road bike though. They get wheeled carefully out of sight.
 
escargot said:
Male cyclists, especially of a certain age, might do that.
Click to expand...
It’s worth warning about, yes. I’m going to text my uncle who still lives out at the village and whizzes around the Downs on a racing bike, (has been called “That fit old dude on that (make of bike)“. But I dare say it’s quite expensive and he wouldn’t. Still, can’t hurt to mention it.
We always think of a lot of the UK as being small and cramped and pretty impossible to really get lost in (bar mountainous areas) but when you’re out in it, walking, biking, horse-riding, it’s a lot bigger than it looks and lonelier too.
 
Fanari_Lloyd said:
It’s worth warning about, yes. I’m going to text my uncle who still lives out at the village and whizzes around the Downs on a racing bike, (has been called “That fit old dude on that (make of bike)“. But I dare say it’s quite expensive and he wouldn’t. Still, can’t hurt to mention it.
We always think of a lot of the UK as being small and cramped and pretty impossible to really get lost in (bar mountainous areas) but when you’re out in it, walking, biking, horse-riding, it’s a lot bigger than it looks and lonelier too.
Click to expand...
Where I live there are many narrow, flat, winding lanes - perfect for cyclists. People certainly can get lost.
We navigate by the two steep two hills that can be seen for miles. Each has a castle on top; one is genuinely mediaeval and the other is a much later folly.
The hill with the genuine castle faces mainly south, or slightly ESE.
If it's on your right you're travelling roughly west. Very helpful. :bthumbup:
 
Last edited:
escargot said:
Where I live there are many narrow, flat, winding lanes - perfect for cyclists. People certainly can get lost.
Click to expand...
Makes me think of the only time I went to Milton Keynes. Most of the roads are set into cuttings (so not to spoil the view from the houses, see?) and most connect from one roundabout to another, all looking the same. While most have road signs on, many don't along their length.
A couple of times I had to get out of the car, climb a grassy bank and look for the direction toward the town center.
Before satnavs, of course.
 
Stormkhan said:
Makes me think of the only time I went to Milton Keynes. Most of the roads are set into cuttings (so not to spoil the view from the houses, see?) and most connect from one roundabout to another, all looking the same. While most have road signs on, many don't along their length.
A couple of times I had to get out of the car, climb a grassy bank and look for the direction toward the town center.
Before satnavs, of course.
Click to expand...
We went cycling there. Once we left the park/biking areas we were immediately and horribly lost. :chuckle:
Couldn't seem to get my hands on a map of the place. It was like Moscow.
 
escargot said:
We went cycling there. Once we left the park/biking areas we were immediately and horribly lost. :chuckle:
Couldn't seem to get my hands on a map of the place. It was like Moscow.
Click to expand...
I was driving through France in 1988 on the way back to the St Malo ferry. The signposting near Rennes was quite poor and I ended up lost in a housing estate. I remember the sense of panic when I realized I didn't have a clue how to get back to the main road. I didn't have any local maps, just an old Gites de France road atlas. I reached a dead end and managed to eventually guess my way back to the D137. I've always avoided the place on more recent visits.
 
The other day, during a random browse through YouTube, I ended up watching a programme which featured missing people (in terms of 'this person has gone missing in this area, here are the police numbers if you believe you have any information'). Two of them were people who'd gone off walking in areas of the US (one of whom seems to have been done away with by her partner, but that's by the by). When they listed the clothing these people were wearing - the woman was setting out on a long hike wearing jeans, and the man was off trekking up a hillside wearing a leather jacket.
I was :eek:

They were both, apparently, seasoned hikers...
 
SimonBurchell said:
Yeah? I don't think so...
Click to expand...
That's exactly what I thought! Footwear also seemed to consist of 'trainers'. Where on earth do people think going for a long (in isolated country) hike is best served by wearing casual clothing? But it's so common! And then it becomes all 'mysterious, oooh, I wonder what could have happened, they just vanished!'

Yeah. I wonder...
 
Peripart said:
I did walk up Ben Nevis in fairly cheap trainers. Can't remember why I didn't put my proper boots on. Anyway, I survived unscathed!
Click to expand...

To be fair, approach shoes/walking trainers are essentially just well made trainers, maybe with different sole types.

As a matter of course, and depending on conditions, I'll either use my Hanwag boots, or approach shoes; but, to be honest, on a fine dry day - even in reasonably tough terrain - I don't think I'd be beside myself with worry if all I had was a decent pair of trainers. (I sometimes take trainers on longer trips for a bit of relief if my plates start hurting - did around seven days of the Camino de Santiago in trainers because one of the seams on my walking boots started giving my feet terrible grief.)

Way back when I was at school my class was given a talk by an ex Royal Marine Commando who had walked the entire UK coastline. At the time he described his choice of footwear as 'plimsolls' (it was the 70's). He had brought his final pair - which looked like badly scavenged roadkill by that time - to the talk; I'm pretty sure they were actually a very battered pair of Adidas Stan Smiths.
 
Last edited:
I'm kind of wondering if this particular area of the disappeared deserves a thread of its own. (I was also wondering if, although outwith the specific subject of hikikomori, whether some of the social and psychological pressures involved might intersect with the subject.)

Anyway, I have recently been listening to the podcast, The Evaporated - Gone With the Gods, presented by the journalist Jake Edelstein, author of Tokyo Vice (the non-fiction original, rather than the dramatised TV version).

The podcast covers the subject of the johatsu - people who voluntarily disappear from their own lives. The reasons can be many, but financial pressures are clearly a very major factor. The general idea is maybe not that unusual - economic factors being considered very high among the factors involved in non-sinister disappearances worldwide - but the incredibly high pressure world of Japanese business and social status, and the specific cultural nuances involved, gives the Japanese phenomenon a flavour all of its own.

Well worth a listen. It's kind of True Crime, minus the bodycount - and mystery, which is no less mysterious for having some of the mystery taken out of it.

The lady who runs what is effectively a kind of disappearance bureau (not as sinister as it sounds) sounds like an absolute gas. She probably deserves a drama series all of her own.

Link to podcast here: The Evaporated - Gone With the Gods.
 
Stormkhan said:
I run a half-marathon in a pair of manky ol' 'no brand' trainers.
No problems with my feet as they were so worn in there was no issue with my feet.
Better a comfortable pair of worn-in, hardy shoes than a freshly-delivered pair of *insert latest expensive brand here*
Click to expand...
I only ever run in cheap trainers. Mainly because I wear them out so fast and I'd rather change a pair of £35 trainers every couple of months than a pair of £150 trainers in the same time.
 
escargot said:
I heard that too. Have to say, that baby won't survive long if they're living rough. Might already be dead. It's not as if Dad is of much use.
Click to expand...

A couple who disappeared with their baby have been found and arrested in Brighton, but the infant is still missing, police have said.
Constance Marten and Mark Gordon had not been seen since their car broke down near Bolton on 5 January.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64794712
 
catseye said:
The other day, during a random browse through YouTube, I ended up watching a programme which featured missing people (in terms of 'this person has gone missing in this area, here are the police numbers if you believe you have any information'). Two of them were people who'd gone off walking in areas of the US (one of whom seems to have been done away with by her partner, but that's by the by). When they listed the clothing these people were wearing - the woman was setting out on a long hike wearing jeans, and the man was off trekking up a hillside wearing a leather jacket.
I was :eek:

They were both, apparently, seasoned hikers...
Click to expand...
I watch a couple of YT channels involving vehicle recoveries in the States. Similar to jeans leather jackets on hikers I find it hilarious how some think that it is dead safe to drive a normal saloon (sedan) into the ultimate back of beyond in mountainous country in the middle of nowhere, often with heavy snow. (presumably they're in search of their brain cells). Defies any form of logic.
 
Erinaceus said:
A couple who disappeared with their baby have been found and arrested in Brighton, but the infant is still missing, police have said.
Constance Marten and Mark Gordon had not been seen since their car broke down near Bolton on 5 January.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64794712
Click to expand...
About what I expected. Awful, awful, awful. There are no other words.
 
PeteS said:
I watch a couple of YT channels involving vehicle recoveries in the States. Similar to jeans leather jackets on hikers I find it hilarious how some think that it is dead safe to drive a normal saloon (sedan) into the ultimate back of beyond in mountainous country in the middle of nowhere, often with heavy snow. (presumably they're in search of their brain cells). Defies any form of logic.
Click to expand...
Indeed - this post by @Carse was a real eye-opener:
Carse said:
For me the ultimate example of carrying-on-when-really-you-should-have-turned-back-long-ago is the sad tale of the Death Valley Germans and their disastrous quest to return their rented car by driving through the Mojave. The story of how their remains were found by an amateur searcher long after the authorities gave up looking is fascinating in itself:

https://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the-hunt-for-the-death-valley-germans/
Click to expand...
The web link still works - The Hunt for the Death Valley Germans. It's a long, but fascinating, read - with two things that stand out - the utter folly of heading into the wilderness ill-prepared, and the stupidity of not knowing when you are getting out of your depth until it is too late - and the determination and endurance of the guy who set out to find them. It is a long read, but well worth it.
 
escargot said:
Police are now asking the public to look in sheds and garages for the baby. They're talking about the area where the parents were arrested.

I somehow feel the search should be starting much further away. :(
Click to expand...
Yes, it probably happened a while ago. :( I am sorry for anyone who has to look in their shed for a dead baby.

Kondoru said:
Surely social services could have done something?
Click to expand...
This will be why they ran off as soon as Constance was showing signs of pregnancy. This is why it was all so stupid and futile. Now they are baby killers. It won't go down well in prison.
 
Min Bannister said:
Yes, it probably happened a while ago. :( I am sorry for anyone who has to look in their shed for a dead baby.


This will be why they ran off as soon as Constance was showing signs of pregnancy. This is why it was all so stupid and futile. Now they are baby killers. It won't go down well in prison.
Click to expand...
She won't go to prison - the only reason this case had such a high media profile is because the young mother is an aristocrat and her family wanted to find her.
 
Kondoru said:
Surely social services could have done something?
Click to expand...
You have a very open heart and want to help people. You appear to have socialist tendencies, at least from my American (capitalist) perspective.

You also appear to think that the government "should" do much more than it does. How much would you agree to having your taxes increase to pay for all this increased government action? How much intrusiveness in people's personal lives do you think would be necessary for this level of actions? Etc.

You can see where I am going with this. I am not being merely rhetorical - I would like to understand your reasoning.
 
SimonBurchell said:
She won't go to prison - the only reason this case had such a high media profile is because the young mother is an aristocrat and her family wanted to find her.
Click to expand...
Nah, a couple disappearing and living rough with a baby in winter would be a big story whoever they were.
Maybe not quite as interesting as these two though, with her being posh and him a sex offender.

Min Bannister said:
Yes, it probably happened a while ago. :( I am sorry for anyone who has to look in their shed for a dead baby.
Click to expand...
Can you imagine? :(

There was something slightly like it here a few years ago.
A vulnerable elderly man went missing from a care home in the next town along from mine, and the police asked residents to look in outbuildings for him.
He was found dead of exposure in a shed after a few days. The owners had been away, and their neighbour wouldn't go in without their permission, which took a while.
He could have been saved. It's too late for this poor child too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top