Unexplained Vanishings

nivek

As Above So Below
People of all walks of life and in all sorts of situations and places, simply vanish, no trace ever found, even in some cases eluding multiple security cameras...What happened to them, where did they go, or who took them?...

Here is a mysterious vanishing...

Brian Shaffer was at a nearby bar called with some friends to celebrate the coming of Spring Break. While he was there, Shaffer was drinking alcohol, and at some point he began talking to two young women at the bar. His friends went to the restroom and when they came back he was simply gone.

When the bar closed they all waited outside, but Shaffer never showed up. At the time, nothing much was thought of this. The friends just figured that he had had too much to drink and gone home. Yet the following day Shaffer was still nowhere to be found and all calls to his cell phone went unanswered.

Things got truly weird when authorities examined the security camera footage of the bar. Although in the footage Shaffer can clearly be seen entering the bar, he is never seen to actually leave. Baffled police went through every frame of the footage and were able to identify every patron at the bar that night on the camera except Shaffer.

Even the emergency exit camera turned up nothing at all. It was utterly baffling that he could manage to so thoroughly evade all of these cameras, and it was thought that even if he had managed to somehow leave the bar undetected surveillance cameras on the street would have certainly picked him up, yet there was nothing.

He had simply evaporated.

To this day know one has a clue as to what happened to Brian Shaffer or how he could have possibly pulled off his vanishing act with the cameras.
 

Toroid

Founding Member
David Paulides has hundreds of disappearances in his books 'Missing 411'. He covers disappearances in National Parks. In one account a group of people were walking through the wilderness and a person at the rear simply vanished. In another account four men were rock climbing at the guy at the end of the rope just vanished as if a technology deprojected him. Sometimes they'll literally slip into another dimension.
 

nivek

As Above So Below
I've camped and hiked in the same park and area as this report tells...

Dennis Martin was almost seven years old when he was hiking and camping with his family on the Appalachian Trail inside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. They started their day at Russell Field and hiked approximately two miles to Spence Field.

While relaxing near a shelter, Dennis' father watched Dennis duck behind a bush while playing hide and seek with a group of other children. At 4:30 pm, when Dennis did not come out from his hiding place, his father got up to look for him. Dennis was gone.

The search for Dennis began within five minutes of his disappearance. His grandfather ran down the rugged five mile trail to park headquarters to alert authorities. By 8:30 PM, a full scale search was underway for Dennis.

During the next few weeks and months, thousands of people would scour the entire area looking for Dennis. Helicopters were brought in, base camps were set up, military personnel and Green Berets were used, and the FBI was monitoring the search.

After months of searching, the only possible sign of Dennis that was ever reported was a shoe print. Years later, after the search ended, there was an unconfirmed sighting of a child's skeleton. Officially, this is where the story ends.

However, at approximately 5:30 PM on the day of the disappearance, about an hour after Dennis went missing, the Key family was in another area of the park about eight miles away called Cades Cove.

They were hiking along the Rowans River when they heard what was described as a loud, unearthly scream coming from the woods. When they turned to look, they saw what was described by the press as an "unkept man", "wild-man", "bear", or "man in a bear suit" darting between the trees trying to hide from the Key family.

What the press did not report but was later confirmed by the Key family, was that the "bear-man" was carrying something over its shoulder that looked like a child.
 

Toroid

Founding Member
David brought up that story on C2C. He talked to the father and he was still disturbed by the event decades later.
Some Very Strange Information on the Bizarre Vanishing of Dennis Martin | Mysterious Universe
In a rather ominous twist, a mere hours after Dennis had gone missing a family named the Keys reported that they had been hiking around 6 miles from Spence Field when they had heard a boy’s scream. The son also claimed to have seen movement in a bush which he at first had thought to be a bear, but turned out to be a man walking in the woods with something apparently slung over his shoulder. As spooky as this may seem, authorities determined that the location was too far away from Spence Field to have possibly have anything to do with Dennis within the time frame of events.
 

Castle-Yankee54

Celestial
I've camped and hiked in the same park and area as this report tells...

Dennis Martin was almost seven years old when he was hiking and camping with his family on the Appalachian Trail inside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. They started their day at Russell Field and hiked approximately two miles to Spence Field.

While relaxing near a shelter, Dennis' father watched Dennis duck behind a bush while playing hide and seek with a group of other children. At 4:30 pm, when Dennis did not come out from his hiding place, his father got up to look for him. Dennis was gone.

The search for Dennis began within five minutes of his disappearance. His grandfather ran down the rugged five mile trail to park headquarters to alert authorities. By 8:30 PM, a full scale search was underway for Dennis.

During the next few weeks and months, thousands of people would scour the entire area looking for Dennis. Helicopters were brought in, base camps were set up, military personnel and Green Berets were used, and the FBI was monitoring the search.

After months of searching, the only possible sign of Dennis that was ever reported was a shoe print. Years later, after the search ended, there was an unconfirmed sighting of a child's skeleton. Officially, this is where the story ends.

However, at approximately 5:30 PM on the day of the disappearance, about an hour after Dennis went missing, the Key family was in another area of the park about eight miles away called Cades Cove.

They were hiking along the Rowans River when they heard what was described as a loud, unearthly scream coming from the woods. When they turned to look, they saw what was described by the press as an "unkept man", "wild-man", "bear", or "man in a bear suit" darting between the trees trying to hide from the Key family.

What the press did not report but was later confirmed by the Key family, was that the "bear-man" was carrying something over its shoulder that looked like a child.

Unfortunately many children are abducted by stalkers in such areas.
 

nivek

As Above So Below
Yes....child abductors would move fast to get out of the area.....don't you think?

I would think yes but don't you think a stalker would get in the car and drive off instead of running off in the woods wearing a bear suit?...
 

Castle-Yankee54

Celestial
I would think yes but don't you think a stalker would get in the car and drive off instead of running off in the woods wearing a bear suit?...

They said he was an unkept man.....wearing a bear suite was just one of their suggestions.

In the show "Criminal Minds" what person who abducted children for years lived in the forest off the Appalachian Trail. So no I don't think he'd automatically get in a car and drive away.
 

Caeldeth

Noble
There are vanishings pretty frequently in the Green Mountains of Vermont. Where I am from. Few years ago a group of 5 people went on the Long Trail and literally just disappeared. No trace of any of them, no sign of struggle. Just gone and never to be seen again. I have climbed every peak in Vermont and there is some spots that just feel awkward. No wildlife, very little vegetation, and a very strange feeling in these spots. Almost like a feeling that you are being watched. Pretty creepy stuff.
 

dr wu

Noble
David Paulides has hundreds of disappearances in his books 'Missing 411'. He covers disappearances in National Parks. In one account a group of people were walking through the wilderness and a person at the rear simply vanished. In another account four men were rock climbing at the guy at the end of the rope just vanished as if a technology deprojected him. Sometimes they'll literally slip into another dimension.

Anything you read from Paulides needs to be taken with a grain of salt...people have investigated some of these claims and found them to be greatly exaggerated. He plays fast and loose with the facts in his Missing 411 books and videos.
While it's true that people go missing in various state and national parks and sometimes not found the stats don't show this any higher than in other venues like cities . About a year ago I read some of his material and his documentation is lousy regarding many of his cases which can be looked up in the actual police reports, etc..
 

dr wu

Noble
Unfortunately many children are abducted by stalkers in such areas.
Yes....exactly....Paulides makes these out to be 'weird' cases in some manner as if it's Bigfoot or something. While the odds are good it's predator men/serial killers etc who often use the park areas to prey on people. This is well known in law enforcement circles but Paslides has made a cottage industry out of linking it to weirder reasons.
 

dr wu

Noble
There are vanishings pretty frequently in the Green Mountains of Vermont. Where I am from. Few years ago a group of 5 people went on the Long Trail and literally just disappeared. No trace of any of them, no sign of struggle. Just gone and never to be seen again. I have climbed every peak in Vermont and there is some spots that just feel awkward. No wildlife, very little vegetation, and a very strange feeling in these spots. Almost like a feeling that you are being watched. Pretty creepy stuff.
Do you have a link to that case....? A name..? Anything...?
 

Castle-Yankee54

Celestial
Yes....exactly....Paulides makes these out to be 'weird' cases in some manner as if it's Bigfoot or something. While the odds are good it's predator men/serial killers etc who often use the park areas to prey on people. This is well known in law enforcement circles but Paslides has made a cottage industry out of linking it to weirder reasons.

Unfortunately there is no shortage of sexual predators/serial killers that hunt in places like this.....no need to blame it on unconfirmed species or portals to different dimensions.
 

nivek

As Above So Below
Unfortunately there is no shortage of sexual predators/serial killers that hunt in places like this.....no need to blame it on unconfirmed species or portals to different dimensions.

Do you always think the worst?...

Who is pointing blame?...I thought one of the good things that comes from discussion is to find answers or at least determine possibilities, not just assume it's always a rapist or murderer when someone disappears...Sorry but some people live out hope their love ones can be found, there is no hope when you just write them off to the worst...
 

Castle-Yankee54

Celestial
Do you always think the worst?...

Who is pointing blame?...I thought one of the good things that comes from discussion is to find answers or at least determine possibilities, not just assume it's always a rapist or murderer when someone disappears...Sorry but some people live out hope their love ones can be found, there is no hope when you just write them off to the worst...

In that case it appears to have been a child abducted by a unkept man.....and since the child has never been seen I doubt the child is alive. There of course is a chance he is still alive.....and no doubt some of the missing are still alive. However, in this case it looked like some wanted to blame bigfoot.

I'm sorry I didn't know any of the family was here.
 

nivek

As Above So Below
In that case it appears to have been a child abducted by a unkept man.....and since the child has never been seen I doubt the child is alive. There of course is a chance he is still alive.....and no doubt some of the missing are still alive. However, in this case it looked like some wanted to blame bigfoot.

I'm sorry I didn't know any of the family was here.

I never said any family was here, I'm saying many cases like this it's best to look at all possibilities than just to write off a person to death or rape just because it sometimes happens...
 

nivek

As Above So Below
A man named Steven Kubacki went missing in February of 1978 while in Michigan. His skis and ski poles were found abandoned on the snow and ice, and his tracks were said to have just suddenly stopped, as if he had walked out of reality, with his backpack flung to the ground nearby.

Since the location where he had vanished was so close to Lake Michigan, it was assumed that he had somehow fallen into the lake and drowned. Despite numerous searches, no one had any clue of where he could have gone, and he seemed to have just stepped off the face of the earth.

That is, until 15 months later, when he just strolled right up to his father’s house.


When Kubacki was asked about what had happened to him or where he had been the whole time, his account didn’t seem to make much sense.

He claimed that he had suddenly woken up to find himself in a meadow around 40 miles from his father’s house, and that he had been wearing clothes that were not his own, along with a small, unfamiliar bag lying next to him containing maps, none of which were his.

Other than this, he had no recollection whatsoever of what had happened to him over the previous 15 months, and indeed he was under the impression that no time had passed at all.
 
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