Over the years, families desperate for answers, media frenzies, and fans who feverishly theory-craft have surrounded numerous high-profile disappearances.
From wealthy heiresses lost at sea, to murder mysteries and stories of betrayal, these cases have continued to captivate readers for decades. Only one thing is for certain, no one knows to this day what happened to these famous people, just that one day they vanished leaving no trace.
Here are some of the most intriguing disappearances that have left detectives, governments, fanbases, and readers scratching their heads.
#1 Sean Flynn
The son of Hollywood legend Errol Flynn, Sean was also a photojournalist, adventurer, and actor.
His fearless pursuit of dangerous assignments during the Vietnam War eventually led to his disappearance on April 6, 1970, while he was covering the conflict in Cambodia.
Due to the influence of his father, Sean was given ample opportunities to develop an acting career, having made his debut at the age of fifteen on an episode of Errol’s television show, The Errol Flynn Theatre.
Sean’s pivot to journalism was the result of becoming disillusioned with acting, searching for a more meaningful and adventurous career of his own. He eventually formed part of a group of high-risk photographers who would regularly go into combat areas to take the best pictures possible.
Sean and his partner, Dana Stone, who was reporting on behalf of CBS, were seized by members of the Viet Cong while heading to a press conference in Saigon by motorcycle. Their bodies were never found.
Image credits: Gianni Ferrari / gettyimages
#2 Amelia Earhart
Amelia Earhart made history by becoming the first female aviator to fly solo nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean. A female icon and celebrated author, she promoted commercial air travel and wrote many best-selling books about her adventures in the sky.
With a passion for pushing the envelope and shattering records, she embarked on what would be her last flight on July 2, 1937. Her goal was ambitious: to become the first female pilot to circumnavigate the world.
Earhart boarded a Lockheed Model 10-E Electra airplane alongside her navigator, Fred Noonan. The pair were last seen in Law, New Guinea, where they made their last stop before the incident.
Investigators believe the plane ran out of fuel somewhere over the central Pacific Ocean and crashed near Howland Island. Earhart was pronounced dead one year and six months after hers and Noonan’s disappearance.
Image credits: Bettmann / gettyimages
#3 Connie Converse
Elizabeth Eaton Converse, most commonly known by her stage name Connie, is often hailed as one of the first modern singer-songwriters, and a talented composer, poet, and writer.
She disappeared on August 10, 1974. According to Howard Fishman, who wrote her biography, a combination of personal setbacks devastated her mental health, plunging her into a deep depression that led her to pack her belongings into her Volkswagen Beetle and drive away, never to be seen again.
Testimony of friends and family point to Connie being a lesbian, feeling rejected in both her personal and professional life by her religious parents. She found solace in writing for the Journal of Conflict Resolution, but lost her job after its offices moved to Yale in 1972.
While her family tried to locate her, the private investigator who they had hired ultimately told them that he couldn’t bring her back, and that they should respect her decision to disappear.
Image credits: The Musick Group
#4 Lord Lucan
Richard John Bingham, the 7th Earl of Lucan, most commonly known as “Lord Lucan,” disappeared after supposedly failing to kill his wife on November 7, 1974.
The 39-year-old had been embroiled in a bitter custody battle with his wife, Veronica Duncan, following the breakdown of their marriage. Lucan had an addiction to gambling and was a heavy drinker, which ultimately resulted in him having to move out of their family home.
The night of the incident, Veronica and his kids were having dinner while their nanny, Sandra Rivett, was preparing tea in the basement kitchen. Lady Duncan grew suspicious as she did not come back in a while.
When she went down to see what had happened to Sandra, she found the kitchen in total darkness and was hit in the head by a blunt object. “Be quiet!” she heard, in what she would later reveal to be his husband’s voice.
Scared, Veronica took to the streets to ask for help, shouting “I've just escaped from being murdered! He’s in the house! He’s murdered the nanny!”
When police arrived, they found the nanny’s body in a sack alongside a blood-covered lead pipe. Reports say Lord Lucan fled out of London to Sussex, and was never seen again.
Image credits: Express / gettyimages
#5 Barbara Newhall Follett
Touted as a child prodigy novelist, Barbara Newhall Follet published her first novel, The House Without Windows, when she was just 12 years old. She followed her first publication with another, The Voyage of the Norman D. in 1928, when she was 14 years old.
Described as a “child of nature” by historians, Barbara often expressed fondness for the wilderness in her stories and poems. Deeply sensitive, her heart was shattered when her father left her mother for another woman, which also had the side-effect of damaging her family’s finances.
She continued writing while working as a secretary in New York City in the middle of the Great Depression, but her novels Lost Island and Travels Without a Donkey failed to reach the acclaim of her previous work.
Barbara met Nickerson Rogers in 1931 and spent the summer walking the Appalachian Trail to the Massachusetts border. The couple then traveled to Spain and Switzerland, exploring the Alps and other natural wonders.
They married in July 1934, and while their union was initially happy, Barbara expressed dissatisfaction with her life in letters to close friends. Four years later, in 1938, Follet began suspecting her husband of being unfaithful and fled her home the following year, never to be seen again.
Image credits: Farksolia
#6 Jean Spangler
Spangler was a promising American actress and dancer born in Seattle, Washington. She disappeared on October 7, 1946 and was 26-years-old.
She was just starting to make her way in show business by working as an extra on productions such as 1948’s When My Baby Smiles at Me, and the 1949 comedy Chicken Every Sunday.
On the evening of her disappearance, Spangler told her sister-in-law that she was going to meet her ex-husband to discuss child support payments and then head to a late-night film shoot.
She was last seen at a grocery store. Two days later, her purse was found in Griffith Park with a torn strap and a cryptic note addressed to a man named “Kirk,” mentioning a visit to a “Dr. Scott.”
Speculation at the time claimed that Spangler had been involved in a botched abortion, a common practice in post-war Los Angeles. Other theories were considered, including connections to the mafia and actor Kirk Douglas, with no substantial evidence to back them.
Image credits: Bettmann / gettyimages
#7 Oscar Zeta Acosta
The Mexican-American attorney made a name for himself by being an activist in the Chicano Movement, as well as for his novels: 1972’s Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo and 1973’s The Revolt of the Cockroach People.
He disappeared on May 27, 1974, aged 39, while traveling in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Mexico. His son, Marco Acosta, would later state that while the body was never found, his father “got into a fight, and got killed.”
Zeta was a close friend of author Hunter S. Thompson, who immortalized him by recounting their adventures while traveling to Las Vegas in the autobiographical novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, published on November 11, 1971.
Image credits: Bob Reilly / flickr
#8 Zoe Mcclellan
The actress, famous for her roles in Designated Survivor and NCIS, was accused by her ex-husband, J.P. Gillain, of disappearing with their child.
An arrest warrant was issued in Los Angeles County against McLellan for charges of child custody deprivation, kidnapping, and child stealing in May 2021. The incident happening in the middle of an ongoing custody dispute dating back to 2017.
According to Gillain, the actress took their then 4-year-old son, Sebastian, to Toronto without his consent. McLellan has been missing since April 2019, not appearing in any productions and presumably living under a different identity.
Fans have tossed around conflicting narratives about her disappearance, with one side believing she acted in an attempt to protect her son from abuse, and the other that McLellan acted maliciously, and that she will be arrested as soon as authorities find her.
Image credits: Gregg DeGuire / gettyimages
#9 Weldon Kees
Kees was an American painter, jazz pianist, filmmaker, and poet. He became famous as an icon of the Beat Generation of mid-20th century American society, with his works being frequently featured on publications like The New Yorker and Time.
Despite his artistic success, Kees struggled with personal issues and has been known to have suffered manic depression.
He disappeared on July 18, 1955, in San Francisco. Rumors of him having taken his own life began circulating after his car was found abandoned on the Marin County side of the Golden Gate Bridge, but without his body, nothing could be confirmed.
His legacy remains shrouded in mystery to this day, with friends later reporting to local outlets that Kees had spoken about his desire to jump from the bridge or to leave for Mexico and never look back.
Image credits: The American Poetry Revlew
#10 Harold Holt
Known for being the 17th Prime Minister of Australia, Holt vanished without a trace on December 17, 1967, while swimming at Cheviot Beach, Victoria, which sparked one of the largest search efforts in the country’s history.
With his body unable to be found, many conspiracy theories surfaced in the aftermath of the event. Among the most outlandish was the idea of Holt being a spy from China, whose body was seized by a submarine of the Asian nation.
Tony Eggleton, a political consultant and friend of Holt’s, said that he tried to confront him about the dangers of his hobby, but that the Prime Minister dismissed him, saying, "Look Tony, what are the odds of a prime minister being drowned or taken by a shark?"
Holt’s death has been attributed to drowning, and he was later commemorated with the Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Centre.
Image credits: Bettmann / gettyimages
#11 Bison Dele
The former Former NBA player disappeared on July 7, 2002, during a sailing trip in the South Pacific.
The 33-year-old took a trip from Tahiti aboard his catamaran, the Hakuna Matata, accompanied by his girlfriend, Serena Karlan, as well as his brother, Miles Dabord, and the ship’s captain Bertrand Saldo.
Out of the four, Dabord was the only person who returned to Tahiti almost two weeks later on July 20. The police launched a sting operation in September, discovering that Dabord had forged Dele’s signature to open mailboxes in his name and to buy $152,000 worth of gold.
The police found that Dabord had fled to Mexico and that the Hakuna Matata had been left in Tahiti under a different name, with its name removed and bullet holes patched.
Dabord took his life by overdosing on insulin on September 27 of that year. The FBI discovered that he had bought $200 in weights in order to sink the bodies of his victims to the bottom of the sea.
Image credits: Jonathan Daniel / gettyimages
#12 Rico Harris
The former Harlem Globetrotter, Rico Omar Harris, disappeared on October 10, 2014, while driving from California to Washington, where he planned to start a new chapter in his life.
Before that, the basketball player struggled with addiction after his career ended, returning to his mother’s house in Alhambra with no job prospects. He started using heroin, meth, and crack cocaine, getting arrested over a hundred times throughout the 2000s for public intoxication.
He met Jennifer Song, who would become his fiancée, after completing a rehabilitation program and working as a security guard.
Harris was excited to turn the long-distance relationship he had with his partner into a live-in one. He had secured a job interview for a position as a property appraiser in Washington, as well as updated his old driver’s license to that state.
The player visited his family before departing to Washington, hoping to get some closure about his past, then he drove north of Sacramento, leaving a message to his fiancée about “going up to the mountains to rest.”
Image credits: Instagram / all_thats_interesting
#13 Jim Sullivan
The singer-songwriter and guitarist mysteriously disappeared in New Mexico on March 6, 1975.
He married his high school sweetheart Barbara and the two would move to Los Angeles in 1968. His wife landed a job for Capitol Records and Sullivan was able to release two albums: 1969’s UFO, and 1972’s Jim Sullivan.
Despite having some Hollywood connections, his records failed to make the impact he was expecting, and his career issues translated into marriage troubles, causing his separation from Barbara in 1975.
Unable to see a future for himself in Los Angeles, Sullivan planned to move to Nashville to restart his career, but disappeared on his drive there.
His abandoned car was later found with his belongings inside, including his guitar and unsold records. Despite searches, Sullivan’s fate remains unknown, and theories about his disappearance range from foul play to self-harm.
Image credits: wikipedia.org
#14 Richey Edwards
The guitarist for the Welsh alternative rock band Manic Street Preachers disappeared on February 1, 1995.
Edwards became the band’s main lyricist and openly discussed his battles with depression in interviews, using his art as an outlet for his inner turmoil.
The day of his disappearance, the songwriter was set to travel to the U.S. with the band, but his abandoned car was instead found near the Severn Bridge, a site that had become infamous for people who'd lost their lives.
Edward’s body was never found, although some of his fans have claimed to have seen him in India and the Canary Islands.
Image credits: Ian Dickson / gettyimages
#15 Forrest Schab (Dy)
Forrest Schab, mostly known for his stage name DY, was hailed as one of the best emerging Canadian artists by the Billboard February 2010 issue before his disappearance on November 18, 2010.
The rapper made plans in August of that year to fly to Mexico, and disappeared soon after landing in that country. Canadian police launched an investigation on his whereabouts but to no avail.
Speculation at the time stated that his disappearance was linked to drugs and organized crime, as well as to the termination of his contract by CP Records, which presumably had a negative impact on his mental health.
Image credits: Youtube
#16 Daniel Lind Lagerlöf
The renowned Swedish director, screenwriter, and producer, was last seen on October 6, 2011, during preparations for a filming project in his home country.
Lagerlöf disappeared while scouting a location at a nature reserve, and is believed to have been swept out to sea by strong waves while walking along slippery rocks near high cliffs in Bohuslän.
His disappearance left behind his wife, whom he married in 1997, and three children. With no witnesses present or remains found, it’s unclear what happened, but the director has been declared dead.
Image credits: Fandom
#17 Ambrose Bierce
Bierce was a celebrated writer and editor who mysteriously vanished after traveling to Mexico in October 1913.
The 71-year-old departed from Washington presumably in an effort to immerse himself in the revolutionary conflict of the Latin American country. Reports state that he successfully passed through Louisiana and Texas, crossing through El Paso into Mexico.
Bierce is said to have joined revolutionary leader Pancho Villa’s army as an observer, witnessing key historical moments like the Battle of Tierra Blanca.
His last known communication was a letter he wrote to Blanche Partington, a close friend, on December 26, 1913. “I leave here tomorrow for an unknown destination," it read.
Bierce disappeared without a trace, with numerous theories emerging soon after about his whereabouts.
Image credits: wikipedia.org
#18 Ylenia Carrisi
The eldest daughter of famous Italian singers Albano Carrisi and Romina Power, she disappeared while visiting New Orleans on January 18, 1994.
Ylenia was traveling alone after taking a break from her literature studies at King’s College London. She sold most of her belongings in order to fund her travels across South America, making her last stop in Belize before returning to New Orleans on December 26, 1993.
A couple of weeks later, Ylenia was last seen in the French Quarter area, staying at a hotel with a street musician named Alexander Masakela.
Having not heard from her since, her parents issued a missing person report on January 18, and an investigation was launched that dismissed Masakela as a suspect. A security guard testified to seeing a woman matching Ylenia’s description jump into the MIssissippi River.
Coast Guard searched the area but no body was ever recovered. Ylenia was declared officially dead in December 2014.
Image credits: X / Romina Power
#19 Tammy Lynn Leppert
Lynn was a successful actress, model, and beauty queen before her disappearance on July 6, 1983. She was 18-years-old.
Lynn rose to fame in the beauty pageant world, winning over 280 crowns from nearly 300 contests. She quickly transitioned into a modeling career that had her posing for CoverGirl Magazine in October 1978
The model appeared in various films but her most famous role was her participation in Scarface in 1983.
After the shooting of the movie Spring Break had finished, the model went unaccompanied to a party one weekend and returned “a different person,” according to Wing Flannagan, one of her closest friends.
Months before her vanishing, Tammy reportedly started showing signs of mental distress, including a fear of being murdered. She was evaluated at a medical center and cleared of drug or alcohol use, but her behavior persisted.
The model was last seen in Cocoa Beach, Florida. Her mother struggled for years trying to find a culprit, with people such as serial killer Christopher WIlder, and kidnapper John Crutchley being considered suspects.
Harold Lewis, a Cocoa Beach Detective, said in 1985 that he received two telephone calls from an anonymous woman claiming that Tammy was alive and pursuing a career as a nurse.
Image credits: imdb.com
#20 Levi Davis
Levi Davis, a 24-year-old British rugby player, disappeared in Barcelona in October 2022 after traveling from Ibiza. His last contact was a phone voice note sent after midnight on October 30 of this year.
Julie, Levi's mother, is frustrated by the lack of progress in the investigation. Police initially suspected he drowned after a man was seen in the water near the port, but the case was later closed.
Investigative journalists Dan Evans and Tom Latchem have criticized the investigation, claiming authorities failed to gather key evidence.
"The police [in Barcelona] have failed to properly get CCTV, they didn't get the communications history Levi was using and they didn't do anything properly," they said.
Evans and Latchem suggested Levi may have been blackmailed, and expressed frustration at what they believe is a failure on the part of Spanish and British police to work together.
Levi’s mother is now urging UK authorities to take over the case. She has remained uncertain whether her son is dead or alive and has been struggling with the emotional toll of the ongoing mystery.
Image credits: Instagram / thelelife
#21 Antoine De Saint-Exupéry
Although he’s mostly known for writing the famous children’s novella The Little Prince, Antoine was also a journalist, aviator, and poet.
It was his knowledge of aviation that eventually led to his disappearance in July 1944, as he embarked on a reconnaissance mission from the French island of Corsica over the Mediterranean, in preparation for the Allied invasion of southern France.
Saint-Exupéry did not do this mission out of love for his country, however, as historians record how he was strong-armed into the position by Charles de Gaulle, a French general of the Vichy Regime, which Exupéry did not support.
The novelist reportedly became depressed by his appointment and began drinking heavily, with members of the air force discussing his expulsion due to his deteriorating physical and mental health.
While his body was never recovered, a fisherman found his silver identity bracelet in September 1998. Wreckage of his airplane was subsequently discovered in May 2000 and is currently displayed at the French Air and Space Museum.
Image credits: Picryl
#22 Scott Smith
Loverboy’s bassist, Scott Smith, disappeared on November 30, 2000, during a sailing trip.
The 45-year-old musician was piloting his sailboat, the Sea Major, en route to Los Angeles with his friend, BIll Eliis, and girlfriend, Yvonne Mayotte, when a 25-foot wave struck them, immediately sweeping Smith overboard.
The Coast Guard mobilized quickly, but the rescue operation was unable to find the bassist’s body after an entire day of a relentless searching.
“One minute he was there and the next he was gone,” Ellis shared in an interview with the Montreal Gazette. “It happened very, very quickly.”
The band paid tribute to Smith with the song Stranded, which was included in their next studio album, Just Getting Started, released in 2007.
Image credits: Bill McCay / gettyimages
#23 Joe Pichler
The former child actor, best known for his roles in Varsity Blues and the 2000s Beethoven 3rd and 4th movies, disappeared at just 18-years-old, on January 5, 2006.
Pichler had relocated to Los Angeles as a child to pursue his acting career, which had a promising start, with appearances in at least 14 movies and television shows as a supporting actor.
At the insistence of his parents, he paused his acting career in 2003 to finish high school in his home town of Bremerton, Washington.
Pichler’s car, a silver Toyota Corolla, was found four days after his disappearance. Inside the vehicle there was a note where he expressed the wish to be “stronger” and a desire for his possessions to be handed to his younger brother.
While the lead detective on the case suspects the incident to be self-harm, Pichler’s body was never found, making it impossible to conclusively state what happened to him.
Image credits: Youtube
#24 Theodosia Burr-Alston
Theodosia was the daughter of the third US Vice President, Aaron Burr. The 29-year-old was heading to New York to reunite with her father after the death of her 10-year-old son to malaria.
She disappeared while sailing aboard the Patriot on December 31, 1812, a fast ship that served as a privateer during the war. The vessel’s weaponry was dismantled and hidden below decks, and the ship was said to have been laden with valuable cargo.
The Patriot never reached its destination, and his crew was never found. Speculation at the time pointed towards piracy as the culprit, as well as a storm off the Carolina coast ultimately sinking the ship.
Image credits: Portrait by John Vanderlyn
#25 Christina Mckichnie
Mostly known for her stage name “Licorice,” the Scottish musician and member of the Incredible String Band (ISB) vanished under mysterious circumstances after hitchhiking across the Arizona desert in 1987.
Licorice reached the apex of her fame when she performed at the Woodstock Festival in 1969, but by the late 80s she had mostly faded from public view.
Accounts on her whereabouts are contradictory, with her sister stating that she was in Sacramento, California recovering from a surgery in 1990, and media outlets that she had disappeared in 1987.
Rose Simpson, a fellow former member of ISB, was quoted stating that “There’s a possibility that she may be dead.”
Image credits: @scotianostra / Tumblr
#26 Anastasia Romanov
The Grand Duchess of Russia was the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas the 2nd, the last sovereign of Imperial Russia.
While initially thought to have been in hiding after his family was murdered by the Bolsheviks on July 17, 1918, her remains were finally discovered in 2007, scientifically disproving her survival through DNA testing and putting an end to decades of women falsely claiming her identity.
Anastasia’s supposed survival famously inspired the award-winning 1997 animated classic of the same name by Fox Animation Studios. The film was itself adapted from a 1956 live-action movie starring Ingrid Bergman, which followed the plot from a 1952 theater play.
Image credits: wikipedia.com
#27 Dorothy Arnold
Ms. Arnold was a wealthy socialite of the early 20th century American society. She disappeared without trace on December 12, 1910 when she was 25 years old in New York City.
Dorothy was the daughter of successful fine goods importer Francis R. Arnold, and enjoyed a luxurious lifestyle. She graduated from Bryn Mawr College and dreamt of becoming a writer.
On the day of her disappearance, Dorothy left her home to go shopping for a dress and was last seen by a cashier and a friend on Fifth Avenue. According to her friend’s testimony, she had planned to take a stroll through Central Park before returning home.
Her father, Francis, sought the help of private investigators but their efforts proved fruitless. He would wait for a year before ultimately giving up on the search, telling the press that he had come to accept that his daughter was dead.
Image credits: De Carvalho Collection / gettyimages
