It occurred to me the other day that people disappear from lots of places, but some locations are consistent. Let's discuss where people disappear from and why.
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| The Great Smoky Mountains courtesy of wallpaper cave |
First I'm going to talk about where people tend to go missing and possibly why. Then, I'm going to highlight a few cases that are unexplained.
You'll notice that my research tended to find the most mysterious disappearances and I'm rolling with it. I'm also making a note of the fact that extensive parklands are often places where lone hikers do go missing. This is because it is easy to pick off a few hikers if they are in the middle of nowhere, as opposed to standing in the middle of a town full of people. Also, suicidal individuals may choose this setting to end their lives alone, as well as perhaps just getting lost in miles of park land.
Extensive Parkland
The Great Smoky Mountains are part of park land, which means you know what I'm going to tell you next. Tourists have gone missing over the years. I'm sure it is a great place to visit, though. In 1969 the largest manhunt ever could not find a 6 year old boy that went missing. The last one happened in 1981 and it was an elderly woman.
Yosemite National Park is a tourist hotspot, but again, this one has a history of missing persons reports. 45 reports have never been solved. This place has bear problems, though, so maybe the bears can answer us on what happened. This goes so far back it dates into the 1800s.
The Alaska Triangle is a large amount of wilderness space. They have hundreds of search and rescue missions every year. State troopers often find no trace of anything. From 1988 on, 1600 people have vanished. A famous political leader disappeared around this area and they couldn't even find the wreckage of his plane or a body.
Let me explain why this situation specifically is a problem. Usually, victims disappear in late afternoon or before severe weather. Often bodies are found missing shoes or clothes (as hypothermia's last phase is getting too hot) and at previously searched areas. Children are found a good distance from where they actually disappeared from. Parks also don't ask other agencies for help as often and handle it in-house. The weird fact of the matter is that feet alone show up on some shores (Washington State and British Colombia), sometimes still in shoes. Victims have wandered home, been found in a jail, or joined a cult (as they do operate in remote areas). Records are also not the greatest in parks disappearances. Bigfoot researchers discovered about 1600 people had gone missing in the wild. The larger the park the more possible it is to actually cover up a murder, get mauled by a bear, do suicide uninterrupted, or just take a bad fall leading to injury or death. Common sense says to GPS yourself if you hike alone.
The Desert
Obviously, the desert is not the place to find yourself stranded. You might actually die. Superstition Mountains in Arizona has a history of missing people. This time they found the bodies and they were beheaded! Again, deserts cause death if you don't know how to survive, but that's a bit extreme to lose one's head. They found a body and a campground with a bloody blanket and letters missing addresses and names, too. This is a treasure-hunting spot, as well as what some native Americans believe to be the entrance to the underworld. I think we've got a serial killer on our hands, if you want my opinion.
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| Superstition Mountains courtesy of Pinterest |
Survival in the desert is not what we are all taught at home, especially if you are from a city or an area that isn't close to a desert. People can be incredibly evil, too, and leave you in the desert to die. This is a place no one is going to stroll for fun. Some mentally ill individuals choose to stroll to their death in the desert. Others have drug issues or a crime is related. According to News Channel 3, a detective who investigated cases in the desert said "the real serial killer is the desert itself". Not many are hydrated enough to stand it or trained in survival.
Aircraft Graveyard
The Nevada Triangle is not where you should be flying. When a famous pilot went missing they looked for him and found his remains and plane in the area. Unfortunately, he's not the only one to crash and die here. Hundreds of pilots - not five, hundreds! - have gone missing in this zone.
You know what comes next, the Bermuda Triangle! This one has a history of messing with navigation tools. It not only traps planes, but also ships. Thousands of people have died in this area. Some blame the paranormal (aliens), others say Atlantis was located here and the crystals are destroying aircraft and boats, and others claim to have found a crystal pyramid underwater that causes crashes. Oh, and I'm not done with conspiracy. The idea that the slaves who died in these waters haunt the waters is a theory, as well as government testing of secret projects. The truth may fall rather flat in comparison. Weather and human error are likely the cause of this situation. Cyclones and methane hydrates (gas explosions in the water) could sink a ship or destroy a plane quick. Electronic fog can make navigation impossible, which is how tools don't work. It may just be that people are stupid or the weather is to blame.
On The Water
Lake Superior is a missing person zone? Yep, it is. Shipwrecks litter the bottom of the lake. A wreck from a hundred or more years can be found in the water. 70 ships have gone down and 17 have not been discovered yet. Lake Michigan is also known for some missing people.
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| A Shipwreck at Lake Superior Courtesy of Reddit |
It can be said that many ships go down in the ocean. Hundreds, in fact. Piracy is also a situation we have to face, only now they hold machine guns instead of swords. Currents are not helpful. They carry evidence farther from the shipwreck site. As satellite images get better we can find ships faster.
Out Hunting
Pecos, New Mexico is a hunting destination and a zone where several have gone missing. In 2009 a 61 year old man stayed back at the cabin during a hunting trip and never was seen again. He's not the only one to go missing, which leads to lots of alien and supernatural theories that probably are false.
Hunting expeditions are somewhat like hiking expeditions. I'll say the same thing about treasure hunters in the jungle. They have gone missing because they got lost or attacked. The jungle is one place they may not waste too much time combing. The woods are hard to navigate and the idea that people go missing one place and move north or south afterward makes searching hard. This goes right up in the park land category, if I'm honest.
No Explanation and No Answers
This is the heartbreaking part for those who have lost loved ones in this manner. After seven years they are declared legally dead unless proven otherwise. While this would be the perfect way to fake one's death, I don't recommend doing that. Some families never got closure. One man searched for his son for years just to get closure and find the body (he did). My heart goes out to those that have to live with that reality, that they'll never know what happened.
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| Hoer Verde Courtesy of TheRichest |
In Brazil, there was a village that was abandoned entirely. 600 people left everything there - food and all their belongings! The only clue they have is a blackboard that read "There is no salvation". This has been blamed on aliens or political upheaval. It is called Hoer Verde.
If you want more of this information, you can look up "towns that disappeared overnight" and make yourself turn on every house light in the process. I'm stopping here. I need to go watch something light and absurdly comedic. Many urban explorers will find these towns and houses with all the possessions in them, especially in Europe where they don't vandalize as much. I'll let you research at your leisure.
Sources:
https://www.thetravel.com/25-mysterious-places-people-keep-disappearing-from/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNShqCIKSqw
https://nypost.com/2020/07/04/why-hundreds-of-people-vanish-into-the-american-wilderness/
https://adventure.howstuffworks.com/survival/wilderness/10-mysterious-disappearances-in-national-parks.htm
https://www.rd.com/list/mysterious-disappearances-no-one-can-explain/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_who_disappeared_mysteriously:_1990%E2%80%93present
https://www.missingpersons.gov.au/about/why-people-go-missing
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