People Who Just Disappear (Go Missing)

[Spookdaddy]

The details are sketchy in my mind (I think the Buzzfeed Unsolved lads did an episode on it) but wasn't there a young woman who disappeared walking home late one night on Iceland? The police never did get to the truth - and discover remains - because they obsessed over forcing a confession by intimidation and extreme use of solitary confinement, from several people who may/may not have been involved.

I have a feeling you might be referring to two separate cases.

If it's the one I'm thinking of, the missing woman is relatively recent - the Birna Brjánsdóttir case, from around five years ago .

I think, in the second element you might be referring to is a reference to the Guðmundur and Geirfinnur case - which is a classic in the field of false confession. The events took place in the 1970's.

Article on The Reykjavik Confessions here.

There's also a book - Out Of Thin Air, by Anthony Adeane - which is worth reading if you're interested. (It really is one of those stories that you'd have a job making up.)

 

[Cochise]

I'm torn on this. I can understand Joan wanting to feel close to her daughter, but keeping all her things in the house - just in case the police decide there may be evidence there? Not sure that's entirely healthy.

It's not an unusual reaction to sudden death / missing loved ones.

I'm only just now clearing out my wife's stuff and she's been gone over a decade.

But I'm sure you're right, it's not healthy, and I might have handled my mental state better if people had been firmer with me when she first passed. But in my case there was no question of wrongdoing. If there had been I'm certain I'd have used it as an argument to leave everything untouched.

 

[Stormkhan]

It was the 1970's case I was thinking of, Spook.

 

[Spookdaddy]

It was the 1970's case I was thinking of, Spook.

It's a fascinating set of events - on different sorts of levels. Of the two missing men - the first was absolutely hammered, it was January, by the coast...in Iceland. I'm not sure there's much of a mystery there. But the circumstances around the second disappearance are quite strange, and would make a great start to a crime novel.

In regard to the false confessions - I seem to recall that at least one of the individuals involved had their memory so badly damaged by the treatment they endured that they still don't 'know' that they didn't do anything wrong, even though they know they didn't (that actually does make sense - but you'd probably have to see the interviews to understand why). On the subject of false memory and memory implantation, I believe it's now treated as something of a case study.

Edit: Worth noting for anyone who looks into this that there are photographs which accompany some articles on the subject which look highly authentic, but which are police reconstructions from the time of the investigation. As far as I know, despite the visual information in some of those images which might indicate otherwise, neither body was ever discovered.

 

[escargot]

A woman and her dog missing in Snowdonia.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/breaking-urgent-search-missing-dog-29688281

A body has been found.

Body found in search for missing walker with dog alive by her side

Police have now confirmed that a woman's body was found near Yr Aryg in the Carneddau mountain range earlier this afternoon. Formal identification is yet to take place but Ausra's family has been informed.

 

[ramonmercado]

I'm torn on this. I can understand Joan wanting to feel close to her daughter, but keeping all her things in the house - just in case the police decide there may be evidence there? Not sure that's entirely healthy.

Police don't think Christopher Halliwell was involved. A mother's hunches are not evidence and shouldn't direct police investigations. No doubt it will result in headlines and sales for the tabloids though.

A double murderer is "unlikely" to have been in York when Claudia Lawrence went missing, police have said.

Ms Lawrence, then 35, has not been seen since March 2009. No charges have ever been brought.

Witnesses now say Christopher Halliwell - serving life for killing two women in Wiltshire - had links to Yorkshire, and may have stalked females there.

The mother of Becky Godden, one of his victims, told the Daily Mirror there could be a link to Ms Lawrence's case. She said there was a claim Halliwell wanted to relocate to Yorkshire.

A chef at the University of York, Ms Lawrence was last seen walking towards her home on Heworth Road in the city on 18 March 2009.

North Yorkshire Police said it had investigated Halliwell's movements around the time she disappeared.Halliwell, a Swindon taxi driver, is serving life sentences for murdering Becky Godden, 21, in 2003, and Sian O'Callaghan, 22, in 2011.

Det Supt Wayne Fox, head of the Major Investigation Team at North Yorkshire Police, said officers had been working with their counterparts in Wiltshire since September 2016 when a detective there first suggested a possible link between Ms Lawrence's disappearance and Halliwell.

"We have pursued lines of enquiry which are focussed on any link he [Halliwell] may have to the North Yorkshire area and, in particular, the movements of Christopher Halliwell during the material times in which we believe Claudia came to harm," Det Supt Fox said. "The results of those enquiries, which included examinations of digital devices and the interviewing of several witnesses, indicated that Halliwell continued to operate as a taxi driver in the Swindon area within the relevant time parameters. Both investigation teams reached a position in which we concluded it to be unlikely that Halliwell left the Wiltshire area, or was present in North Yorkshire, at the time of Claudia's disappearance."

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-65280752

 

[catseye]

Police don'y think Christopher Halliwell was involved. A mother's hunches are not evidence and shouldn't direct police investigations. No doubt it will result in headlines and sales for the tabloids though.

A double murderer is "unlikely" to have been in York when Claudia Lawrence went missing, police have said.

Ms Lawrence, then 35, has not been seen since March 2009. No charges have ever been brought.

Witnesses now say Christopher Halliwell - serving life for killing two women in Wiltshire - had links to Yorkshire, and may have stalked females there.

The mother of Becky Godden, one of his victims, told the Daily Mirror there could be a link to Ms Lawrence's case. She said there was a claim Halliwell wanted to relocate to Yorkshire.

A chef at the University of York, Ms Lawrence was last seen walking towards her home on Heworth Road in the city on 18 March 2009.

North Yorkshire Police said it had investigated Halliwell's movements around the time she disappeared.Halliwell, a Swindon taxi driver, is serving life sentences for murdering Becky Godden, 21, in 2003, and Sian O'Callaghan, 22, in 2011.

Det Supt Wayne Fox, head of the Major Investigation Team at North Yorkshire Police, said officers had been working with their counterparts in Wiltshire since September 2016 when a detective there first suggested a possible link between Ms Lawrence's disappearance and Halliwell.

"We have pursued lines of enquiry which are focussed on any link he [Halliwell] may have to the North Yorkshire area and, in particular, the movements of Christopher Halliwell during the material times in which we believe Claudia came to harm," Det Supt Fox said. "The results of those enquiries, which included examinations of digital devices and the interviewing of several witnesses, indicated that Halliwell continued to operate as a taxi driver in the Swindon area within the relevant time parameters. Both investigation teams reached a position in which we concluded it to be unlikely that Halliwell left the Wiltshire area, or was present in North Yorkshire, at the time of Claudia's disappearance."

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-65280752

I think the police have a very good idea of who it might be. But no evidence to prosecute.

 

[Spookdaddy]

I think the police have a very good idea of who it might be. But no evidence to prosecute.

Yes. I was just going to post the same - and I think this may have been the case for quite some time.

 

[Spookdaddy]

When I think of this one I think of the Tony Parsons case, I don't know why. Scotland, probably. And while we now know that Tony's remains had been concealed on purpose, there still remains the fact that people can be invisible if they crawl into cover, and if anything happens whilst they are under that cover, they may not be found for some considerable while.

There's another ongoing case in the Highlands - which hasn't elicited much media interest - which I can't help thinking has the potential to go in a similar direction to the Tony Parsons case.

...Officers are continuing to search the beauty spot near Killichonan for any trace of the 28-year-old from Rosyth who was reported missing on Sunday, March 19.

Reece was camping with friends on the north shore of Loch Rannoch, near to Killichonan and was last seen by friends at around 11.30pm on the Saturday.

It was believed he was heading off to bed but there was no trace of him the following day and he was reported missing...

Source

It's difficult to make out an exact course of events from the details available, but whatever the precise nature of the facts are, he appears to have set off walking along the road that borders the north side of the loch, in darkness.

I know that area fairly well. It's isolated, it's unlit, the road is narrow - and some people drive along it at ridiculous speeds. There's little road traffic at night, and probably even less the further west you go - which probably exacerbates the temptation some might feel to drive like a nutter. (It wouldn't be difficult, driving that road at night, to feel like you were the only person left in the universe - and given how long it seems to take to get anywhere, I imagine the temptation to put your foot down is a strong one.) I would think very, very carefully before walking along that road during the hours of darkness.

 

[Min Bannister]

It's difficult to make out an exact course of events from the details available, but whatever the precise nature of the facts are, he appears to have set off walking along the road that borders the north side of the loch, in darkness.

It is also not clear if the loch has been searched as it is also a likely culprit.

 

[catseye]

It is also not clear if the loch has been searched as it is also a likely culprit.

Particularly if drink had been taken.

 

[ramonmercado]

I think the police have a very good idea of who it might be. But no evidence to prosecute.

Could you share any of the reasoning behind the police suspicions without actually naming the probable suspect?

 

[Spookdaddy]

It is also not clear if the loch has been searched as it is also a likely culprit.

Particularly if drink had been taken.

Yes, bodies of water and bodies full of booze do not mix.

When I try to visualise this from my memory of the road, which skirts very close to the water, I think around the east end - towards Kinloch Rannoch - the land slopes fairly gently into the loch, with a strip of stony strand between the road and the water. You'd probably need to make an effort to enter the loch at that point. Further west, I think there might be steeper drop offs, but I can't really remember.

 

[catseye]

Could you share any of the reasoning behind the police suspicions without actually naming the probable suspect?

I'm not privy to the police suspicions, only that I'm local and know many of the people who knew Claudia growing up. The general local opinion (which has never been denied by police) is that it's known who killed her. Which is why they keep 'turning up' new things (we had 'the finding of a cigarette stub in the alleyway a few years ago, and there was the most recent dragging of local ponds) - it's because they are trying to panic someone into a response.

 

[ramonmercado]

I'm not privy to the police suspicions, only that I'm local and know many of the people who knew Claudia growing up. The general local opinion (which has never been denied by police) is that it's known who killed her. Which is why they keep 'turning up' new things (we had 'the finding of a cigarette stub in the alleyway a few years ago, and there was the most recent dragging of local ponds) - it's because they are trying to panic someone into a response.

Thanks, I just wondered if the police reasoning as to what happened had leaked off the record.

 

[catseye]

Thanks, I just wondered if the police reasoning as to what happened had leaked off the record.

I think it may have to others. I'm sufficiently removed to not know exactly whose name is in the frame.

 

[Min Bannister]

Yes, bodies of water and bodies full of booze do not mix.

When I try to visualise this from my memory of the road, which skirts very close to the water, I think around the east end - towards Kinloch Rannoch - the land slopes fairly gently into the loch, with a strip of stony strand between the road and the water. You'd probably need to make an effort to enter the loch at that point. Further west, I think there might be steeper drop offs, but I can't really remember.

I feel sure there are some more banked bits too. I was thinking they may have been on one of those to sit and fish rather than wading.

 

[Carse]

It is also not clear if the loch has been searched as it is also a likely culprit.

It would take some searching, Loch Rannoch is absolutely huge. Nine miles long, nearly a mile wide and 130 metres deep.

 

[Frideswide]

It would take some searching, Loch Rannoch is absolutely huge. Nine miles long, nearly a mile wide and 130 metres deep.

It's only middling deep, but still plenty deep enough to be a tough search.

 

[Ghost In The Machine]

Wonder what the other locals here in York think? When Claudia went missing and for YEARS afterwards, the local police vans had that famous photo of her on the back, have you seen this woman, etc etc - with Claudia with blonde hair? I'm not misremembering am I?

A number of years on and you no longer see these but recently I came across a poster/picture/image (I forget where it was or what the context) - same basic missing poster thing. Maybe online, I forget. But now with brown hair. Now, at the time, everyone who knew her said she had reverted to her natural brown hair colour at the time she went missing, so wondered why the police had plastered everything with quite different looking images of her as a blonde - when she wasn't.

They seem to have put that right. 11 years too late.

Yorkies, do I remember right? The original posters you saw everywhere had her as a blonde?

 

[Ghost In The Machine]

I'm not privy to the police suspicions, only that I'm local and know many of the people who knew Claudia growing up. The general local opinion (which has never been denied by police) is that it's known who killed her. Which is why they keep 'turning up' new things (we had 'the finding of a cigarette stub in the alleyway a few years ago, and there was the most recent dragging of local ponds) - it's because they are trying to panic someone into a response.

Yes, my take on it is they know who it is, so it's not inaction on their part, just lack of evidence, for obvious reasons.

Thing is, that digging up the woods near the A64, the other year - surely that would shit up one of the other suspects?

 

[Carse]

A couple of posters on'ere called what happened to Parsons long before his body was found; namely, it's now alleged, a hit-and-run followed by hasty concealment of the remains. Poor bloke.

I remember that discussion and now you said that I wanted to read it again to see who was closest but it seems to have disappeared entirely. There are a couple of posts on this thread about the suspects being arrested but nothing else from before then. I thought maybe the search function was misbehaving again but I looked in my posting history (now that was an ordeal, I just write a load of pish..) and the posts I can clearly remember writing are gone too. Spooky! Mandela effect, or sub judice thread tidying?

 

[escargot]

I remember that discussion and now you said that I wanted to read it again to see who was closest but it seems to have disappeared entirely. There are a couple of posts on this thread about the suspects being arrested but nothing else from before then. I thought maybe the search function was misbehaving again but I looked in my posting history (now that was an ordeal, I just write a load of pish..) and the posts I can clearly remember writing are gone too. Spooky! Mandela effect, or sub judice thread tidying?

It's all there, a while back. I've read it recently.

 

[Carse]

It's all there, a while back. I've read it recently.

How strange! It doesn't appear in my post history at all. I'll need to investigate further.

 

[Earthly oddity]

Wonder what the other locals here in York think? When Claudia went missing and for YEARS afterwards, the local police vans had that famous photo of her on the back, have you seen this woman, etc etc - with Claudia with blonde hair? I'm not misremembering am I?

A number of years on and you no longer see these but recently I came across a poster/picture/image (I forget where it was or what the context) - same basic missing poster thing. Maybe online, I forget. But now with brown hair. Now, at the time, everyone who knew her said she had reverted to her natural brown hair colour at the time she went missing, so wondered why the police had plastered everything with quite different looking images of her as a blonde - when she wasn't.

They seem to have put that right. 11 years too late.

Yorkies, do I remember right? The original posters you saw everywhere had her as a blonde?

The photo used was of her with lighter hair. I think her father was said to have provided that photo, and the mother was not happy with its use because her hair was darker when she disappeared.

Oddly though - I also remember watching at least one documentary or reading that there was a bowl of hair dye/paraphenalia at the house when she disappeared. It may have been used by her house mate, as she had a female staying at the house close to that time.

It is weirdly similar to what happened with the issue of the Suzie Lamplugh photos - one was circulated with her hair highlighted, even though she had darker hair when she went missing. (I am sure it was that way around).

 

[Min Bannister]

How strange! It doesn't appear in my post history at all. I'll need to investigate further.

It's here:
https://forums.forteana.org/index.p...isappear-go-missing.68706/page-2#post-2027023

And then confirmed here:

https://forums.forteana.org/index.p...sappear-go-missing.68706/page-13#post-2210509

I can't see comments from yourself but I think mine don't show up because I didn't use Tony Parsons name in the posts so maybe that is why you can't find yours?

 

[Earthly oddity]

Yes, my take on it is they know who it is, so it's not inaction on their part, just lack of evidence, for obvious reasons.

Thing is, that digging up the woods near the A64, the other year - surely that would shit up one of the other suspects?

I think the police have probably been keeping a close eye on suspects for years. I also think they are keeping the story alive with recent revelations that they don't think Christopher Halliwell was involved (last day or so in the news). I hope if someone is hiding the truth, that they come forward soon, even if it means betraying a "friend" or "loved one." Her poor mother is still waiting.

 

[Min Bannister]

How strange! It doesn't appear in my post history at all. I'll need to investigate further.

There is also a short discussion here with a post of yours under "Anthony Parsons"
https://forums.forteana.org/index.p...isappear-go-missing.68706/page-5#post-2064589

 

[Min Bannister]

Ah, I think I have solved the mystery of the missing posts! There was a thread previously that has gone missing. This is discussed on the first page of this thread. Also, @NaughtyFelid was the first poster, at least on this version of the thread to mention the possibility of hit and conceal.
https://forums.forteana.org/index.p...just-disappear-go-missing.68706/#post-1963218

So you are not going mad @Carse. At least not in this case.

(Apologies for multiposting. I just started reading more and found more stuff)

 

[ramonmercado]

Moreno's body found.

A body has been found by police searching for a man reported missing more than eight months ago.

Jesus Moreno, 41, owner of the Piglove Brewing Co, was last seen at Harewood Bridge on the North Yorkshire border on Monday, 1 August 2022.

West Yorkshire Police said the body was found on Friday on land close to the River Wharfe in the Harewood area.

Formal identification is yet to be carried out but Mr Moreno's family has been informed of the discovery.

The force said there were not believed to be any suspicious circumstances.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leeds-65286597