Review of the most mysterious and unsolved disappearances

The disappearances have puzzled analysts and so far have no answers.

With the rapid development of technology and modern equipment, the police today can track down the whereabouts of fugitives or missing persons. However, in the past, this was not the case. There were many cases of people mysteriously disappearing, leaving the authorities helpless...

Let's review some of the most mysterious disappearances in history, as compiled from the Cracked page below.

1. Theater magnate Ambrose Small

The first case belongs to Canadian theater magnate Ambrose Small. Living in the first decades of the 20th century, this man was famous for owning most of the theaters in Eastern Canada.

He had a dream life with a well-off wife - she inherited a brewery from her father. However, Ambrose Small's personality was not pleasant at all, he loved gambling, women and discriminated against the poor.

Portrait of Canadian theater magnate in the first half of the 20th century

In 1919, Ambrose suddenly made a puzzling decision, selling all of his assets and earning 1.7 million USD (about 34 billion VND at the current exchange rate). After this, he suddenly disappeared without a trace. The strange thing was that the money was still intact, with no signs of robbery.

Although he disappeared on December 2, 1919, it was not until a short time later that the mysterious disappearance of Ambrose Small was discovered. The cause of this was believed to be due to the millionaire's womanizing habits, as he had often disappeared for days to be with his lovers. Therefore, his wife - Mrs. Theresa Small - only officially filed a missing person's report with the police on January 3, 1920, quite a while after the incident.

Grand Opera House (Toronto) - a theatre once owned by Ambrose Small

Ambrose's wife became the prime suspect, but due to lack of evidence, she was cleared. In an effort to find the theater tycoon, Canadian police turned to psychics, but to no avail.

When they began their investigation, police initially determined that Small had no motive for his disappearance. In addition, the millionaire had no money on him and no ransom note, let alone evidence of a kidnapping.

Theresa Small then offered a $50,000 reward for information about her husband's disappearance and whereabouts if he was alive and $15,000 if he was dead. However, no one has claimed the reward.

At the time, police also learned that in the two weeks before Ambrose was reported missing, his close aide John Doughty had also disappeared, and had even gone to the millionaire’s office twice to take checks worth $150,000 on the very day Ambrose went missing. However, this aide was ultimately convicted of theft and no trace was found of Ambrose Small’s disappearance.

Ambrose Small missing person report.

No news, no trace, no information, the disappearance of this millionaire came to an unbelievable dead end. Besides, there were also many hypotheses put forward regarding the disappearance of the millionaire, such as he was killed by his wife and burned in the furnace at the Opera House or the police themselves assisted the millionaire in this disappearance, but none of them were verified.

In 1924, five years after Ambrose Small disappeared, he was declared dead. The case was never solved until it was finally closed in 1960, with the theory that he had lost his memory and had secluded himself from the world. As for Ambrose's money, it was all donated to the church.

To this day, more than 100 years later, the disappearance of Ambrose Small remains one of Canada's most shocking events.

2. Judge Joseph Force Crater

Joseph Force Crater was a famous judge in New York in the 1930s. He worked at the New York Supreme Court and was highly regarded by Franklin D. Roosevelt (who later became the US president).

However, Joseph mysteriously disappeared at the height of his career. At the end of July 1930, after a summer vacation with his wife in Belgrade, Joseph received a strange phone call without telling his wife what it was about.

He then went to Atlantic City with his mistress Sally Lou Ritz. He told his wife that he was returning to New York to take care of business and promised to be home for her birthday, August 9.

Things did not go as planned. On the morning of August 6, Joseph spent two hours in his courtroom, then withdrew $70,777 from his personal funds. That evening, after watching a show at the Belasco Theater and having dinner with some friends, he suddenly disappeared.

Joseph Force Crater's wife and missing husband announcement

But strangely, 10 days after Joseph went missing, his wife discovered and reported it to the police. Without a trace, without evidence, the case was finally officially closed.

No one knows if Joseph Force Crater is alive or dead, so New Yorkers call him "The Missingest Man in New York" .

3. Female pilot Amelia Earhart

When mentioning Amelia Earhart, the whole world will immediately remember the image of one of the most talented female pilots in the world. She was the first person to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross medal of the United States, certifying that she was the first woman to fly across the Atlantic. Not only that, she was also a writer, a leader of the American female pilot organization The Ninety-Nines.

With an adventurous and daring personality, in 1937, Amelia announced that she would fly around the Earth in a Lockheed Model 10 Electra. True to her word, the female pilot's journey began that same year. However, she went missing while flying in the central Pacific Ocean, near Howland Island.

Suspecting that she had died, the US government spent a lot of effort and money searching for her body and the plane. But all of them found nothing, not even the smallest trace. In 1939, people officially announced that Amelia Earhart had died.

After the flight, no one had the chance to see Amelia Earhart again.

In December 2010, Amelia's story made waves again when a group of university students found the remains of a young woman on the island of Nikumaroro (Phoenix, Kiribati). DNA testing was conducted, however, they were still not sure enough to conclude whether it was the famous Amelia Earhart or not. Therefore, Amelia's whereabouts remain a mystery.

4. Air Force Lieutenant "Disappears" in Mid-Air

In 1953, Lieutenant Felix Moncla was stationed at Kinross Air Force Base in Michigan. During one of his shifts, Moncla observed an unidentified flying object (UFO) appear on radar.

He then flew an F-89 Scorpion interceptor to investigate the incident.

Lieutenant Felix Moncla and the alleged UFO image.

Ground radar observed that Moncla's plane was flying at 800km/h, heading straight towards the strange object. When it got close to the target, both the plane and the UFO suddenly disappeared.

A rescue team was sent to search for Moncla but they confirmed that they had not found any signs of a collision or debris.

Moncla and his plane have yet to be found.

5. Ghost Passenger on the MV Joyita

Like the Titanic, the MV Joyita was reputed to be unsinkable. However, this claim was shattered when in 1955 the ship capsized and sank en route from Fiji to Vanua Levu.

All 25 passengers and crew mysteriously disappeared.

The ship was found long after in the South Pacific. Four tons of cargo, along with medical supplies, wood, and food, were gone.

It was also discovered that all the lifeboats had disappeared and blood-stained bandages were found.

The MV Joyita was later found.

Scientist David Wright believes that a pipe on the ship corroded, causing it to gradually sink. This was like a time bomb that caused the accident.

David believes that due to lack of space on the boat, some people swam with life jackets. One by one, they died from drowning or being eaten by sharks.

However, the disappearance of the people on the boat remains unsolved.

6. Pilot Disappears with UFO

The disappearance of Frederick Valentich has caused a stir due to the discovery of a terrifying audiotape. Frederick Valentich was known as a light aircraft pilot.

In 1978, while en route to King Island, Australia, Frederick reported seeing a UFO 300m above the plane.

Specifically, Frederick said: " A strange plane is hovering over my head again. It is hovering and it is not a plane."

Pilot Frederick Valentich.

Shortly after, his plane began to malfunction and disappeared from radar. Examination of the audio recording revealed metallic noises in the last 17 seconds that analysts could not explain.

Also that week, about 10 UFO reports were sent to the Royal Australian Air Force.

7. The hijacker "disappeared" from the sky

DB Copper is the name given to the most famous hijacker of all time.

On November 24, 1971, the unidentified man took control of a Boeing 727 while it was flying between Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington.

He demanded a ransom of $200,000. After receiving the money, Copper parachuted out of the plane without leaving a trace.

The hijacker was nicknamed DB Copper.

Many theories have been put forward but none have been proven. Until recently, a girl reported that on the night of the siege, she saw her uncle Copper seriously injured.

She provided her uncle's fingerprints from the guitar. However, the fingerprint test did not conclusively prove that this was the mysterious hijacker.

8. Mysterious disappearances in the Bennington Triangle

The Bennington Triangle is an area in southwestern Vermont (northeast of the United States) surrounded by Glastenbury Mountain. This is also the site of a series of mysterious disappearances over a 30-year period, from 1920 to 1950.

The Bennington Triangle is an area in southwestern Vermont (northeast of the United States) surrounded by Glastenbury Mountain. This is also the site of a series of mysterious disappearances over a 30-year period, from 1920 to 1950.

A location in the Bennington Triangle.

On 1 December 1949, veteran James Tetford was reported to have disappeared from a crowded bus on St. Albans Road. Fourteen other passengers testified that Tetford had fallen asleep and then suddenly disappeared as the bus reached its final stop. A lengthy investigation was launched but the man’s whereabouts remain a mystery.

On December 1, 1946, Paula Welden, 19, disappeared while out for a walk. She was last seen falling and rolling down the Long Trail at Glastenbury Mountain. When investigators arrived, nothing unusual was found.

In October 1946, 8-year-old Paul Jepson disappeared from a farm. His mother had left him playing near a pig pen while she tended to the animals.

After a while, she could not find her child. An extensive search took place but to no avail.

These are just three of at least six unexplained disappearances in the past 30 years in Bennington.

9. Group of people disappear at Stonehenge after being struck by lightning

A group of hipsters held a ritual to celebrate the cycles of the universe in 1970 at the famous Stonehenge site .

They spent the night there, lighting a campfire and smoking marijuana. At about 2am, a lightning storm hit the Salisbury Plains.

Celebration of the cosmic cycle held in 1970 at Stonehenge.

A farmer and a police officer said they witnessed lightning strike the Stonehenge stones and turn the entire circle a blinding blue.

They then ran over, thinking the hippies might be dead. However, when they arrived, they found no one, despite hearing a loud scream.

Almost no further information is available about this mysterious incident.

10. Missing Flight MH370: The Biggest Mystery of the 21st Century

On March 8, 2014, Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 went missing while flying from Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Malaysia to Beijing Capital International Airport, China.

Many theories have been put forward, including conspiracy theories. However, these theories have no solid evidence and the mystery remains unsolved.

Image believed to be of MH370.

What we know so far is that some of the plane's transponders were manually turned off, and the flights changed direction sharply.

During this time, there were no calls from passengers or crew, nor were there any signals sent by the pilots. The wreckage of the plane has not yet been found.

11. The Strange Disappearance of an Entire Village

In 1930, on a cold night, Canadian fur trader Joe Labelle was shocked to discover that the Inuit village next to Lake Anjikuni had disappeared without a trace.

What remained were huts with large amounts of clothing and food (showing that the people did not leave voluntarily), a cemetery with a few graves excavated and cleaned, and a team of sled dogs buried under the snow and left to starve to death.

Inuit village residents disappear overnight.

Labelle then went to the police to report the disappearance, but the investigation into the disappearance of the entire village of more than 2,000 people yielded no results.

What's even stranger is that on the night the village disappeared, someone also reported seeing a green light running across the horizon.

Some people suspect that Labelle's story is a fabrication. Some have also pointed out that the story is similar to a story in a fictional book called " Stranger than Science " by Frank Edwards.

12. Roman Legion 9 - The proud army disappeared without a trace

By the 2nd century AD, the 9th Legion (Legio IX Hispana) had become one of the most fearsome armies in Roman military history.

Founded around 65 BC, the 9th Legion, consisting of more than 4,000 of the bravest and most courageous warriors, fought and won many victories in conquests from Africa and Spain to Germany and England.

Legio IX Hispana became one of the most fearsome armies in Roman military history.

But in 109 AD, while on an expedition to what is now Scotland, the entire elite legion mysteriously disappeared.

Most historians believe that the disappearance (due to disintegration due to death on the battlefield) of the elite corps is not mysterious at all. However, due to lack of evidence, all explanations have become legends.

One of the most popular legends of the time was that an army of thousands was destroyed by fierce Scottish warriors in 117 AD.

This legend has also been the subject of many films, books and television shows since then. Due to the lack of archaeological evidence, the truth about the disappearance of the elite Roman legion has never been discovered.

13. Lost Colony - The mysterious fate of hundreds of people challenges historians and archaeologists

Considered the most mysterious mass disappearance in human history, the fate of the migrants in the Lost Colony remains a difficult problem for historians and archaeologists.

The story goes that in 1587, 117 immigrants from England led by John White (1540 – 1593) came to Roanoke Island on the coast of North Carolina (USA) today to build a new life in the promised land.

Ironically, when they arrived, they encountered strong opposition from the natives. John White then decided to return to England to ask for military aid.

It was not until three years later, in 1590, that John White returned to Roanoke Island. The reality he witnessed was shocking: More than 100 people, men, women, and children, had disappeared without a trace.

What John White found was the word "CROATOAN" carved into a tree trunk. Thinking that it was a message from his compatriots before they migrated to a nearby island of the same name, John White and the British army decided to go find it. However, storms at sea prevented his good intentions before he returned to England shortly after.

John White's return means that the truth about the "disappearance" of hundreds of British migrants has never been clarified. Did they really migrate to another island? Or were they exterminated by the natives in the first place? These questions have remained unanswered for more than 400 years.

14. USS Cyclops - Disappeared without a trace in the deep ocean

The USS Cyclops was one of the largest fuel ships in the US Navy. It was last seen on March 4, 1918, while docked in the West Indies en route from Brazil to Baltimore, carrying 10,800 tons of manganese ore (used in the manufacture of munitions) and more than 300 passengers and crew.

The USS Cyclops never docked in Baltimore (a port city in Maryland, USA), because the giant ship and 306 people on board completely disappeared without a trace in the deep ocean. No one knows what happened!

USS Cyclops sank due to overload or storm attack? All are mysteries!

Led by an experienced captain, the disappearance of the USS Cyclops caused much controversy at the time.

Despite all efforts to search day and night, the fate of the USS Cyclops remains a complete mystery.