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People go missing every day. It's a hard truth of the world we live in, but no less sad and in need of addressing. According to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, over 600,000 individuals go missing in the United States every year. While, thankfully, many of them are found there are those whose cases remain open, unsolved, and so captivating they stay in our minds.
Reddit user, u/TeshYSM, wanted to hear about:
Whats one missing persons case that has always stuck with you?
A Lot Can Happen In A Few Hours
Asha Degree is always one I come back to. She was a really normal kid and reminds me a lot of myself at that age.
Edit: if you're interested in this kind of thing r/UnresolvedMysteries is great.
Yes this case is harrowing. She vanished from her bedroom and was last seen a few miles from where she lived in the middle of the night running out of the bushes by the side of a road. Her backpack was found almost 2 years later after it was dug up on a building site. Poor girl.
Not Murder. JUST Abduction. Right. That's Better.
Melissa Brannen from Lorton, Virginia in 1989.
She went with her single mother to an apartment complex Christmas party when she was 5 and disappeared. They think they know who did it, but because they couldn't find her body he wasn't charged with murder, just abduction. My oldest daughter was the same age and it was a local case, so it hit really close to home.
Georgia Ann Smith - On June 30, 1999, at around 6. 30 pm, Georgia Smith left Champlin, Minnesota heading for her lake home in Minong, Wisconsin for the holiday weekend. She never made it to her cabin. She may have driven through Cambridge, Minnesota; Siren, Wisconsin; and Spooner, Wisconsin or may have taken alternate routes. I know this area well. It's rural, and short of the possibility that she got confused, drove into a deep lake, drowned, and the car sunk, I cannot imagine why her family never found her. She was in her 70s when this happened and it didn't get a lot of press because, I guess, an older woman going missing is not sexy enough.
Johnny Gosch.
Disappeared while delivering newspapers. 15 years after he disappeared his month we said her some cake to visit her with another man before disappearing again. 24 years after he disappeared, his mother received photos of boys in captivity. All but one of the boys was identified as other kids from a different case.
Hard Not To Put Yourself In Their Shoes
Cherry Mahan.
She went missing in 1985 from the county right next to mine. We were the same age so it was scary. Suddenly parents who didn't know where their kids were most hours of the day started walking them to the bus stop.
She was the first missing child on flyers. It was always said that a van with a scenic picture on the side of a skier and mountain took her and if I ever see one, I still think of her to this day.
What Are The Odds Of That Happening The Way It Did?
Georgia Ann Smith - On June 30, 1999, at around 6. 30 pm, Georgia Smith left Champlin, Minnesota heading for her lake home in Minong, Wisconsin for the holiday weekend. She never made it to her cabin. She may have driven through Cambridge, Minnesota; Siren, Wisconsin; and Spooner, Wisconsin or may have taken alternate routes.
I know this area well. It's rural, and short of the possibility that she got confused, drove into a deep lake, drowned, and the car sunk, I cannot imagine why her family never found her. She was in her 70s when this happened and it didn't get a lot of press because, I guess, an older woman going missing is not sexy enough.
Leaving The Child In Charge
Tamra Keepness.
She disappeared from her home in 2004 when she was 6 years old. Both parents went out drinking separately and left her 11 year old sister in charge. No one noticed Tamra was missing until the next morning. There are theories she might have been taken to repay a debt of her parents but there has been no trace of her.
3 Years Old
William Tyrrell.
Went missing in 2014, age 3. Police think he was abducted from his grandmother's yard, but there's a whole lot of things that don't add up. I still cringe when I see young kids in a Spiderman suit.
Not Much Left Behind
Thelma Krul, she was about 60 year old woman who went for a jog one morning and vanished, there was one single video of some guy walking with who is presumably her but that's it.
She went missing at a community centre where they found her glasses and phone, but not her.
The search went on for years without leads until one year her skull was found in a forest.
It really sticks out to me because I remember thinking about her quite often hoping she was alive.JustBorde
"It is as if she vanished into thin air."
Sharran Haije.
She disappeared in Vaughn, Washington State in 2018. She was a 78 year old woman with dementia. She wandered away from her family's home wearing a nightgown and Crocs. She was known to wander off before, even going on to people's houses. An extensive multi-agency search was conducted in the rural, wooded area around the area.
It is as if she vanished into thin air.
Cults Always Lead To Good Things, Right?
Super Recent but - Joshua Vallow and Tylee Ryan.
Their stepfather leads this cult and is currently in Hawaii with their mom. No one knows where Joshua and Tylee are. So many murders and mysterious deaths surrounding the mom and step dad.
I hope Tylee and Joshua are safe.
No One Knows For Sure
Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon.
Their remains have been found. It seems like a pretty clear picture of just "lost in the woods" with a side of "fell and got hurt, cant move" but it would be nice to know for sure.
Someone Else To Report On
Jodi Huisentruit. She was a news anchor who was abducted in the parking lot of her apartment on her way to work. Nobody was ever arrested in connection with her disappearance, and her body was never found.
Gone From Such A Public Spot
A good friend of mine disappeared. He was a physicians assistant and a good one. One day he didn't come to work. His car was gone. He was never found. As far as any of us know he had no enemies as he was one of the nicest people possible.
Ryan Shtuka
Kamloops, BC. February 17, 2018
Last seen walking home, last heard in the background of a phone call arguing with an unknown person.
Im only a year or two younger in age from him, and have quite a few friends who knew him, and he was a very well liked guy.
There have been over 4,000 people looking for him in search parties and absolutely no leads or clues.
Quite a few people think his friends killed him.
Sad story.
Unhelpful Video Footage
Jennifer Kesse.
I ran into her father, 5 years after her abduction, posting missing persons flyers at a gas station 3 hours away from her abduction sight. He never gave up. Her beautiful face still haunts me and I still see posters around Florida 14 years later.
Oh, that was the one with the unfortunatly not very helpful video footage, right? Of the person dropping her car off at some parking lot, but the frame rate of the camera is so low that in ever single frame the suspect is behind a fence post, so you can't make anything out.
Truly Vanished
Michael Dunahee, a six year old boy who vanished from a neighbourhood softball game in March 1991 in Victoria, BC, Canada. Just vanished. My boyfriend at the time worked search and rescue. No one ever found a trace of this missing child.
This one comes up often. It is mind blowing, how long it has been since it happened with zero information. I was 8 at the time and have vivid memories of the news reports.
Money?
Blair Adams. He ran from western Canada to the American south saying he was being chased by someone. No one believed him. He was found beat to death in a parking lot with 5000 worth of 3 foreign currencies scatter all around his body
Soon To Make The Headlines
Etan Patz was 6 years old disappeared on a crowded NYC street walking to the bus stop on the corner. Etan was never found.
Johnny Gosch is the one that really sticks out though. 12 years old, Iowa boy. Disappeared early morning while delivering newspapers. His parents were mailed photos of their son tied up in bondage. A sex offender confessed to kidnapping Johnny and selling him into a child slavery ring. Johnny was never found. He was the original missing child on a milk carton.
It's Personal.
My aunt was kidnapped 3 years ago. She had just turned 18 almost a month before. I had only met her once before. I remember the moment we found out because my mom's family were at a party when we all found out about their little sister.
She was never found, no one is even looking for her. People are scared to even mention her name.
We miss her.
Wait Til The End...
Leigh Occhi. She was left home alone for the first time ever during the remnants of hurricane Andrew in 1992. Her mom went to work leaving Leigh at home, and tried to call her once she arrived. Leigh didn't answer the phone, and her mom got worried and left work to make sure she was okay. When she arrived home she found blood that hadn't congealed yet, but no sign of Leigh, and she immediately called the police.
Leigh has never been found, but her glasses were mailed to her ex-step dad a few weeks after she disappeared.