In the dead of night or the light of day, people can vanish
without a trace. And sometimes what's left behind
is more disturbing than the disappearance itself.
From frantic last words on a phone line to cryptic messages
scrawled on billboards, the world's creepiest unsolved
disappearances are riddled with bizarre clues that only deepen
the mystery. These are not just ordinary
missing persons cases. Each is a chilling tale with
details so strange and unexplainable that they sound
like the plot of a horror novel. We will delve into eleven such
cases, stories of individuals who stepped out of the ordinary
and straight into the unknown. As we journey through each
disappearance, pay attention to the eerie evidence and
unanswered questions that connect them.
One case features a terrified traveler sprinting out of an
airport, claiming people wanted to kill him.
Another a young man whose final exclamation on a cell phone call
is followed by silence. You'll hear about an abandoned
car containing a live puppy and a lipstick smeared message, a
mysteriously wiped computer that hides its owner's secrets, and
an ominous phone call from a missing child pleading for help.
Each story unfolds with its own unsettling twists, unexplained
sightings, odd personal items left behind in inexplicable
places, and hints of dark conspiracies lurking in the
background. Prepare yourself for a long,
haunting exploration of these mysteries.
The tone is foreboding, the details are perplexing, and the
truth is maddeningly elusive. This journey will take us from
deserted highways and college campuses to cruise ships and
quiet suburban homes. Each stop offering a glimpse
into a nightmare that remains unresolved.
These creepy, enigmatic disappearances will send a chill
down your spine and leave you questioning how such things can
happen in our world. Now dim the lights if you dare,
and let's step into the shadows of these unsolved cases,
beginning with the inexplicable vanishing of a young man named
Lars Mitank. Lars Mitank, the tourist who
vanished into thin air. It was supposed to be an
enjoyable summer getaway on the black seacoast, but for 28 year
old Lars Mitenk, a German tourist in Bulgaria, the trip
turned into a nightmare that defies explanation.
In July 2014, Lars was vacationing with friends at the
popular Golden Sands Resort near Varna.
The week had been full of typical holiday fun, beach
outings, nightlife, laughter. But in the final days of the
trip, something went very wrong. Lars got into a minor
altercation at a bar over a football soccer dispute.
He was a fan of SV Verder Bremen and exchanged heated words with
some rival fans. Later that night, he vanished
from his friends, only to resurface the next morning with
an unsettling story. He claimed he'd been attacked by
a group of locals hired by the men from the bar.
He said he'd been beaten, suffering a possible fractured
jaw and a ruptured eardrum. Because of the ear injury, a
resort Dr. advised him not to fly immediately.
Lars insisted his friends go home without him as scheduled,
promising he would be fine alone for a couple more days until he
could safely fly. Left on his own in a foreign
country, Lars began to behave strangely.
He checked into a cheap hotel in Varna to wait for his ear to
heal, but that night he became extremely paranoid.
He called his mother in Germany in a hushed, urgent tone and
whispered that people were trying to kill him, begging her
to cancel his credit cards. On the hotel's security cameras,
Lars can be seen pacing the halls, nervously peering out
windows, and hiding in an elevator, as if evading someone
unseen. Around 1:00 AM, he abruptly left
the hotel without his belongings, only to return an
hour later, still agitated. By dawn on July 8th, Lars was
determined to catch a flight home.
He texted his mother that he was headed to the airport.
At Varna Airport, Lars visited the airport medical office to
have his ear checked one last time.
He was acting anxious and erratic.
The doctor Doctor Kosta Kostov, later recalled that Lars seemed
nervous and paranoid. As the exam was underway, a
construction worker entered the room.
The airport was undergoing renovations, and something in
Lars snapped, his face filled with terror.
I don't want to die here. I have to get out of here.
He suddenly shouted before bolting out of the doctor's
office. Without any warning, Lars
sprinted out of the terminal, abandoning his luggage,
passport, wallet and phone. Airport security cameras
captured him in his yellow T-shirt, darting past bewildered
travellers. The footage shows Lars running
at full speed out of the building and into the parking
area, then climbing a fence and disappearing into a field of
tall grass that borders a dense forest.
In those few moments, Lars Mitank, a young man on his way
home, vanished into thin air. Despite exhaustive searches of
the area, no trace of Lars was found beyond that chilling CCTV
video. It's as if the forest swallowed
him up. His distraught mother flew to
Bulgaria to aid the search, but came up empty handed.
Over the years, there have been numerous reported sightings.
A hitchhiker matching his description here, a transient
man resembling him there, But none have ever been confirmed.
The bizarre circumstances of Lars's case have spawned
countless theories. Did he suffer a mental breakdown
or hallucinations, possibly induced by medication or an
undiagnosed condition? Some doctors speculated that an
antibiotic he'd been prescribed, cefprozil, can rarely cause
psychotic side effects, though it was unclear if he even took
any pills. Or was Lars truly being followed
and threatened as he believed? If so, who were they, and did
they ultimately catch up to him? Could criminals have been after
him, or was it paranoia taking hold?
One theory posits that Lars, in a panic, might have fled into
the woods and accidentally died from exposure or an injury his
body somehow missed by searchers in the thick terrain.
Bulgaria's summer heat can be brutal, and without his wallet
or passport, he may have succumbed to the elements.
Yet hope lingered for years that Lars might still be alive,
perhaps wandering with amnesia or hiding out.
The Internet latched onto the eerie airport footage, making
Lars Mitank something of a legend.
Dubbed the most famous missing tourist on YouTube due to the
millions of views of his last known moments, his case is
frequently shared by armchair detectives and true crime
aficionados, all haunted by the sight of that lone figure
fleeing as though pursued by invisible demons.
To this day, the fate of Lars MIT Tank remains a chilling
enigma. Was he truly in danger from
outside forces? Or was he running from delusions
born inside his own mind? The image of Lars sprinting out
of an airport, eyes wide with terror, is a scene straight out
of a nightmare, one that ends without answers.
As we leave the mysterious forests of Varna behind, our
journey of unsettling disappearances continues.
Next, we head to North Carolina, where another young man's fate
is entangled with a set of clues so bizarre they sound like
fiction. Zeb Quinn, the car with lipstick
and a puppy. On a winter night in the year
2000, Zeb Quinn clocked out of his shift at a Walmart in
Asheville, NC and met up with a friend for what should have been
a routine errand. The 18 year old Quinn had plans
to go check out a Mitsubishi Eclipse he was thinking of
buying and his Co worker Robert Jason Owens offered to come
along in a separate car. It was January 2nd, just after
the new year. The two young men drove off in
separate vehicles into the chilly evening, keeping in touch
via their car headlights and presumably occasional stops.
Sometime around 9:15 PM, while en route, Zeb flashed his
headlights, indicating he needed to pull over.
He told Owens that he had gotten a page.
This was 2000, when pagers were still used and had to return a
call. Zeb drove to a nearby gas
station to use a pay phone. According to Owens, when Zeb
returned from the phone, he seemed agitated and said he had
to cancel their plans and head home.
He supposedly speed off, rear ending Owens's truck
accidentally in his rush. That was the last time anyone
saw Zeb Quinn in person. When Zeb failed to show up for
work the next day or contact his family, he was reported missing.
The story took an even stranger turn 2 weeks later when his
Mazda Protege was discovered abandoned in the parking lot of
a local restaurant. The site that greeted
investigators was utterly perplexing.
The car's headlights had been left on and the doors were
locked. Inside, police found Zeb's pet
Labrador mix puppy alive and unharmed sitting in the vehicle.
Perhaps most bizarre of all, a large drawing of two lips like a
cartoonish lipstick kiss and two exclamation points had been
scrawled in pink lipstick on the car's back windshield.
The odd graffiti in the presence of the puppy, which did not
belong to Zeb, it was not his dog, immediately signaled that
this was no ordinary abandoned and run scenario.
It looked almost like a message or a cruel prank.
Investigators also found a hotel key card and several empty drink
bottles in the car. But those clues LED nowhere.
The unsettling condition of Zeb's car left family and
detectives equal parts baffled and disturbed.
Why would someone leave a live puppy in a missing man's vehicle
and scribble lipstick markings on the glass?
Some wondered if it was a calling card from an abductor or
killer meant to taunt the police.
Others thought it could be an elaborate hoax to mislead
investigators. Suspicion naturally turned
toward Robert Jason Owens, the last person to see Zeb alive.
Owens told police about the page that Zeb supposedly received and
his abrupt departure. Interestingly, phone records
later showed that Owens himself had placed a call to Zeb's pager
around the time they stopped at the gas station.
Owens claimed this was at Zeb's request to test the pager, but
it added a whiff of premeditation to the story.
Furthermore, the day after Zeb vanished, Owens was treated for
a head injury and broken ribs, which he said were from a second
car accident he got into, but no report of such an accident was
filed. Over time, these inconsistencies
painted Owens as a person of interest.
Years went by with no sign of Zeb Quinn's whereabouts.
His disappearance became one of Asheville's most infamous cold
cases. Rumors swirled.
Some people whispered that Zeb had been in a secret
relationship and this might have been a crime of passion.
Others suspected a drug deal gone wrong or a kidnapping.
The peculiar clue of the lipstick kiss had amateur
sleuths crafting theories about jealous lovers or psychopathic
pranksters. Through it all, Zeb's mother
never gave up seeking answers. A breakthrough, or at least a
shocking development, finally came 17 years later.
In 2017, Robert Jason Owens was indicted for Zeb Quinn's murder.
Owens, it turns out, had gotten into other trouble with the law.
He was convicted for an unrelated double homicide of a
couple in 2015. Facing charges, Owens struck a
plea deal in Zeb's case in 2022, admitting to being an accessory
after the fact. According to what emerged in
court, Owens alleged that Zeb had been killed as part of a
murder for hire plot. The story Owens told was that a
third person, the jealous boyfriend of a woman whom Zeb
had a flirtation with, had ordered his uncle to kill Zeb,
and Owens had only helped dispose of the body.
If this account is true, it's a twisted tale involving a love
triangle and a contracted hit, which would make the bizarre
scene with the car and puppy and even more perplexing.
Postscript Was the car staged to throw off investigators, perhaps
by Owens or others involved? Or were those details the puppy,
the lipstick, an unrelated red herring introduced by someone
who found the car? To this day, Zeb's body has
never been found, and many in his community still wonder which
parts of Owens's story are true. Officially, the case is
considered solved with Owens's conviction as an accessory, but
without a body and with so many odd unanswered questions, it
feels far from resolved in the public's mind.
The image of that lonely Mazda with its headlights eerily
aglow, a sad puppy waiting inside, and a mysterious
lipstick message on the window remains seared into the memory
of all who followed the case. It's a scene as haunting as any
horror movie. Only this one was real.
As we leave the puzzle of Zeb Quinn behind, we move to another
baffling disappearance. Next we'll drive down a dark
rural Rd. in Minnesota where a young man's frantic phone call
to his parents became the last trace of him.
Brandon Swanson the vanishing after the oh shit call.
Not long after high school graduation in spring 2008,
Brandon Swanson of Marshall, MN was enjoying a night out with
friends to celebrate the end of the college semester.
The 19 year old had attended a couple of small gatherings on
May 13th, 2008 and into the early hours of May 14th, he
decided to head home. Past midnight, Brandon drove his
Chevy Lumina down the rural back roads that cut through endless
fields. It was dark and remote.
Southwestern Minnesota is farmland as far as the eye can
see, with occasional small towns dotting the map.
Sometime after 1:30 AM, Brandon misjudged a turn and his car
jolted into a ditch. He wasn't hurt, but the car was
stuck. Frustrated and stranded in the
middle of nowhere, Brandon grabbed his cell phone and
called his parents for help. Brandon told his mother and
father, Annette and Brian Swanson, that he believed he was
near the town of Linde, a short drive from their home.
They agreed to come pick him up, so Brandon stayed on the line
and tried to guide them by flashing his car's headlights.
Out on those country roads, however, it was pitch black.
His parents drove around trying to find him, but neither they
nor Brandon could spot each other's lights in the distance.
The situation grew more frustrating as time passed.
Cell reception was spotty, causing some dropped calls, but
Brandon always called back and reconnected.
Determined to find a recognizable landmark, Brandon
decided to leave his car and walk toward lights.
He could see what he thought was the town of Lind.
He kept talking to his father as he walked, describing what he
saw and trying to figure out where he was.
Brian, his father, drove to the parking lot of a known bar in
Lind where they plan to meet. For about 47 minutes, father and
son stayed in contact via phone as Brandon trudged along gravel
roads in the dark early morning. Understandably, both were a
little on edge. The rural night can play tricks
on your senses, and Brandon was disoriented by the
miscalculation of his location. Then shortly after 2:30 AM, as
Brandon was speaking, he suddenly interrupted himself mid
sentence and exclaimed. Oh shit.
The exclamation was abrupt and alarmed, as if he had been
startled or had lost his footing.
Immediately after that, the line went silent.
At first, Brian thought his son might have dropped the phone or
that it died, but repeated attempts to call Brandon back
went straight to voicemail. Brandon Swanson was never heard
from again after that brief cry of alarm.
When morning came and there was still no sign of Brandon, his
parents reported him missing. Initial law enforcement response
was frustratingly slow. The first officer reportedly
suggested that it wasn't uncommon for young men Brandon's
age to stay out all night and that he might turn up later on
his own. But Brandon wasn't the type to
run away or ignore his parents calls.
The discovery of something crucial changed the tone.
Cell phone records showed that Brandon had not been near Linde
at all during that call. In fact, his phone had pinged
closer to a town called Porter, about 25 miles from where he and
his parents thought he was. Acting on this new information,
searchers eventually located Brandon's abandoned Chevy
nowhere near Lind, but off a gravel Rd. by Taunton along the
Yellow Medicine River. This deep in the mystery,
Brandon had been mistaken about his position, likely due to the
flat landscape and darkness. If he was walking toward what he
thought was Lind, he might actually have been heading
toward an entirely different set of lights.
Despite massive search efforts, including hundreds of
volunteers, trained dogs, and later even search teams over
multiple years, no trace of Brandon has ever been found.
The leading theory is that Brandon may have fallen into the
Yellow Medicine River that night.
Perhaps the oh Shit was uttered as he accidentally slipped into
a Creek or riverbank in the dark and cold water.
The river was high that spring and could be treacherous.
However, extensive searches of the water and surrounding area
failed to find his body. Not a shoe, not his phone,
nothing. It's as if the earth opened up
and swallowed him. After that anguished
exclamation. Some have speculated about other
possibilities. Could Brandon have stumbled upon
something or someone in those desolate fields?
For instance, fallen down an unmarked well or been the victim
of foul play. There's no evidence of a crime,
but the complete lack of evidence of anything is
perplexing. Brandon's disappearance led to
changes in Minnesota law. His parents lobbied for
Brandon's Law, which was passed in 2009, requiring authorities
to take missing adult cases seriously and begin
investigations promptly, even if the person is over 18.
The Swansons, who heartbreakingly had to drive
home night after night with an empty back seat, turned their
tragedy into advocacy to help other families.
Yet for them, and for those who have followed the case, an eerie
cloud hangs over that stretch of rural Rd.
The mental image is chilling. A lone young man on a dark
night, breath visible in the cold air, walking toward distant
lights under the vast starry sky, when something unseen
causes him to gasp. Oh shit, in terror.
And then he's gone. The unresolved ending to
Brandon's story continues to torment all who seek to
understand it. As we leave this dark Minnesota
Rd. behind, our path leads next to a college campus where
another young man stepped out for a moment and never returned,
and where a computer's erase data provides a sinister hint at
what might have happened. Joshua Gamond, the college party
and the erased hard drive. On a cold November night in
2002, Joshua Gimond walked away from a small gathering of
friends at his college campus and into oblivion.
Joshua was a 20 year old student at St.
John's University in Collegeville, MN, a quiet campus
surrounded by Woodlands and lakes.
On the night of November 9th, 2002, he had been at a dorm
apartment party with friends, enjoying a few drinks and card
games. Sometime near midnight, Joshua
stepped out of the gathering, possibly to walk back to his own
dorm a short distance away. He left without saying anything
unusual. Maybe he intended to use the
bathroom, or get some air, or simply head home.
The path back to his dormitory would have only taken a few
minutes, crossing a short bridge by a lake, but Joshua never made
it back. By the next day, when friends
realized he hadn't been seen and missed a planned meeting, alarm
bells rang. The search for Joshua began
combing the campus, nearby woods, and the waters of the
adjacent stumped lake, but nothing was found.
The initial assumption was that Joshua might have fallen into
the lake while walking back, since a Bloodhound did pick up
his scent near the bridge over the water.
Yet repeated dives turned up no body.
As days turned 2 weeks, the simple accident theory became
less certain, and more puzzling clues emerged.
Joshua's dorm room had been left in a normal state, his car still
parked on campus, jacket in his room.
Notably, his glasses, which he wore to see, were found in his
apartment, meaning he ventured out that night without them,
which was uncharacteristic. There was no sign of struggle
anywhere along the path he likely took.
The case was growing cold when, months later and almost sinister
discovery was made regarding Joshua's computer.
Someone had accessed Joshua's personal computer after he went
missing and wiped out important data from the hard drive.
Specifically, investigators determined that files in the web
browser and other pieces of data had been erased using a disk
cleaning program. And the records showed this
happened days after Joshua disappeared, at a time when
Joshua himself obviously wasn't there to do it.
In other words, someone with potentially something to hide
had been in his dorm room and on his PC.
This revelation blew open the range of theories.
It suggested that perhaps Joshua hadn't simply fallen in a lake.
Maybe foul play was involved, possibly by someone he knew on
campus. Investigators digging into the
recovered computer data found that Joshua had been engaging in
online chats in the time leading up to his disappearance.
He had been using a fake persona online, posing as a woman named
Ashley to chat with men on services like Yahoo Personals.
It was speculated that Joshua, who was known as a politically
active and straight laced student, might have been
exploring his identity or sexuality in secret.
One theory is that he arranged to meet someone he met online
that night and encountered a predator.
Lending credence to this possibility was another odd
campus incident. Around the same time frame.
Students had reported seeing an unknown man in an orange Pontiac
Sunfire car cruising around, dropping off male passengers
late at night. When security approached one of
the men being dropped off, the man bolted away, which seems
suspicious. After Joshua vanished, that
vehicle was investigated, but the driver didn't provide
helpful information and the car was later destroyed.
A strangely timed disappearance of a potential lead.
To complicate matters, Joshua's disappearance happened in an era
when a string of young men in the Midwest had gone missing
under mysterious circumstances, some linked dubiously by the
so-called :) killer theory. Joshua's case drew comparisons
to these incidents, though nothing conclusive tied them
together. Another angle.
Joshua was an ambitious student in the Political science club,
and he had been researching scandals involving the
university's personnel. In fact, St.
John's University was embroiled in a clergy abuse scandal around
2002, and Joshua had openly expressed anger about it.
Some wondered if he stumbled upon information that put him in
danger, though police found no hard evidence of this.
As the investigation dragged on, Joshua's parents became
increasingly frustrated with the lack of answers.
Over the years, tips would dribble in, a possible sighting
here, a random idea there, but nothing panned out. 20 years
later, the case remains unsolved, but the presence of
that wiped computer data hovers over it like a dark cloud.
Who sat down at Joshua's desk in the days after he vanished?
And what were they trying to conceal?
Perhaps it was some well meaning friend removing personal
information, but if so, why not come forward?
The silence is telling. Joshua's story is a mix of
college innocence and deeply disturbing possibilities. 1 can
imagine the once bustling dorm, now quiet.
The glow of Joshua's computer screen as files disappear 1 by
1, leaving behind only questions.
With those questions in mind, we move on to another
disappearance, that of a bright young television news anchor who
vanished on her way to work, leaving behind a scene of
struggle and years later, a truly creepy message on a
billboard. Jodi Husen Truet, the
anchorwoman and the cryptic billboard.
In the pre dawn hours of June 27th, 1995 in the small city of
Mason City, IA, 27 year old Jodi Huizentruet was running late for
work. Jodi was a popular local TV news
anchor for the morning show at KMT.
She lived in an apartment not far from the station.
That morning when she didn't show up on time to the studio, a
colleague called her. Jodi answered the phone,
apologizing and saying she'd overslept and was on her way.
But Jodi never arrived at work. Concerned Co workers alerted
police. When officers went to Jodi's
apartment complex, they found a chilling scene.
In the parking lot near Jodi's parked car were her personal
items, scattered as if there had been a struggle.
A hair dryer, earrings and one of her red high heeled shoes lay
on the ground. The car key was bent, still
stuck in the door lock of her Toyota Miata, suggesting someone
snatched her just as she was about to get in the car.
It was immediately treated as an abduction.
Neighbors reported possibly hearing a scream at around 4:00
AM, but no one saw the attacker. Jody Hyson Truett had vanished
without a trace of her beyond the disturbed evidence at the
scene, the abduction of a well known local television
personality sent shock waves through the community.
Jody was a familiar, friendly face on TV every morning, and
now she was the center of a terrifying mystery.
Massive searches and investigations ensued.
Police and volunteers scoured surrounding areas, lakes and
parks. Over time, a few potential leads
emerged, including a white van seen in the area that morning,
and persons of interest, such as a friend, an older male
acquaintance who had spent time with Jody socially were
questioned. But nothing concrete ever
materialized. It was as if someone had been
lying in wait for her that morning and executed a swift,
brutal kidnapping. The case grew cold, but Jodie's
family and friends kept her memory alive, and the story
periodically surfaced in the media, keeping locals wary that
a kidnapper was still at large. Years passed with no answers
until something bizarre and macabre occurred in early 2020,
almost 25 years after Jodie's disappearance, unknown
individuals vandalized a billboard dedicated to finding
Jody with a cryptic message spray painted across it. the
Billboard, which featured Jody's photo and the plea Someone Knows
Something is It You, was defaced on New Year's Eve with the words
Frank Stearns Machine Shed emblazoned in large yellow
letters. This strange graffiti
immediately grabbed attention. Frank Stearns was the name of a
now retired Mason City police officer who had long worked on
Jodie's case and machine. Shed seemed to imply some kind
of location. Was this a clue?
A taunt? Investigators treated it
seriously. The vandalism happened in the
middle of the night. Witnesses later came forward
saying they saw two individuals dressed in black who quickly
climbed a ladder to spray paint the message and then vanished
into the dark. The cryptic phrase LED some to
speculate. Was someone suggesting that
evidence, or Jodi herself could be found in a machine shed
belonging to or connected to Frank Stearns?
Or was it accusing the former investigator of something?
The authorities publicly stated that Frank Stearns was not
considered a suspect, and he himself said he had no idea what
it meant. This was not the first time
Jodi's case had encountered strange turns.
In the late 2000s, a Mason City police officer turned
whistleblower claimed she had heard that certain local
authorities might have been involved in Jodie's abduction,
implying a cover up. Those allegations were
investigated but never substantiated, and the officer
was dismissed. The graffiti on the Billboard
felt like a ghost from those rumors, hinting at some hidden
truth behind Jodie's fate. It reignited public interest and
new leads were sought. But as of today, nothing
definitive has come from the machine shed message. the
Billboard itself was cleaned and reprinted, but the eerie memory
of those spray painted words lingers.
Jody Wiesentruit's case remains one of Iowa's most haunting
unsolved mysteries. Here was a vibrant young woman
with a successful career snatched in her own apartment
parking lot, likely by someone who knew her routine.
Decades later. There's no body, no crime scene
beyond scattered belongings and no answers, only theories and
whispers. Some suspect a stalker became
obsessed with Jody from watching her on TV.
Others think it could have been someone she knew who harbored a
secret grudge or infatuation. The passage of time without
answers is cruel, but her loved ones continue to seek closure.
Occasionally, fresh attention, like the Billboard incident,
breathes new life into the case, raising hopes that a guilty
conscience or a slip of the tongue might one day unravel the
truth. Until then, the image of that
lonely red shoe by Jodi's car and the eerie graffiti calling
out from a billboard serve as reminders that this story isn't
over. It's a chilling thought that
somewhere out there someone knows exactly what happened that
June morning in 1995. As we leave Jodi's case with its
silent scream in the night and it's cryptic message, years
later, we come to another perplexing disappearance.
Our next story takes us to Columbus, OH where a young man
entered a bar and seemingly never came out, leaving behind
one of the most baffling surveillance videos ever seen.
Brian Schaefer, the man who never left the bar.
Brian Schaefer was a 27 year old medical student at Ohio State
University and on the night of March 31st, 2006, he decided to
celebrate the start of Spring Break with friends.
Brian had just finished finals and despite feeling a bit
rundown from studying, he hit the town in Columbus, OH.
He and his friend Clint went bar hopping that evening, having a
shot or two at each spot, enjoying the live music and
campus bar scene. Around midnight, they ended up
at a popular bar in the South Campus gateway called the Ugly
Tuna Saluna. Security cameras recorded Brian
and Clint riding an escalator up to the bar's entrance at about
1:15 AM on April 1st, laughing and in good spirits inside.
They met up with some other friends at around 1:55 AM,
shortly before closing time. CCTV footage captured Brian in
the bar's hallway chatting with two women, then waving to them
as he turned to re enter the main bar area.
And then Brian vanished off camera.
When the Ugly Tuna closed, patrons filtered out into the
night. Clint and others waited outside
for Brian, but he never appeared.
At first they assumed he might have left earlier or found
another way home, but Brian Schaefer was never seen again.
The investigation into Brian's disappearance quickly zeroed in
on the incredible puzzle posed by the surveillance tapes.
The bars entrance was under video surveillance and Brian was
clearly seen going in. Strangely, there was no footage
of Brian ever coming out. Police and security reviewed the
tapes frame by frame. Every person who entered was
accounted for leaving except Brian.
It was as if he evaporated inside the bar.
The Ugly Tuna was located on the second floor of a building
accessible by 1 escalator and a freight elevator, the latter not
generally for public use. There was a back exit under
construction at the time, but it wasn't a normal route for
patrons. If Brian left through that
construction area, he might have avoided a camera, but it would
have been hazardous and convoluted.
Yet no other trace of him was found in the building either.
Columbus police were flabbergasted.
How does a grown man disappear from a crowded bar without a
single camera catching where he went?
Brian's family and girlfriend were devastated.
He had planned a trip to Miami with his girlfriend that
following Monday, and in fact she kept calling his phone in
the days after, hoping he'd answer in a spooky detail.
One time the phone actually rang and pinged a cell tower briefly,
but it was later thought to be a glitch in the system rather than
a real connection. Extensive searches were
conducted in the area, dumpsters, alleyways, roofs,
underground tunnels, even the sewer system in case Brian had
accidentally gotten into a restricted area or met with foul
play. After leaving, nothing turned
up. It was as if Brian had walked
into an invisible portal. Over the years, numerous
theories emerged. 1 theory is that Brian, grieving the recent
death of his mother, might have decided to run off and start a
new life. However, he left behind his car,
his glasses and other essential belongings, and he was about to
graduate Med school, making this seem unlikely without at least
contacting someone eventually. Another theory posits that Brian
might have been the victim of a crime after leaving the bar,
perhaps a robbery or attack, and that somehow the cameras missed
him exiting or he exited in disguise.
Some speculated he could have changed clothes or put on a hat.
The area around the bar was heavily searched though, and no
signs of a struggle were found. One focus of suspicion was
Brian's friend Clint, the last known person with him.
Clint lawyered up and even refused a lie detector test,
which raised eyebrows. Some wondered if an altercation
or prank had gone wrong, but there's no evidence implicating
Clint beyond his refusal to be further questioned.
There was also speculation about the :) killer, an alleged serial
killer targeting young men in the Midwest, but nothing
concrete ties to Brian's case beyond the profile of the
victim. As years passed, Brian's father
tragically died in an accident, never knowing what happened to
his son. In a heartbreaking twist,
someone posted a message online in remembrance of the father
using a nickname that only Brian would typically use, briefly
stirring hope that Brian might still be alive Incognito.
It turned out to be a cruel hoax.
To this day, Brian Schaffer's disappearance is one of the most
famous modern mysteries. Investigators still scratch
their heads at the lack of video evidence of him leaving that
bar. The phrase he never left the bar
has almost become legend in true crime circles, symbolizing an
utterly confounding case. Was Brian somehow hiding in the
bar that night and then slipped out later unseen?
Did he fall victim to a perfect storm of blind spots and
security cameras and misfortune? Or did he choose to vanish on
purpose, achieving a disappearing act that has held
up all these years? None of the possibilities are
very satisfying or easy to believe.
Brian's empty seat at the medical school graduation and
the unanswered call of his name remain a somber reminder that
behind this bar magic trick of a case lies a real family's grief.
As we ponder how a man could be there 1 moment and gone the
next, our journey continues. We now turn to a case at sea,
the disappearance of a young woman from a cruise ship and the
sinister clues that surfaced in the years after she went
missing. Amy Lynn Bradley lost at sea and
the photographs from hell. In March 1998, Amy Lynn Bradley
was on what should have been a dream vacation, a Caribbean
cruise with her parents and younger brother.
The 23 year old recent college graduate from Virginia was
enjoying the sun and sea aboard the Royal Caribbean cruise ship
Rhapsody of the Seas. They had departed from Puerto
Rico and were on route to the island of Curacao.
Amy was a strong swimmer, a former lifeguard, and an all
around vibrant young woman excited for a new chapter in
life. But in the early hours of March
24th, 1998, somewhere off the coast of Curacao, that dream
vacation became a family's worst nightmare.
The night before, Amy and her brother had gone out to the
ship's dance club. There are photographs of Amy
from that evening, showing her smiling and having fun.
She was last seen around 5:30 AM lounging on the cabin balcony
after leaving the dance club with a member of the ship's
band. When her father checked the
cabin at 6:00 AM, Amy was asleep on the balcony.
But by 6:30 AM, when he looked again, Amy was gone.
The only sign of her was her flip flops she'd left behind.
The Bradleys searched the ship frantically, alerting the crew
within an hour. Yet contrary to what one might
expect, the crew did not immediately issue a ship wide
alert or lockdown. The ship docked in Curacao and
passengers disembarked, which deeply worried Amy's family as
they feared she could be taken off the ship.
A massive search of the vessel and the waters turned up
nothing. There was no evidence Amy had
fallen overboard, and her family insisted she was far too good a
swimmer for that to happen. Without her making it to safety
or her body being found, it began to seem more and more like
Amy had been removed from the ship against her will.
Over the months and years that followed, the Bradleys received
multiple disturbing leads suggesting that Amy might have
been kidnapped and sold into human trafficking.
Tourists in Curacao in August 1998 reported seeing a woman on
a beach who looked like Amy, with the same tattoos being led
by two men. In 1999, AUS Navy sailor
visiting a brothel in Barbados reported an encounter with a
distressed woman who told him her name was Amy and begged for
help, claiming she was being held captive.
Unfortunately, he waited until after returning to the US to
report this and by the time officials checked, the brothel
owner claimed ignorance and no Amy was found.
The most chilling evidence arrived in 2005.
Amy's parents were emailed an image found on an escort service
website, a photograph of a scantily clad woman who
strikingly resembled Amy. In the photo, the woman, who
went by the name Jazz, has the same distinctive tattoos.
Amy had a Tasmanian devil cartoon on her shoulder, a son
on her lower back, a Chinese symbol on her ankle.
The Bradleys were convinced it was her.
This suggested that Amy had possibly been forced into sexual
slavery. The FBI and investigators
pursued these leads, but the trail was frustratingly vague.
The idea that a young woman could be kidnapped from a cruise
ship and forced into a sordid underworld is the stuff of
nightmares, and for Amy's family, it has been a torturous
reality to consider. Over the years, they have worked
tirelessly with authorities, appearing on talk shows and even
Doctor Phil to publicize Amy's case.
Indeed, the 2005 photo was shown on Doctor Phil, shocking
viewers. Despite extensive investigations
and even rewards offered, Amy remains missing.
Royal Caribbean initially maintained that such an
abduction was unlikely, suggesting perhaps she fell
overboard. But evidence increasingly
disputes that Amy's case has led to discussions about cruise ship
security and the dark networks of Caribbean human trafficking.
For those who hear Amy's story, certain images are hard to
shake. The thought of her alone on that
balcony as dawn broke, perhaps approached by someone she
thought she could trust. The eerie photo of a woman who
might be Amy, eyes heavy with sadness, forced into unspeakable
circumstances. And the pain in her parents
voices as they hold on to hope that maybe, just maybe, she's
still alive, out there, waiting to be rescued.
Amy Lynn Bradley's disappearance stands as one of the creepiest
unsolved travel mysteries, a case that makes you think twice
about the dangers lurking even in paradise.
As we disembark from Amy's story, our journey isn't over.
Next, we step back onto land, into the case of a troubled
woman whose disappearance left behind gruesome and confounding
clues, including a severed finger and neatly folded clothes
in a freezer. Diane Augat, a severed finger
enclosed in the freezer, April 1998, Pasco County, Florida.
Diane Louise Augat, 40 years old, walked out of her sister's
home and into a mystery that grows more macabre the deeper
you look. Diane had LED a troubled life.
She suffered from bipolar disorder and had been struggling
since a recent divorce and losing custody of her children.
She lived in a group home and had a history of wandering off,
but she always returned or checked in.
On April 10th, 1998, Diane left her sister's house in Hudson, FL
and never came back. What followed were a series of
bizarre and unsettling clues that seemed straight out of a
horror film. Three days after Diane
disappeared on April 13th, her mother's answering machine
recorded a brief, frantic message on the playback.
There was the voice of a woman, clearly believed to be Diane's
voice, pleading help, help before a loud scuffle is heard
and then Diane's voice yelps. Hey, give me that.
As the call abruptly cuts off. The number was traced to a motel
in Odessa, FL, but by the time police checked, the room was
vacant. Then two days later, on April
15th, a chilling discovery. A passerby found a severed human
finger on the side of US Route 19, not far from where Diane was
last seen. It turned out to be the tip of
Diane's right middle finger, cleanly cut above the knuckle,
and witnesses reported seeing a second finger at the scene,
though only one was recovered. This gruesome find raised the
stakes dramatically. It seemed to indicate foul play
and a taunting element, as if someone was leaving bread
crumbs. But the strangest clue was yet
to come. On April 18th, a week after
Diane vanished, the manager of a convenience store in Odessa went
to check the store's outdoor freezer.
Inside, she found a plastic bag filled with neatly folded
women's clothes. Shockingly, the clothing was
quickly identified by Diane's family as belonging to her.
The freezer was outside the store, accessible to anyone, as
if someone had deliberately placed the bag there to be
found. Why fold the clothes so neatly
and hide them in a freezer? It was a baffling and creepy
gesture. Perhaps the person responsible
was toying with investigators, or perhaps there was a twisted
logic only they could understand.
Despite these tantalizing and horrifying clues, a desperate
voicemail, a severed finger, and carefully folded clothes, no
further trace of Diane Auget was ever found.
The authorities were stumped. One working theory was that
Diane had become entangled with a dangerous individual or group,
possibly related to drug activity.
She had occasionally fallen in with a rough crowd.
The clues might have been meant to scare or send a message.
The phone call suggested she was being held captive, at least for
a short time. The finger suggested violence or
punishment, and the clothes in the freezer.
Some speculated it was symbolic, preserving evidence on ice or
practical hiding bloody clothes, or simply cruel theatrics by the
perpetrator. Over the years, Diane's case
went cold, but those left behind can't forget the horrifying
trail that was left. Her mother, year after year,
hoped for answers that never came.
That disembodied finger, matched to Diane via fingerprint is
perhaps one of the most ghoulish calling cards in any missing
person case. It's as if the darkness that
plagued Diane's life culminated in one final wicked game.
Sometimes people talk about the perfect crime as one, leaving no
clues. In Diane's case, it's almost the
opposite. Clues were left, yet they only
deepen the enigma. What happened in those last days
of Diane Auget's life remains unknown, but it surely wasn't
anything good. As we step away from the
haunting fragments of Diane's story, the echo of Help Me still
ringing in our ears, we move on to another disappearance with
eerie overtones. This time the setting is an
apartment in New Hampshire in 1980, where a teenage girl
vanished from her home and left behind a mystery involving
unscrewed light bulbs and strange phone calls.
Loreen Ron lights out in the hallway On the night of April
26th, 1980, fourteen year old Loreen Ann Ron was at home in
her family's third floor apartment in Manchester, NH.
Loreen's mother, Judith, was out of town at a tennis tournament,
so Loreen had invited a girlfriend over to spend the
night. The two teens, along with a male
friend, hung out in the apartment, drinking a little
wine and listening to music. Later that night, the male
friend left and Lorene and her girlfriend decided to sleep,
with the friend taking Lorene's bed and Lorene sleeping on the
couch in the living room. Sometime around midnight,
neighbors later reported hearing voices and footsteps in the
upstairs hallway. What nobody knew then was that
something ominous was brewing. Judith Ron returned home in the
early hours, around 1:30 AM, and immediately sensed something was
off. The hallway that led to their
apartment door was unusually dark.
Someone had unscrewed all three light bulbs in the corridor,
leaving it pitch black. Startled, Judith entered the
apartment and found it silent. The visiting friend was asleep
in Loreen's bed, but Loreen was nowhere to be found.
At first, groggy and confused, the friend assumed Loreen might
have just stepped out or was in the bathroom.
But she wasn't. The front door was slightly
ajar. Outside, Judith noticed that the
screen window in the kitchen, which led out to the fire
escape, was also open. A sense of dread descended.
It looked as if someone had intentionally created darkness
in the hallway, entered the apartment and taken Loreen while
her friend slept. Police were called and an
investigation launched. But in 1980, forensic techniques
were limited. There were few concrete clues.
What was clear was that Lorene did not take any of her personal
belongings. She left behind her purse, money
and clothes. Given the unscrewed hallway
lights, detectives believed it was likely an abductor had
prepared the scene to conceal their actions, possibly someone
who knew the building or even a neighbor.
The case quickly went cold for lack of leads, but then a series
of strange phone calls injected new intrigue into Lorene's
story. In the months after the
disappearance, Judith noticed several unexplained charges on
her phone bill. 3 calls had been placed from her apartment's
phone to a number in California. Two of the calls were to a motel
in Santa Ana, CA and one was to a teen assistance hotline in Los
Angeles. Judith didn't know anyone in
California at the time, and certainly Loreen didn't either,
at least not to anyone's knowledge.
It looked like someone, perhaps the abductor, used Loreen's home
phone to dial out West, possibly as a way to check in with
accomplices or some central figure.
A couple of years later, more bizarre developments, Judith
received a call from a woman who claimed to possibly have
information on Loreen. This person said that a woman
she knew in California went by the name Lori and might be
Loreen. The lead never panned out
solidly. Additionally, Judith reported
that every year around the anniversary of Loreen's
disappearance, she would receive a brief phone call in the middle
of the night. Just silence or faint breathing
on the other end, as if someone was taunting her.
Whether those calls were pranks or something more sinister
remains unknown. Over time, investigators
considered a disturbing theory. Could Loreen have been abducted
into a child trafficking or pornography ring?
The involvement of California and the call to a teen hotline
which was rumored to be associated with a now deceased
Doctor Who was implicated in a child pornography business gave
weight to this possibility. Perhaps someone took Loreen
across the country, however, no confirmed sightings of her have
ever been made. Decades have passed with no
answers. Loreen's case sits among the
annals of creepy unsolved disappearances because of those
inexplicable touches, the carefully unscrewed light bulbs
that suggest a careful predator, and the mysterious phone trail
leading 3000 miles away with no clear explanation.
Her mother eventually moved away from the apartment, but likely
never from the nightmare of that night.
To this day, no one knows what truly became of Loreen Ron.
Was it a local culprit who snatched her in the dark or a
far reaching criminal network that spirited her away?
The darkness in that hallway remains symbolically as the lack
of light shed on her fate as we move on.
Our next and penultimate case also involves a young woman in a
big city, The disappearance of Karina Slooser, who was swept up
in a dangerous world and sent cryptic cries for help before
vanishing. Karina Slooser a trafficked teen
and a trapped message. In 2017, 19 year old Karina
Slooser left her small Pennsylvania town seeking
excitement and escape in New York City.
What she found instead was a nightmare.
Under the bright lights, Karina had been a cheerleader, a pretty
blonde teenager with a winning smile.
But she fell in with a rough crowd before graduation and
became entwined with an older man who promised to take care of
her. By the summer of 2017, she had
moved to NYC, specifically to the Bronx, expecting a fresh
start. But that man turned out to be a
pimp who allegedly lured her into the world of sex
trafficking. Karina was last seen on
September 20th, 2017, leaving a cheap motel called The Haven in
Queens. After that day, she vanished
into the underbelly of the city. In the lead up to her
disappearance, Karina had shown signs of being in trouble.
In August 2017, she had filed a police report against a pimp,
the same man who brought her to New York for assaulting her.
He had stolen money from her and choked her, and she managed to
get a restraining order. The danger she was in was very
real. After she went missing, her
family and authorities feared she had been coerced or
kidnapped by a sex trafficking ring in retaliation for going to
the police. As the investigation unfolded, a
disturbing timeline came to light.
Karina had been active on social media and on September 10th, 10
days before she disappeared, she posted a final photo on
Instagram with a cryptic caption that hinted at a change in a new
home. It was odd enough to catch her
friends attention even before they knew anything was wrong.
Then, after Karina's disappearance, her mother
received unusual texts and even an attempt at extortion.
In April 2018, someone contacted Karina's mother demanding a
$7000 ransom, claiming to have Karina captive in another state.
The extortionist even arranged a meeting point at a parking lot
in North Carolina. Desperate her mother, Sabina was
prepared to go, but law enforcement suspected it was a
scam or a dangerous trap and warned her off.
The next day, the cruel messenger taunted her, saying
Remember this day because it's the day you almost got her.
It was a devastating blow, a heartless hoax, or perhaps a
genuine warning that slipped through their fingers.
Authorities eventually cracked down on the trafficking ring
that ensnared Karina. A man named Ishiwoni, along with
others, was arrested and later convicted for sex trafficking.
He had been one of the individuals Karina was last
known to associate with. Through recovered messages and
evidence. Investigators pieced together
that Karina had been advertised online for sex services in the
period leading to her disappearance.
They suspect that after the police report incident, she may
have been moved or sold to other traffickers.
There was also an eerie digital clue.
Karina's phone, which her mother got back from police, had all
the texts and call logs wiped clean, as if someone
deliberately deleted every message remotely.
It was as if someone wanted to ensure nothing on that phone
could help find her. Additionally, an anonymous
letter was mailed to her mother with a possible sighting of
Karina in Queens after she vanished.
But like many leads, it LED nowhere concrete.
Despite multiple arrests of those involved in trafficking,
Karina herself has never been found.
Her disappearance highlights the terrifying reality of modern day
slavery hiding in plain sight. One day she was a teenager
posting selfies and texting her family, and the next she was
gone, with only a trail of cryptic posts and chilling
messages remaining. The Instagram post Karina left
showing a girl in a black cap in city traffic became a haunting
symbol of her case. Did she know she was in danger?
Was it a coded cry for help? We may never know.
For her family, each tease of hope, a text, a ransom demand, a
rumor turned into heartbreak. As we leave Karina's tragic
tale, we turn to our final case, one of a young girl taken from
her home in the middle of the night and a shocking phone call
that suggested she was still alive and in terrifying
circumstances. Antoinette Calladito.
A child's cry on the line. Our last case takes us back in
time and into the quiet suburb of Gallup, NM.
On April 6th, 1986, nine year old Antoinette Cayadido was at
home with her mother and younger sisters.
It was a Saturday night. The family had reportedly had
some friends over earlier in the evening.
By 3:00 AM everyone was asleep, or so it seemed.
According to Antoinette's younger sister, there was a
knock at the door in the dark hours of that morning.
Antoinette went to answer it and the sister heard a man's voice
say it's Uncle Joe. The family did have an Uncle
Joe, but he later said he wasn't at their house that night.
As soon as Antoinette opened the door, the sister says two men
grabbed her and carried her away into the night.
The little girl was gone by the time the mother awoke.
At first, Antoinette's mother, Penny told police she had no
idea what happened. She'd been asleep and only
discovered Antoinette missing in the morning.
The only clue from the house was that the front door was left
slightly open. Authorities launched a search,
suspecting a kidnapping. For a year, there were no major
breaks until something bone chilling occurred.
In April 1987, the Gallup Police Department received a frantic
phone call from a young girl. I'm Antoinette.
I'm in Albuquerque, The girl cried, pleading for help.
Before the dispatcher could get any useful details, an angry
adult voice was heard shouting. Who said you could use the
phone? Followed by the sound of a
scuffle and the girl screaming. The line then went dead.
The call was too short to trace. However, it was recorded and
when investigators played the tape for Antonette's family,
Penny gasped. She was certain the voice was
her daughter's. Recognizing the way she said her
name, she did not recognize the male voice.
This 42nd phone call injected both hope and terror into the
case. Hope that Antoinette might be
alive and terror at the thought of what she was enduring.
The story made national news and Leeds began to surface.
There was a reported sighting in 1991 in Carson City, NV.
A waitress claimed that a couple came into the restaurant with a
timid teenage girl. When the girl deliberately
dropped a utensil, the waitress picked it up and the girl
squeezed her hand, only for the waitress to later find a note
under the plate saying help me call police scrawled on a
napkin. By the time she realized the
trio had left, the waitress was struck by the girl's resemblance
to the age progressed photos of Antoinette.
If that was indeed Antoinette, it meant she had been held
captive for years by that point. Another potential clue came when
Antoinette's younger sister, who had been a witness, finally
admitted five years later that she did see her sister being
taken by two men that night, after initially being too scared
to say so. This corroborated what police
suspected, that the abductor was someone familiar to the family.
Given the Uncle Joe ruse, the FBI considered Penny the mother
as well. She even took a polygraph, which
she reportedly failed, leading to whispers that she might have
known more than she let on, possibly about who took
Antoinette. But no charges were ever filed,
and Penny died in 1999, still not knowing what became of her
child. Antonette's case remains one of
the most heart wrenching unsolved disappearances.
The image of a little girl snatched from her home is
disturbing enough, but the added layer of that desperate phone
call, a tiny voice reaching out from what sounded like the
depths of hell, is truly haunting.
Gallup police still keep the case open, and age progressed
renderings of Antoinette surface every few years to remind the
public that she could still be out there.
A woman now in her late 40s who as a child was calling for
rescue. Some believe she was likely sold
or forced into some kind of trafficking situation, which
unfortunately aligns with the other clues of her being seen in
captivity. Others hold on to the sliver of
hope that maybe the call was a hoax, though her family doubts
that. And that she was raised by
someone else, unhurt. An unlikely scenario given
everything. As we conclude this journey
through these creepy, unresolved disappearances, we are left with
the realization that behind each of these stories are real
People, families, friends, entire communities left in
agonizing limbo. The bizarre details we've
recounted, from mysterious phone calls to inexplicable evidence,
are the bread crumbs that keep these cases alive in the
public's imagination. Perhaps one day someone will
come forward, a new piece of evidence will emerge, or a
deathbed confession will crack one of these cases wide open.
Until then, these eleven stories remain open-ended tales of
terror and mystery, a sobering reminder that sometimes truth
really is stranger and far more frightening than fiction.