People Who Disappeared Under Mysterious Circumstances

Virginia Dare

Virginia Dare (born August 18, 1587, date of death unknown) was the first child born in the Americas to English parents, Eleanor (or Ellinor/Elyonor) and Ananias Dare. She was born into the short-lived Roanoke Colony in what is now North Carolina, USA. What became of Virginia and the other colonists remains a mystery. The fact of her birth is known because the governor of the settlement, Virginia Dare’s grandfather, John White, returned to England in 1587 to seek fresh supplies. When White eventually returned three years later, Virginia and the other colonists were gone.

During the past four hundred years, Virginia Dare has become a prominent figure in American myth and folklore, symbolizing different things to different groups of people. She has been featured as a main character in books, poems, songs, comic books, television programs and films. Her name has been used to sell different types of goods, from vanilla products to wine and spirits. Many places in North Carolina and elsewhere in the Southern United States have been named in her honor.

Theodosia Burr Alston, 1812

Theodosia Burr Alston (June 21, 1783 – probably January 2 or 3, 1813) was the daughter of Theodosia Bartow Prevost and the controversial U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr.

She was born in Albany, New York but was raised mostly in New York City. Her education was very closely supervised by her father who stressed mental discipline. This type of tutoring was very rarely given to girls of Theodosia’s generation. In addition to the more conventional subjects such as French, music, and dancing, the young “Theo” began to study arithmetic, Latin, Greek, and English composition. She applied herself to English in the form of letters to Aaron Burr, which were returned to her promptly, with the inclusion of detailed criticism.

In the spring of 1807, Aaron Burr was arrested for treason. During his trial in Richmond, Virginia, Theodosia was with him, providing comfort and support. He was acquitted of the charges against him but left for Europe, where he remained for a period of four years. While he was in exile, Theodosia acted as his agent in America, raising money, which she sent to her father, and transmitting messages. Theodosia wrote letters to Secretary of State Albert Gallatin and to Dolley Madison in an effort to secure a smooth return for Aaron. He returned to New York in July 1812 but his daughter could not quickly join him. Her son had succumbed to a fever and died on June 30 and the anguish involved nearly killed Theodosia. She had to wait until December before she could make the journey. With her husband unable to accompany her, her father sent Timothy Green, an old friend, to accompany her on the trip north. Green possessed some medical knowledge.

On December 31, 1812, Theodosia sailed aboard the schooner Patriot from Georgetown, South Carolina. The Patriot was a famously fast sailer, which had originally been built as a pilot boat, and had served as a privateer during the War of 1812, when it was commissioned by the United States government to prey on English shipping. She had been refitted in December in Georgetown, her guns dismounted and hidden below decks. Her name was painted out and any indication of recent activity was entirely erased. The schooner’s captain, William Overstocks, desired to make a rapid run to New York with his cargo, and it is likely that she was laden with the proceeds from her raids.

The Patriot and all those on board were never heard from again.

Benjamin Briggs and the passengers and crew of the Mary Celeste, 1872

Benjamin Spooner Briggs (24 April 1835 – c. 1872) was an experienced United States seaman and master mariner. He is famous today for being the Captain of the merchant ship Mary Celeste when she was discovered unmanned and drifting in the Atlantic Ocean near the Straits of Gibraltar, on 4 December 1872. The lifeboat was missing, yet the Mary Celeste herself was still under sail and there were signs of a sudden and unexplained abandonment. Benjamin Briggs, his wife Sarah and two-year-old daughter Sophia Matilda, along with the crew of the Mary Celeste, and the lifeboat, were never found and presumed lost.

Benjamin Briggs has living descendants through his son Arthur who was left at home with his grandmother.

Briggs has been mentioned numerous times in conspiracy theories and fiction regarding the disappearance of the Mary Celeste, including the 1935 Hammer Film Productions The Mystery of the Marie Celeste, which starred Bela Lugosi. A fictionalized version of Cpt. Benjamin Briggs was also seen in the 1965 Doctor Who episode The Chase. He was also the protagonist of the 2006 computer game Limbo of the Lost.

In 1884, only twelve years after the incident, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, wrote a fictionalized account of the Mary Celeste titled J. Habakuk Jephson’s Statement. One reviewer sought to attribute the story to Robert Louis Stevenson, while critics compared it to Edgar Allan Poe. Doyle changed the spelling of the ship from Mary to Marie Celeste. Unfortunately, much of the fictional content and the incorrect name, have merged with fact in popular accounts of the incident. These include especially numerous things found on board the vessel which were not. Doyle also put forward the theory that the crew were murdered by African-American killers on a racist jihad against all caucasians.

A cenotaph memorializing the family stands in Evergreen Cemetery, Marion, Massachusetts. The inscription reads: “Capt. Benj S. Briggs born Apr 24, 1835, Sarah E Cobb his wife born Apr 20 1841, Sophia M, their daughter, then 10 mos, born Oct 31, 1870. Lost in Brig Mary Celeste Nov 1872″

Lighthouse keeper on the island Flannan, 1900

In December 1900, the lighthouse keeper at Flannan Islands disappeared off the coast of Scotland. It was first noted when a ship through a lighthouse on the 15th and saw the lights were not working. This is then reported, but apparently nothing was done until a few crew with the equipment going to the lighthouse on December 26. When no one came out to greet them, they entered the lighthouse and find the entrance gate and main doors closed, the bed unmade, the clock stops and an overturned chair in the kitchen. The island is seriously looking for the presence of the guards or clues to their whereabouts, but the only thing found was some damage caused by the storm. Although this may seem like a clue, a note left by the guards declared this storm occurred before they disappear.

Northern Lighthouse Board concluded that the men had drowned and swept out to sea. Rumors circulated, one of the guards kill two others, then drowned himself because of guilt. The existence of sea serpents are also possibilities, along with the prospect that they had been abducted or attacked by a group of spies or attacked by a ghost ship?

Dorothy Arnold, 1910

Dorothy Harriet Camille Arnold (1884 – presumed dead 1910) was an American socialite who disappeared while walking in New York City in 1910.

Arnold was the daughter of wealthy perfume importer Francis Arnold and the niece of the magistrate Rufus Wheeler Peckham. She had graduated from Bryn Mawr College and unsuccessfully tried her hand as a writer.

Arnold left her parents’ home in Manhattan, New York City on the morning of December 12, 1910. She was going to go shopping for a dress for a party. Acquaintances she met on Fifth Avenue later described her as cheerful. She was last seen in Brentano’s bookstore on 26th Street, where she purchased a book of epigrams; before that, she had visited Park & Tilford’s store at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 27th Street and charged a pound of candy to her account. At the bookstore she met a female friend, who later reported that Arnold had intended to walk home through Central Park. That night, she failed to come back for dinner.

The Arnolds feared that the case could be socially embarrassing — Arnold had eloped and spent a week with George Griscom, Jr., a month before. Instead of calling the police, they made discreet enquiries through John S. Keith, a family friend, and hired Pinkerton detectives to investigate the disappearance. Keith searched hospitals, morgues and jails in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia for three weeks until giving up.

The Arnold family turned to police six weeks after their daughter had disappeared. In a press conference, Francis Arnold said he believed that Arnold might have been attacked and killed in Central Park and her body thrown into the reservoir. Although he refused to mention Griscom’s name, journalists tracked him down.

Griscom, who was in Naples at the time, sent a telegram where he stated that he did not know where Arnold was. In January 1911 Arnold’s mother and her brother John travelled to Italy to forcibly interrogate him, without results. Griscom could only hand over a letter where Arnold had mentioned her depression over a story she had written and which had been rejected by a magazine. Intrigued by the disappearance, and probably to quell any suspicions he might have something to do with it, Griscom later spent thousands of dollars searching for Arnold — without results. He paid for ads in major newspapers asking her to come home.

Amelia Earhart, 1937

Aims to circumnavigate the world, Amelia Earhart took off with his plane, Electra from Miami with navigator Fred Noonan on June 1, 1937. After many stops, they ended up in Lae, New Guinea on June 29. They have completed both steps of their journey – about 22,000 miles. Only 7,000 miles left of the journey that counts. On July 2, the couple headed for Howland Island, which apparently they have taken a bad step. Communications cut off and they disappear. The search performed one hour after the last communication Amelia.

Clearly, they were never found, despite a large search effort involving a $ 4 million, the Navy and Coast Guard. Their efforts include the search of Gardner Island (now Nikumaroro) which has been uninhabited for more than four decades. Since then, several artifacts have been found on Nikumaroro including a piece of clear Plexiglas with the right thickness and curvature as the window size Electra and a shoe looks like a shoe sembilanyang Amelia.

Some theories about his departure was quite interesting. Many Oran thinks she might spy for FDR and the Japanese probably has something to do with her disappearance. For example, in 1966, CBS correspondent published a book that says Amelia and Fred were arrested and executed when they crashed on the island of Saipan. Other books published include a statement of a daughter of a Japanese officer who claimed his father had executed his own Amelia.

One writer even claimed that the actual flight Amelia completed, return to the United States and began living under an assumed name – Irene Bolam. Real Irene Bolam, sued for $ 1.5 million and swore that she was not Amelia Earhart. Studies have since shown that he telling the truth.

D.B. Cooper, 1971

In November 1971, D.B. Cooper (or Dan Cooper) hijacked the plane, demanding a ransom of $ 200,000, and jumped out of the plane after he accepted it. He was never found, but some clues are emerging after many years. In 1980, a child found nearly $ 6,000 in denominations of $ 20 on the banks of the Columbia River, in areas where Cooper jumped. In 2007, the FBI announced that they could get some DNA from the tie that Cooper left behind on the plane. And, lastly, some children found the parachute buried near the old Amboy, Washington.

The FBI does not think Cooper survived the flight, when he jumped out, the plane was going through a bad storm. More than 400 soldiers from Fort Lewis helped search by foot to find any trace of Cooper, but none were found even the slightest evidence does not exist. Although the fraction $ 20 given to Cooper is not marked, the FBI has compiled and assign a specific serial number range so easily tracked. A newspaper in Portland offering $ 1,000 to anyone the first person who can bring one money, hoping that Cooper had been spending it, but no one ever appeared.

The Babushka Lady

In the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Babushka Lady is a nickname for an unknown woman who might have photographed the events that occurred in Dallas’ Dealey Plaza at the time President John F. Kennedy was shot. Her nickname arose from the headscarf she wore similar to scarves worn by elderly Russian women.

Babushka Lady was seen to be holding a camera by eyewitnesses and was also seen in film accounts of the assassination (such as this Muchmore frame and Zapruder Frame 285). She was observed standing on the grass between Elm and Main streets and she can be seen in the Zapruder film as well as in the films of Orville Nix, Marie Muchmore, and Mark Bell (44 seconds and 49 seconds into the Bell film: even though the shooting had already taken place and most of her surrounding witnesses took cover, she can be seen still standing with the camera at her face). After the shootings, she crossed Elm Street and joined the crowd that went up the grassy knoll in search of a gunman. She is last seen in photographs walking east on Elm Street and neither she nor the film she may have taken have been positively identified.

The Babushka Lady never came forward. The police and the FBI did not find her, and the film shot from her position never turned up, despite a request by the FBI to local photo processors that they would be interested in any pictures or films of the assassination. Jack Harrison, a Kodak technician in Dallas, claimed to have developed on November 22, 1963, the day of the assassination, an out-of-focus color slide for a brunette in her late 30s that showed a view similar to the Babushka Lady’s position.