It is not uncommon for newspapers, television or radio to report a sudden and unexplained disappearance of people. Very often, due to lack of evidence, police officers shrug and the case remains unsolved. Supercoolpics has prepared for you 10 chilling stories about the sudden disappearance of travelers who never returned home.

John Reid

In 1980, 28-year-old John Reed left his native city Twin City in California and went to Brazil. He hoped to find the lost city of Akator, an ancient underground civilization, which supposedly remained a mystery of the Amazonian jungle for thousands of years. Reid learned about the city from a book called Akator's Chronicle. The author of this book, Carl Brugger, wrote it after learning about Akator from a Brazilian guide, Tatunka Nara, who claimed to have once been the leader of a tribe that ruled the city 3,000 years ago. Tatunka lived in the village of Barcelos and owned profitable business organizing walks for tourists in the jungle to search for Akator. Reid decided to accompany Tatunka on one of his expeditions. He left his belongings and the return air ticket in his hotel room in Manaus, but never came back for them.

It was eventually revealed that Tatunka Nara was actually a German citizen named Gunther Hawk. Tatunka claimed that Reid ran away and hid in the jungle after they decided to return to Barcelos. However, Reed was not the only person who disappeared under suspicious circumstances in Tatunka's company. In the 1980s, a Swiss named Herbert Wanner and a Swedish woman named Kristin Heuser also mysteriously disappeared during the Tatunka expedition. Wanner's jawbone was later found.

Also, Carl Brugger, the author of the book that inspired John Reed, was gunned down on the streets of Rio in 1984. Authorities still believe that Gunther Hawk was responsible for Brugger's murder and the three disappearances, but there is not enough evidence to charge him.

Judy Smith

In 1997, Judy Smith, a 50-year-old mother of two from Newton, Massachusetts, married an attorney and decided to travel to Philadelphia to join her husband Jeffrey on his business trip. On April 10, Geoffrey went to a conference, and Judy decided to go sightseeing. Judy never made it back to the hotel and was reported missing by Geoffrey. She was found five months later. On September 7, travelers found her partially buried remains in an isolated mountainous area.

The strange thing about this story is that Judy's remains were found more than 960 kilometers away, in North Carolina.

The exact cause of death could not be determined, but since Judy's remains were found in a shallow grave, the authorities concluded that she was the victim of premeditated murder. Since she had wedding ring and $167, robbery was hardly the motive. It was also strange that she carried her belongings in a red backpack, but a blue backpack was found on the spot. Stranger still, Judy apparently went there voluntarily, as four witnesses reported seeing her in nearby Asheville.

Witnesses said that Judy was in good mood and mentioned in conversation that her husband was a lawyer. If the woman the witness was talking to was really Judy Smith, no one knows why she wanted to run away without telling her family. And if Judy made the decision to disappear on her own, how did she end up dead on a remote mountain buried in a grave?

Frank Lenz

A large number of people have disappeared, trying to independently fly around the world. However, the disappearance of Frank Lenz during an attempt to go around Earth has a unique distinction. Lenz, 25, was a Pennsylvania-born cyclist who wanted to cycle around the world, and he calculated the journey would take two years.

Lenz began his journey in Pittsburgh on May 25, 1892, and spent the next few months traveling North America before sailing to Asia. By May 1894, Lenz had cycled through Tabriz, Iran, and next paragraph destination was located at a distance of 450 kilometers Erzurum, Turkey. But Lenz did not come to Erzurum and was never seen again.

His family and friends decided to organize a search. Unfortunately, Lenz traveled around Turkey during the peak of the Armenian massacres in the mid-1890s. During this terrible time Ottoman Empire killed tens of thousands of Armenians, and perhaps Lenz became their casual victim.

When another cyclist named William Sachtleben rode to Erzurum to look for Lenz, he found out that Lenz may have been passing through a small Turkish village in the Kurdistan region, where he had inadvertently insulted a Kurdish chieftain. Thirsty for retribution, the ataman ordered the bandits to kill Lenz and bury his body. The alleged killers were blamed for Lenz's death, but most escaped or died before they could be imprisoned. The Turkish government eventually agreed to compensate Lenz's family, but his body was never found.

Leo Vidiker

Even though he was 86 years old, Leo Wiediker still led a very active lifestyle. Leo has been married for 55 years and both spouses belonged to a Christian organization called Maranatha Volunteers International. By 2001, the Vidikers had organized 40 humanitarian trips. On their 41st trip, the couple left their home in North Dakota to accompany the organization to Hot Springs Tabacon, Costa Rica. On November 8, Leo sat down on a bench at the resort while his wife walked away for a short while. When Virginia returned half an hour later, her husband was gone.

There was a version that Leo may have fallen asleep on the bench, and when he woke up, he forgot everything. Before he disappeared, witnesses saw Leo asking people if they knew where his wife was. He went to the gate of the resort hotel and asked the guards if he could get out, they opened the gate and watched him go down the main road.

Already 15 minutes later, one of Leo's friends was walking along the same road, but found no sign that he had passed here. Since Leo didn't move very fast and there weren't many places he could go, the only logical explanation was that someone had kidnapped him. And even during the search operation, the police could not find a single trace of Leo Vidiker.

Karen Denise Wells

Karen Denise Wells was from Haskell, Oklahoma. She was 23 years old, and she raised a child alone. As usual, she decided to leave the child with her parents to visit a friend named Melissa Shepard. Wells rented a car and drove to North Bergen, New Jersey. Wells was last seen on April 12, 1994, calling a friend from a motel in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Shepard agreed to meet Wells at a motel and arrived later that night with two unidentified men. Wells did not return to the room again, but at the same time most of her things were left there.

Early the next morning, Wells' rental car was found abandoned on a remote road 56 kilometers from the motel. The vehicle stood without gasoline, and its doors were wide open. Evidence was found in the car that indicated that Karen had been in the car before last moment. The evidence included a small amount of marijuana, but Karen's wallet and change purse were found in a nearby ditch. The oddest clue in the abandoned vehicle was the numbers on the speedometer, which didn't match the distance from Haskell to Carlisle. In fact, 700 miles were superfluous.

Before she arrived at the motel in the town of Carlisle, Wells was seen in two other cities that were completely out of her way. During her last telephone conversation with Shepard, Wells mentioned that she had gotten lost several times before. However, still no one can tell where Karen is.

Charles Horvath

In 1989, 20-year-old Charles Horvath decided to leave his native England and travel to Canada to spend several months hitchhiking across the country. By May 11, Charles arrived in British Columbia and camped at a campsite in Kelowna. He sent a fax to his mother, Denise Allan, saying that he would try to meet her in Hong Kong for his 21st birthday. However, this was last message that his mother received. Since Charles had kept in contact up to this point, she became worried. She decided to go to British Columbia to find it. Denise discovered that Charles had left his tent and all his belongings at the campsite when he suddenly disappeared. After informing the police about missing Charles, Denise returned to her hotel and found a note one evening: “I saw him on May 26th. We were celebrating and two people beat him up. He died. His body is in the lake behind the bridge."

Divers searched the lake but did not find Charles' body. However, Denise soon received another note claiming they had searched the wrong side of the bridge. After a second search, the police did indeed find the body. The victim was first identified as Charles, but it turned out to be a local man who had committed suicide. Denise did receive confirmation that Charles was going to a night out before he disappeared. Nevertheless, his disappearance has remained a mystery for 25 years.

Ettore Majorana

Ettore Majorana was a well-known Italian theoretical physicist. In 1938 Majorana worked as a lecturer in physics at the University of Naples. On March 25, he wrote a strange note to the director of the university, saying he had made an "inevitable" decision and apologizing for any "inconvenience" his disappearance might cause. He also sent a message to his family asking them not to spend too much time mourning him. Majorana withdrew a large sum of money from a bank account and took a boat to Palermo. After arriving in Palermo, Majorana sent another message to the director saying that he had reconsidered his decision to commit suicide and planned to return home. Majorana was seen boarding a ship for Naples, but he mysteriously disappeared.

There was great amount theories of the disappearance of Marjoram: suicide, escape from the country to start new life, and even possible cooperation with the Third Reich. This mystery remained unsolved until 2008, when a witness was found who claimed that he met Majorana in Caracas in 1955. This man allegedly lived in Argentina for many years, and the witness even provided a photograph of him. After analyzing the man in the photo and comparing him to the photographs of Majorana, investigators concluded that a large number common features may indicate that they are the same person. The investigation into the disappearance of Ettore Majorana is still ongoing, but full story what happened remains a mystery.

Devin Williams

Devin Williams lived with his wife and three children in Lyon County, Kansas and made his living as a truck driver. In May 1995, Williams went on a routine business trip to deliver a package to California. After completing the task, Williams picked up another shipment for delivery to Kansas City. On May 28, he was seen speeding his truck through the Tonto National Forest near Kingman, Arizona, passing dangerously close to the parking lots of some hikers and their vehicles. The truck eventually came to a stop in the middle of the woods and witnesses saw Williams wandering around it. He looked disoriented, mumbling incoherently "I'm going to jail" and "they made me do it." By the time the police arrived at the scene, the truck was without a driver, Williams had disappeared.

The Tonto National Forest is more than 50 miles from the interstate that Williams's route to Kansas used to take, and there was no rational explanation for it. strange behavior. He had never used drugs before and did not suffer from mental illness, although before leaving California, Williams called his doctor and said he was having trouble sleeping. Williams' disappearance was so strange that even UFO researchers began to think that he had been abducted by aliens.

Finally, in May 1997, travelers discovered the skull of Devin Williams about half a mile from where he had been seen in last time. However, what actually happened to him is unknown.

Virginia Carpenter

In 1946, the city of Texarkana became the birthplace of terrible secret when an unidentified man known as the Phantom Killer killed five people. A young girl named Virginia Carpenter knew the three victims and became the center of all leads just two years later. On June 1, 1948, 21-year-old Carpenter left Texarkana for a six-hour train ride to Denton, where she was registered with state college Texas for women. After arriving that evening, Carpenter took a taxi from the train station to the college dorm. However, remembering that she forgot her bag, she returned to the station. When Carpenter found out the luggage hadn't arrived yet, she gave her ticket to the taxi driver, Jack Zachary, and paid him to pick up the luggage the next morning. Zachary took Carpenter to the dorm, where he said she went to talk to two young men in a convertible.

The next day, Zachary took Carpenter's luggage and left it in front of the hostel, where it was unclaimed for two days. When the college staff and the Carpenter family realized that none of them had heard from her in a long time, they reported her missing.

Who the two young men in the cabriolet were was never found out. However, some suspicion fell on Zachary, who had a criminal record and was known to be abusive towards his family. Zachary's wife initially told police that he returned home shortly after dropping Carpenter off, but a few years later she claimed her alibi was false - Zachary had actually arrived home hours late. However, there was no evidence linking Zachary to the disappearance of Virginia Carpenter, and no trace of her has ever been found.

Benjamin Bathurst

Benjamin Bathurst was an ambitious 25 year old British Ambassador. He was sent from London to Vienna in 1809 in the hope of improving British-Austrian relations. However, when the French armed forces invaded Vienna, Bathurst went back home. On November 25, he and his personal valet stopped in Perleberg, Germany and checked into the White Swan Inn. Bathurst intended to continue the journey that evening, after his valet had changed horses in their wagon. Finally, at about 9:00 pm, Bathurst learned that the horses were ready. He left his room to presumably head for the wagon and disappeared.

Two days later, Bathurst's coat was found in a building owned by a man who worked at the White Swan Inn. The man's mother claimed to have found the coat at the inn and brought it home, but one witness claimed to have seen Bathurst walking towards the building the evening he disappeared. Bathurst's trousers were soon found in a wooded area about five kilometers from the city. In the trousers was an unfinished letter to Bathurst's wife, in which he expressed his fear that he would not return home to England.

Rumors circulated that Bathurst had been kidnapped by French soldiers, but the allegations were denied by the government. In 1862, a skeleton was found under a house that had once belonged to a White Swan Inn employee. The remains could not be identified as Benjamin Bathurst and therefore his disappearance has remained an unsolved mystery for over 200 years.

Disappearances that occur in forests or national parks create a lot of problems for investigators and rangers who are combing meter by meter. dense forests and steep mountain ranges in search of the missing. But when people disappear at extreme mysterious circumstances and leave almost no trace behind, things get a lot more complicated. A YouTube user named Top5s has compiled five of the most compelling and bizarre cases of people disappearing under incredibly mysterious circumstances (watch the video below).

Four-year-old Alfred Beilartz, the youngest of 11 children, went missing in July 1938 while traveling through the Rocky Mountains in national park in the state of Colorado. The family moved along the river and when the parents turned to tell Alfred to catch up with them, the boy disappeared. He did not scream, and there was no sign that he could fall into the water. Adults and children called and searched for him. Arriving at the scene of the disappearance, the police were convinced that he had fallen into the water, and tried to find him down the river.

It was very strange when the dogs took his trail, climbing 150 meters up the mountainside from where his parents lost him. At the intersection of two paths, the trained dogs lost their trail.

But the most mysterious was the message of the tourists, who a day later passed through old road, running along the river at an altitude of about 900 meters and 10 kilometers from the place where Alfred disappeared. They saw a little boy on a rocky ridge near Devil's Nest mountain, who then disappeared from their field of vision. The tourists at that moment had no idea that they were looking for him and that he might be alone. When they returned home and saw a wanted poster, they immediately reported it to the police.

It took two days for the search party to reach the specified location. It was impossible to understand how a little boy could climb such a steep rock. Since no traces or even clothes of the boy were found, he was officially recognized as drowned. But his family is still convinced that he was kidnapped.

Photographer Charles McCullers, who has a magnificent collection of photographs, often traveled in his Volkswagen. In 1974, he left his car at home and decided to hitchhike across the US from his native Virginia to Oregon, where he arrived in late January 1975. Staying with his friend, he went to national park"Crater Lake" to make great winter scenery. On the way, he went to the store and, as the seller recalls, was excited about something.

He never returned. Charles's father organized a search party, which included members of the FBI. But they didn't find any traces. A year later, two tourists took the wrong path and went into an unknown canyon, where they found an old backpack, in the side pocket of which they found car keys, which, as it turned out, were Charles's keys.

Park rangers on horseback examined the place, after which they had many questions. Charles was found 20 kilometers from the lake. It was hard to believe that Charles could walk on deep fresh snow more than two meters high. It was very strange that socks were pulled over the damaged bones of the legs, which remained in jeans. The rest of his body was bare of clothing, which could never be found, as well as expensive photographic equipment.

It is possible that wild animals attacked him, but what happened to him before that remained a mystery. Investigators concluded that he died natural causes, but the family has not come to terms with his loss and believes that he died under sinister circumstances.

Geraldine Large in 2013, together with her friend, made a two-month trek in the Appalachians. An experienced traveler who followed in the footsteps of writer Bill Bryson was very well prepared for the journey. A friend, after two months of travel, was forced to leave her due to sudden family circumstances. Geraldine decided to continue on her own and took Route 27 to spend the night on it and then meet her husband George. When his wife did not come out to the meeting place, George decided that she was late. Without waiting for her, he organized a search.

She was searched throughout route 27 with dogs, horses and helicopters. The search, which covered an area of ​​50 km, was the largest in the history of Maine. However, no trace was found. And only in 2015, her body was found 5 kilometers from the place where she entered the route.

Investigators assured that they passed through this place many times. Her bright orange tent standing in the forest should have been immediately noticed, but no one saw her. A fire was found near the tent and a flag was hung on a makeshift flagpole announcing the accident. The woman stayed in this place for 27 days, according to her last record in her diary, and eventually starved to death.

Only a 10-minute walk from the site of the tragedy was the road. No one could understand why the experienced traveler lost her way and could not get out onto the road where people walk every day. It is very strange that, having water and food, she remained in the tent for about a month, while a thorough search was carried out around her.

Scout group in July 1991 began climbing the summit of Mount San Gorgonio in California. Overweight 12-year-old Jeremy Grant trudged along at the end of the group and disappeared. He was searched for and called by the whole group. Soon they found similar prints of sneakers and a backpack with beef jerky, sweets and a camera. The film was developed, and on it he took a picture of himself, presumably after he got lost. Who attacked him, a mountain lion or a bear, is unknown.

On June 14, 1969, six-year-old Dennis Martin went hiking with his parents in the Great Smoky National Park. The boys, he with his older brother and two new friends, decided to scare their parents and hide. When the boys jumped out to their frightened parents, Dennis, who was wearing a red shirt, was not with them. After searching, the missing boy's grandfather came down from the mountains for help.

The family and rangers searched for Dennis all day and all night, but heavy rain washed away all traces. The search lasted for half a month, but Dennis was never found. His seventh birthday was only a few days away. Until now, no one knows what happened to the boy, and how he could disappear in a matter of seconds.

Thai police are investigating the death of 30-year-old Belgian tourist Elisa Dalman, whose body was found in the jungle on Koh Tao. This is not the first accident at the resort: earlier in the spring, a Russian woman disappeared under unspecified circumstances in the same place, and five other tourists died in previous years. About what's going on mysterious island, - in the material of RIA Novosti.

Jumping to conclusions and a strange death

Small Koh Tao in the Gulf of Thailand, popular with divers because of the beauty of the coral reefs, is called the "island of death" in the local press. Over the past three years, a series of strange deaths tourists from Europe. Almost all cases were classified by local police as suicides.

Belgian Michelle van Egten was forced to challenge these conclusions. In April, her 30-year-old daughter Eliza Dalman was found dead in the jungles of Koh Tao. According to police, the body of the deceased, half eaten by lizards, was wrapped in a piece of old cloth, and a canister of fuel stood nearby.

Local police officially announced the suicide of the Belgian a few days before they found the body. But even after the tourist was discovered under strange circumstances, the case was never opened. Only the statement of the mother gave impetus to the investigation.

Van Egten claimed that her daughter had no suicidal tendencies. She was talking to Eliza on the eve of her disappearance. At that time, the daughter had been traveling around Asia and Australia for two years and was going to visit Bangkok at the end of April to return home. In Ko Tao, which was supposed to be a transit point, she stayed at the inexpensive Poseidon Resort.

“Elise didn’t leave a farewell note. Her belongings were packed - apparently she was about to leave. The police said that there was a container of fuel next to the body in the jungle, and she herself was wrapped in cheap old T-shirts or some kind of cotton fabrics. I didn’t I understand why I first book a ticket to Bangkok, and then go into the jungle to hang myself. I'm afraid that someone is involved in this, and I don't believe the police, "the girl's mother told the Daily Mail newspaper.
«

The autopsy was carried out in the hospital of the mainland city in southern Thailand - Surat Thani - and continued at the Bangkok Institute of Forensic Medical Examination of the police hospital. Eliza was cremated 14 days later. No documents on the results of the examination of her mother were ever provided.

sectarian trail

One of the members of the rescue team that found the girl's body in the jungles of Koh Tao, Stephen Dryly, told Samui Times that the Belgian could have been killed on another island, Koh Phangan.

According to police, it was there that Dalman was the last time before visiting the ill-fated island. On Phangan, the girl was engaged in yoga and other oriental practices in the tantric religious center of the neo-Hindu destructive sect of Sathya Sai Baba.

Her guru was Raaman Andreas. He told reporters that the Belgian looked happy when she left the island. But the law enforcement officers failed to contact the sect member, now he is wanted to testify.

Also, the police reported an incident with Dalman in early April: allegedly the girl tried to commit suicide on railway station Bangkok, after which she was sent to a psychiatric clinic.

Mother Dalman did not comment on this information. Be that as it may, if the police manage to find a connection between the strange death of a Belgian tourist and the sect of Sathya Sai Baba, this will not be the first scandal in the neo-Hindu organization.

In 2004, former followers of Sai Baba accused the guru of sexual harassment - an investigation was conducted by BBC journalists. The mysterious deaths that occurred in the organization in the 90s were also mentioned there.

"Death Island"

Elisa's death was the seventh in a series of strange deaths of foreign tourists on the island in the past three years. The fame of the "island of death" Ko Tao received in 2014 after the murder of a young couple from Britain, when 23-year-old Hannah and 24-year-old David died from a blow to the head with a hoe. Only in this case, the authorities admitted that it was a murder - then the court named three visitors from Myanmar as guilty.

In the same year, 25-year-old Briton Nick Pearson died on the island, who came with his parents to Thailand to meet New Year. His body was found by divers at sea the day after he disappeared. According to the police, he fell off a 15-meter cliff into the sea and drowned.

However, his parents are sure that the son was killed: according to the pathologist Michael Biggs, on the body young man There were multiple injuries, including on the head. The expert suggested that the Briton could have been attacked.

In 2015, Frenchman Dimitri Povze was found hanged in a house on the island. The death was also called suicide, despite the fact that the man's hands were tied behind his back, and lacerations were found on his body - in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe neck, elbow and wrists.

In the same year, 23-year-old British tourist Christina Annesley was found dead in one of the bungalows on Sai Ri Beach, on the island of Koh Tao. The police assumed that the girl died from some kind of illness. Her parents and a number of experts familiar with the circumstances of the girl's death doubt this version.

In January 2016, the body of Briton Luke Miller was found in the pool of a Koh Tao hotel. There were wounds on the face of the deceased - presumably from barbed wire. The police did not find any signs of violence and assumed that the man had harmed himself while in drunkenness. The body was sent to forensic medical examination in Surat Thani, but no results are reported.

Finally, in February, 23-year-old Russian woman Valentina Novozhenova disappeared under mysterious circumstances on Koh Tao. The girl was fond of freediving (snorkeling with breath holding).

In the hotel room where the girl was staying, her passport was found, mobile phone, a camera and a ferry ticket to Koh Samui, and at the same time there was no freediving equipment. On the CCTV footage, Novozhenova was heading towards the beach with flippers on the day of her disappearance.

The hotel staff claims that the girl, returning from the beach, asked about the schedule of ferries to Koh Samui. However, the police could not find confirmation that the girl left for Koh Samui on one of the ferries. Until now, nothing is known about the whereabouts of the Russian woman.

A photo: personal page Valentina Novozhenova "VKontakte"

Friends of Novozhenova reported on social networks that the appeal to the Moscow police on the fact of the disappearance of the girl, on the recommendation of the Russian embassy in Thailand, did not work: the police passed materials on the investigation from Golyanovo (the place of residence of the missing person) to Domodedovo (the place of her departure abroad) to each other ) and back. Whether a criminal case has been opened into the disappearance of the girl is unknown.

Cooperation with Thai law enforcement turned out to be no more fruitful: the Thai police handed over investigation materials to local journalists, including screenshots of Novozhenova’s correspondence with a psychologist.

The girl wrote that she had a phobia, but the Thai press translated it as "suicidal tendencies". As a result, the local police could again refer to the already canonical "tourist suicide" scenario and stop the investigation.

According to press reports, the island of Koh Tao is actually controlled by a mafia "family". In Thailand, they are called Chao Po, which literally translates as " Godfather". These criminal gangs make money on everything - from drug trafficking and prostitution to a completely legal tourism business, and therefore bad reputation Ko Tao is extremely disadvantageous to them.

Having big influence on the local authorities and the police, criminals may well "hush up" a high-profile case so as not to frighten future tourists. True, when there are seven of these cases, it becomes more and more difficult to hide the truth.

Often means mass media tell us about missing people whose disappearance was so sudden and mysterious that the blood runs cold. Per recent times, one of the most mysterious and high-profile disappearances was the case of 18-year-old American Natalie Halloway, who in 2005 went with her classmates to the island of Aruba to celebrate her graduation, but never returned. In continuation of the article, you will find 10 chilling stories about the sudden disappearance of travelers who never returned home.

1. John Reed

In 1980, 28-year-old John Reed left his hometown of Twin City, California for Brazil. He hoped to find the lost city of Akator, an ancient subterranean civilization that supposedly remained a mystery in the Amazonian jungle for thousands of years. Reid learned about the city from a book called Akator's Chronicle. The author of this book, Carl Brugger, wrote it after learning about Akator from a Brazilian guide, Tatunka Nara, who claimed to have once been the leader of a tribe that ruled the city 3,000 years ago. Tatunka lived in the village of Barcelos and owned a lucrative business of organizing hikes for tourists into the jungle in search of Akator. Reid decided to accompany Tatunka on one of his expeditions. He left his belongings and the return air ticket in his hotel room in Manaus, but never came back for them.

It was eventually revealed that Tatunka Nara was actually a German citizen named Gunther Hawk. Tatunka claimed that Reid ran away and hid in the jungle after they decided to return to Barcelos. However, Reed was not the only person who disappeared under suspicious circumstances in Tatunka's company. In the 1980s, a Swiss named Herbert Wanner and a Swedish woman named Kristin Heuser also mysteriously disappeared during the Tatunka expedition. Wanner's jawbone was later found.

Also, Carl Brugger, the author of the book that inspired John Reed, was gunned down on the streets of Rio in 1984. Authorities still believe that Gunther Hawk was responsible for Brugger's murder and the three disappearances, but there is not enough evidence to charge him.

2. Julia Smith

In 1997, Judy Smith, a 50-year-old mother of two from Newton, Massachusetts, married an attorney and decided to travel to Philadelphia to join her husband Jeffrey on his business trip. On April 10, Geoffrey went to a conference, and Judy decided to go sightseeing. Judy never returned to the hotel, and Geoffrey reported her missing. She was found five months later. On September 7, travelers found her partially buried remains in an isolated mountainous area. The strange thing about this story is that Judy's remains were found more than 960 kilometers away, in North Carolina.

The exact cause of death could not be determined, but since Judy's remains were found in a shallow grave, the authorities concluded that she was the victim of premeditated murder. Since she was left with her wedding ring and $167, the robbery was hardly a motive. It was also strange that she carried her belongings in a red backpack, but a blue backpack was found on the spot. Even stranger is that Judy apparently went there voluntarily, as four witnesses reported seeing her in nearby Asheville.

Witnesses said that Judy was in a great mood and mentioned in conversation that her husband was a lawyer. If the woman the witness was talking to was really Judy Smith, no one knows why she wanted to run away without telling her family. And if Judy made the decision to disappear on her own, how did she end up dead on a distant mountain buried in a grave?

3. Frank Lenz

A large number of people have disappeared, trying to independently fly around the world. However, the disappearance of Frank Lenz during an attempt to circumnavigate the globe has a unique difference. Lenz, 25, was a Pennsylvania-born cyclist who wanted to cycle around the world, and he calculated that the journey would take two years. Lenz began his journey in Pittsburgh on May 25, 1892, and spent the next few months traveling through North America before sailing to Asia. By May 1894, Lenz had cycled through Tabriz, Iran, and his next destination was Erzurum, Turkey, 450 kilometers away. But Lenz did not come to Erzurum and was never seen again.

His family and friends decided to organize a search. Unfortunately, Lenz traveled around Turkey during the peak of the Armenian massacres in the mid-1890s. During this terrible time, the Ottoman Empire killed tens of thousands of Armenians, and Lenz may have been an accidental victim.

When another cyclist named William Sachtleben rode to Erzurum to look for Lenz, he found out that Lenz may have been passing through a small Turkish village in the Kurdistan region, where he had inadvertently insulted a Kurdish chieftain. Thirsty for retribution, the ataman ordered the bandits to kill Lenz and bury his body. The alleged killers were blamed for Lenz's death, but most escaped or died before they could be imprisoned. The Turkish government eventually agreed to compensate Lenz's family, but his body was never found.

4. Leo Wiedicker

Even though he was 86 years old, Leo Wiediker still led a very active lifestyle. Leo has been married for 55 years and both spouses belonged to a Christian organization called Maranatha Volunteers International. By 2001, the Vidikers had organized 40 humanitarian trips. On their 41st trip, the couple left their home in North Dakota to accompany the organization to Hot Springs Tabacon, Costa Rica. On November 8, Leo sat down on a bench at the resort while his wife walked away for a short while. When Virginia returned, half an hour later, her husband was gone.

There was a version that Leo may have fallen asleep on the bench, and when he woke up he forgot everything. Before he disappeared, witnesses saw Leo asking people if they knew where his wife was. He went to the gate of the resort hotel and asked the guards if he could get out, they opened the gate and watched him go down the main road.

Already 15 minutes later, one of Leo's friends was walking along the same road, but found no sign that he was passing here. Since Leo didn't move very fast and there weren't many places he could go, the only logical explanation was that someone had kidnapped him. And even during the search operation, the police could not find a single trace of Leo Vidiker.

5. Karen Denise Wells

Karen Denise Wells was from Haskell, Oklahoma. She was 23 years old and she raised a child alone. As usual, she decided to leave the child with her parents to visit a friend named Melissa Shepherd. Wells rented a car and drove to New Bergen, New Jersey. Wells was last seen on April 12, 1994, calling a friend from a motel in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Shepard agreed to meet Wells at a motel and arrived later that night with two unidentified men. Wells did not return to the room again, but most of her things remained there.

The next laziness, early in the morning, Wells' rental car was found abandoned on a remote road 56 kilometers from the motel. The vehicle stood without gasoline, and its doors were wide open. Evidence was found in the car, which indicated that Karen was in this car until the last moment. The evidence included a small amount of marijuana, but Karen's wallet and change purse were found in a nearby ditch. The oddest clue in the abandoned vehicle was the numbers on the speedometer, which didn't match the distance from Haskell to Carlisle. In fact, 700 miles were superfluous.

Before she arrived at the motel in the town of Carlisle, Wells was seen in two other cities that were completely out of her way. During her last phone call with Shepard, Wells mentioned that she had gotten lost several times before. However, still no one can tell where Karen is.

6. Charles Horvath

In 1989, 20-year-old Charles Horvath decided to leave his native England and travel to Canada to spend several months hitchhiking across the country. By May 11, Charles arrived in British Columbia and camped at a campsite in Kelowna. He sent a fax to his mother, Denise Allan, saying that he would try to meet her in Hong Kong for his 21st birthday. However, this was the last message his mother received. Since Charles had kept in contact up to this point, she became worried. She decided to travel to British Columbia on her own to find him. Denise discovered that Charles had left his tent and all his belongings at the campsite when he suddenly disappeared. After informing the police about missing Charles, Denise returned to her hotel and found a note one evening: “I saw him on May 26th. We were celebrating and two people beat him up. He died. His body is in the lake behind the bridge.”

Divers searched the lake but did not find Charles' body. However, Denise soon received another note claiming they had searched the wrong side of the bridge. After a second search, the police did indeed find the body. The victim was first identified as Charles, but it turned out to be a local man who had committed suicide. Denise did receive confirmation that Charles was going to a night out before he disappeared. Yet his disappearance has remained a mystery for 25 years.

7. Ettore Majorana

Ettore Majorana was a well-known Italian theoretical physicist. In 1938 Majorana worked as a lecturer in physics at the University of Naples. On March 25, he wrote a strange note to the director of the university, stating that he had made an "inevitable" decision and apologized for any "inconvenience" his disappearance might cause. He also sent a message to his family asking them not to spend too much time mourning him. Majorana withdrew a large amount of money from a bank account and boarded a boat to Palermo. After arriving in Palermo, Majorana sent another message to the director saying that he had reconsidered his decision to commit suicide and planned to return home. Majorana was seen boarding a ship for Naples, but he mysteriously disappeared.

There were a huge number of theories for the disappearance of Majorana: suicide, an escape from the country to start a new life, and even a possible collaboration with the Third Reich. This mystery remained unsolved until 2008, when a witness was found who claimed that he met Majorana in Caracas in 1955. This man allegedly lived in Argentina for many years, and the witness even provided a photograph of him. After analyzing the person in the photograph and comparing him to Majorana's photographs, investigators concluded that a large number of similarities could indicate that they were the same person. The investigation into the disappearance of Ettore Majorana is still ongoing, but the full story of what happened remains a mystery.

8. Devin Williams

Devin Williams lived with his wife and three children in Lyon County, Kansas and made his living as a truck driver. In May 1995, Williams went on a routine business trip to deliver a package to California. After completing the task, Williams picked up another shipment for delivery to Kansas City. On May 28, Williams was seen speeding in a truck through National Forest Tonto near Kingman, Arizona, passing dangerously close to the parking lots of some tourists and their vehicles. The truck eventually came to a stop in the middle of the woods, and witnesses saw Williams wandering around it. He looked disoriented, mumbling incoherently "I'm going to jail" and "they made me do it." By the time the police arrived at the scene, the truck was without a driver, Williams had disappeared.

Tonto National Forest is more than 50 miles from the interstate highway that Williams used to take to Kansas, and there was no rational explanation for his strange behavior. He had never used drugs or suffered from mental illness before, although before he left California, Williams called his doctor and said he was having trouble sleeping. Williams' disappearance was so strange that even UFO researchers began to think that he had been abducted by aliens.

Finally, in May 1997, travelers discovered the skull of Devin Williams about half a mile from where he was last seen. However, what actually happened to him is unknown.

9. Virginia Carpenter

In 1946, the city of Texarkana became the birthplace of a horrific mystery when an unidentified man known as the "Phantom Killer" killed five people. A young girl named Virginia Carpenter knew three victims and became the center to which all the threads led just two years later. On June 1, 1948, the 21-year-old Carpenter left Texarkana on a six-hour train ride to Denton, where she was enrolled at Texas State College for Women. After arriving that evening, Carpenter took a taxi from the train station to the college dorm. However, remembering that she forgot her bag, she returned to the station. When Carpenter found out the luggage hadn't arrived yet, she gave her ticket to the taxi driver, Jack Zachary, and paid him to pick up the luggage the next morning. Zachary drove Carpenter to the dorm, where he said she went to talk to two young men in a convertible.

The next day, Zachary took Carpenter's luggage and left it in front of the hostel, where it was unclaimed for two days. When the college staff and the Carpenter family realized that none of them had heard from her in a long time, they reported her missing.

Who the two young men in the cabriolet were was never found out. However, some suspicion fell on Zachary, who had a criminal record and was known to be abusive towards his family. Zachary's wife initially told police that he had returned home shortly after dropping Carpenter off, but a few years later she claimed her alibi was false - Zachary had actually arrived home a few hours later. However, there was no evidence linking Zachary to the disappearance of Virginia Carpenter, and no trace of her has ever been found.

10. Benjamin Bathurst

Benjamin Bathurst was an ambitious 25 year old British ambassador. He was sent from London to Vienna in 1809 in the hope of improving British-Austrian relations. However, when the French armed forces invaded Vienna, Bathurst went back home. On November 25, he and his personal valet stopped in Perleberg, Germany and checked into the White Swan Inn. Bathurst intended to continue the journey that evening, after his valet had changed horses in their wagon. Finally, at about 9:00 pm, Bathurst learned that the horses were ready. He left his room to presumably head for the wagon and disappeared.

Two days later, Bathurst's coat was found in a building owned by a man who worked at the White Swan Inn. The man's mother claimed to have found the coat at the inn and brought it home, but one witness claimed to have seen Bathurst walking towards the building the evening he disappeared. Bathurst's trousers were soon found in a wooded area about five kilometers from the city. In the trousers was an unfinished letter to Bathurst's wife, in which he expressed his fear that he would not return home to England.

Rumors circulated that Bathurst had been kidnapped by French soldiers, but the allegations were denied by the government. In 1862, a skeleton was found under a house that once belonged to an employee of the White Swan Inn. The remains could not be identified as Benjamin Bathurst and therefore his disappearance has remained an unsolved mystery for over 200 years.

On the night of February 1-2, 1959, in the Northern Urals, on the pass between Mount Holatchakhl and the nameless height 905, a tourist group led by Igor Dyatlov disappeared. The tourists did not return from the trip. Only after some time their bodies were found: they all died painful death, but neither the circumstances of the incident nor the reasons that could cause such injuries are still known. In memory of the dead tourists, RG talks about other expeditions that disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

Buried in the ice

At the age of 59 English navigator John Franklin set out on his fourth expedition to explore the Arctic.

To sail the ships of the Royal navy were refurbished to last word technology. The 378-ton "Erebus" and the 331-ton "Terror" went to the Arctic. The provisions were enough for three years, the ship had a steam locomotive engine, and a lot of books, and even a small tame monkey.

On May 19, 1845, the expedition was opened, its goal was to pass the Northwest Passage. During the summer, the sailors' wives received several letters. The latter arrived in August, they were all detailed and optimistic, and one of the expedition members, Osmer, the housekeeper from Erebus, wrote that they were expected to go home as early as 1846.

However, neither in 1846 nor in 1847 was there any news from the expedition. Only in 1848 did the first three ships go in search. Jane Franklin, the wife of a brave navigator, begged them to check the mouth of the Big Fish, but no one heeded her requests. However, only she felt the approaching trouble. Shortly before the expedition departed, Jane was sewing a flag for the ship, while John fell asleep on the couch next to her. It seemed to Jane that her husband was cold, and she threw a flag around his feet. When he woke up, he exclaimed "Why did they cover me with a flag? They only do this with the dead!" From that moment on, the woman did not know peace. Through her efforts, the search for the missing continued until 1857.

In 1859, the McClintock Expedition, fully paid for by Jane Franklin, found a cairn on King William Island, and underneath it was a detailed note from 1847 and 1848. A skeleton was also found, and with it a notebook with notes. Strangely, they were made backwards and ended in cursive, contained many spelling errors, and there were no punctuation marks at all. One of the sheets ended with the words "O Death, where is your sting", on the next sheet the entries were made in a circle, inside of which was written "Terror (Horror) Camp is empty." A boat with two skeletons was also found. For some reason, the boat stood on a sleigh, which was pulled with a rope. The guards' guns were cocked. The first to die was the one who was sitting on the bow, the second was ready for defense, but died from exhaustion. Tea and 18 kilograms of chocolate were found among the provisions, among the vital necessary items: silk scarves, scented soap, shoes, books in in large numbers, sewing needles, 26 silver dinner forks and spoons, and much more that was not at all suitable for survival.

The remains that were found at the expedition's campsites were gnawed, which indicates cannibalism, and scientists also found that the sailors died of tuberculosis, pneumonia and scurvy. In addition, a huge amount of lead was found in the bones, but where it came from is not known.

The body of Franklin himself was not found, although the last search operations took place in the middle of the 20th century.

Overnight at the Mountain of the Dead

In the winter of 1959, a group from the Uralsky tourist club polytechnic institute went on a hike. Initially, under the leadership of Igor Dyatlov there were 9 people. Later, one of them, due to illness, could not continue the journey, thanks to which he survived.

The Dyatlovites made their last stop on Mount Holat-Syahyl. It is symbolic that the Mansi translate this name as "Mountain of the Dead". The details of the story chill the blood. For some reason, at night, young people and girls ran out of the tent cut from the inside into the cold, undressed. Later, several corpses were found near a small fire nearby in the forest, several near a stream. So, Yuri Krivonischenko and Yuri Doroshenko in one underwear lay near a small fire pit under a large cedar. It seems that Igor Dyatlov, Zina Kolmogorova, Rustem Slobodin were returning to the tent from the fire. Dyatlov himself died, hugging a birch trunk with his hand, before his death he breathed into the snow. He was without shoes, like Kolmogorova. On one leg of Slobodin was a felt boot, worn over four woolen socks. Lyudmila Dubinina died on her knees, facing the slope by the stream of the waterfall. Krivonischenko's pants were wrapped around her leg. Kolevarov and Zolotarev warmed each other to the last, lying in an embrace. They were wearing things of Krivonischenko and Doroshenko, as well as Dubinina's jacket. Thibaut-Brignolles was found in the stream below, well dressed.

Brutally mutilated faces, injuries that occur when falling from a height, traces of radiation on clothes, the last mysterious frame on the tourists' camera - all this only confused the investigation. According to one version, young people became casual victims military trials, on the other - local residents from among the indigenous northern peoples, on the third - foreign intelligence officers, on the fourth - tests of a neutron bomb. There is even alternative version that aliens were involved in the death of the tourist group.

Yekaterinburg journalist, author of the books "The price of state secrets - nine lives" and "Murder at the Mountain of the Dead" Anatoly Gushchin, who studied the criminal case against the Dyatlov group, put forward a "rocket" version. "The version is not connected with space exploration, but with the testing of weapons. But this is an accident that occurred in connection with the unsuccessful test of some kind of bomb. Most likely, a neutron one. In 1959, its tests were already underway. For this, a mini-projectile was launched. It was supposed to fall into a pre-planned area, but there was a failure, and fell in the wrong place. As a result, people who accidentally ended up in this place at that time suffered. Here, in short, what happened on that ill-fated February day in 1959, "says he.

It is no coincidence that the campaign of the Dyatlovites has become the object of research around the world, books are being written about it and films are being made. Enthusiasts to this day storm the pass in the hope of finding an answer to the question: what happened to the guys? So, in the summer of last year, Perm students took part. Interestingly, on certain area road young people noticed a magnetic anomaly.

“When we approached this place, the weather turned bad, fog fell, and we had to go only according to the compass readings,” says Andrey Korolev. “At some point, I noticed that the arrow points to the same point, but not to north. In order not to get completely lost in space, we began to navigate using a satellite navigator. The compass needle began to move again only when we were far enough away from this place. "

However, teachers do not associate the magnetic anomaly with mysticism. According to them, there are deposits in the mountains iron ore, which affect the compass needle, so similar stories not uncommon in those parts.

Despite the mystical horror that the story of nine students inspires, the Dyatlov trail is becoming more and more popular for tourists.

Unfinished Expedition "Saint Anna"

Probably, the saying "a woman on a ship is in trouble" has real roots. 20-year-old Erminia Zhdanko, the daughter of a famous hydrographer, was going to "ride" on the schooner "Saint Anna" around Scandinavian Peninsula to Aleksandrovsk in the Kola Bay, together with a friend of the Barentsev family. After that, the girl planned to return home to her father, but this was not destined to come true.

In Alexandrovsk, the expedition found out that several people were missing for swimming, and there was also no doctor. Erminia, who, while still Russo-Japanese War trained as a sister of mercy and dreamed of going to the front, said that she would not leave the ship and was ready to sail: “I feel that I did what I was supposed to, and then come what may,” she wrote to her father.

In the winter of 1912, the schooner "rooted" into the ice; in the spring of 1913, the frozen ship was carried into Arctic Ocean. Even in summer, when polynyas appeared, the ice floe did not melt. The second winter has begun. By that time, navigator Valeryan Albanov and captain Georgy Brusilov had quarreled, and Albanov was not fulfilling his duties. In January 1914, he asked permission to disembark and declared that he would get to civilization himself. Suddenly, 13 more people joined him (by the way, there were only 24 sailors on the schooner).

Two people reached Cape Flora - navigator Valeryan Albanov and sailor Alexander Konrad. A miracle happened and they were picked up by a passing ship. The remaining 11 travelers died in the ice. In Russia, Valerian sent Brusilov's report and an extract from the ship's log, along with all the documents of the sailors who were on the "St. Anna", to the Hydrographic Department. By the way, in his book Albanov wrote about the letters that were handed over with him by the rest of the "St. Anna", but for some reason the letters never reached the addressees.

After the expedition, Albanov and Konrad never spoke to each other. Albanov tried for many years to organize a rescue and search operation, but in vain. Conrad changed his life dramatically, changed jobs and tried not to think about swimming. He refused to speak with the relatives of the expedition members and only once dined with Georgy Brusilov's brother Sergei, who came to him in Arkhangelsk in the mid-thirties. Seeing off the guest in the dark, he suddenly looked intently into his face and shouted: "But I didn't shoot at you! I didn't shoot!!" It was not possible to find out what he was talking about.

Brusilov's ship was never found.