Tag: mysterious disappearances

Eerie final message daughter sent her mom before vanishing on road trip

A frantic search for a Florida woman is underway after she sent an eerie last message to her mom before vanishing on a road trip in California.

Ganna Kovrizhnykh, 38, lost contact with her family on July 5 while on a cross-country road trip near Potrero, near the border with Mexico. 

Kovrizhnykh, who also goes by the name Angel Volnaya, was reported missing on July 12 by a friend, according to the San Diego Sheriff’s Office. 

The Florida native left her mother an eerie final message including a photograph of a letter and GPS coordinates from Potrero. 

The letter told her mother to take possession of her personal assets, according to a National Missing and Unidentified Persons System post.

One week later, Kovrizhnykh’s Jeep Grand Cherokee and camper trailer were found abandoned in Potrero. 

‘We believe she was just kind of touring the country and she left her vehicle in Potrero and never came back to her vehicle,’ Sergeant Jacob Klepach told KNSD. 

‘We don’t really have any belief one way or another at this point if there is foul play involved or if she just strictly voluntarily left.’

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Up To 37% Of Circulating Bitcoin May Be Lost Forever In Silent Supply Shock

While Bitcoin’s fixed 21 million coin cap was designed to counteract fiat inflation and mirror gold’s scarcity, a massive pool of permanently lost coins further tightens supply.

Estimates from on-chain analyses suggest that between 2.3 million and an incredible 7.8 million BTC (roughly between 11—37% of total supply), may have vanished forever, trapped in lost wallets, forgotten keys, or in addresses abandoned due to unexpected deaths. These ‘zombie’ or ‘ghost’ coins then effectively reduce Bitcoin’s effective circulating supply from the current 19.9 million to as low as a range of 12.1—17.6 million BTC.

A Donation to Everyone

As well as intensifying Bitcoin’s existing inherent scarcity, coins that permanently vanish boost the true value of all remaining Bitcoins. As Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator/creators, stated in a foresightful observation in April 2010 in a post on the BitcoinTalk forum: “Lost coins only make everyone else’s coins worth slightly more. Think of it as a donation to everyone.”

The lost coin range estimate (2.3—7.8 million) also comfortably exceeds the combined total of Bitcoin ETF and corporate treasury holdings which together total approximately 2.2 million BTC, a point rarely highlighted by a mainstream financial media fixated on the latest Blackrock Bitcoin ETF inflows and [Micro]Strategy’s latest BTC purchases.

No Keys, No Coins

Bitcoin’s rarity is thus magnified by these permanent losses, as the lost coin supply shock increases the value of every remaining coin, in contrast to traditional centralised assets such as stocks or bonds, In Bitcoin, there is no safety net. Once access is gone, the coins are effectively removed from circulation.

With a self-custodial architecture of ‘be your own bank’ but on an immutable blockchain, any lost and inaccessible coins on the Bitcoin network remain visible but untouchable. There is no bank and no bailout – only the owner and their private keys.

The familiar warning about exchange-held BTC of “not your keys, not your coins” now becomes the even more dramatic “no keys, no coins” in the off-exchange world.

Bitcoin relies on private keys (unique 256-bit cryptographic strings) to control and transfer ownership between addresses. Forgotten passwords, lost seed phrases, overwritten files, corrupted drives, or discarded hardware all result in irreversible inaccessibility.

Real-World Losses

Real-world cases highlight the dramatic scale and drama of lost Bitcoin. In 2013, the now infamous Welsh IT engineer James Howells accidentally discarded a hard drive containing private keys to 8,000 BTC in a landfill, worth roughly USD 900mn at current prices. But local city council rulings about environmental regulations prevent the obsessed Howells from launching a search for the lost hard drive.

Stefan Thomas, former Ripple CTO, lost access to 7,002 BTC (circa USD 777mn today) after forgetting his IronKey hard drive password, which locks permanently after 10 failed guesses. In January 2021, with two attempts left, Thomas described to the New York Times his repeated, desperate, and unsuccessful efforts to regain access.

Deaths also contribute to Bitcoin inaccessibility when holders die without succession plans. Gerald Cotten, CEO of Canadian crypto exchange QuadrigaCX, allegedly died in 2018 without revealing how to access USD 190mn in client funds, which included substantial Bitcoin holdings.

Romanian early Bitcoin miner Mircea Popescu drowned off a Costa Rica beach in 2021, widely rumoured to have left up to 1 million BTC inaccessible. (potentially worth USD 111bn). While the size of Popescu’s BTC holdings is unproven, he was known to have had sizeable holdings.

And then there’s Bitcoin’s creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, who pulled his own vanishing act in April 2011, leaving behind an estimated 1 million BTC mined between 2009— 2010. This Satoshi stash is now possibly ‘lost’ forever, or has been left intentionally dormant as a ‘donation’ to the network.

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New Search for Amber Room Launched in Poland

A promising new search for the legendary lost Amber Room has launched in Poland. The effort is reportedly being spearheaded by researcher Jan Delingowski, who has spent the last ten years investigating the curious case of the ornate gold and amber paneling that was stolen from a Russian palace by Nazi forces during World War II and then subsequently went missing as the chaotic end of the conflict unfolded. While it has long been thought that the treasure was lost somewhere in Poland, countless searches for the pilfered riches have come up maddeningly short over the years. However, there is hope that this latest hunt for the Amber Room may finally solve the case at last.

Based on a tip from a former prison inmate who claimed to have gleaned insight into the treasure’s fate by a Nazi war criminal he served alongside, Delingowski’s investigation led him to a location that once served as an SS training area in the village of Dziemiany. The researcher’s work was apparently compelling enough that Polish officials signed off on an excavation of the area, which reportedly commenced on Monday. In a testament to the seriousness of the search, Delingowski has assembled a team of experts to assist in the effort, with ground-penetrating radar being used to examine the area in the hopes of pinpointing specific spots to dig.

“The probability of discovery exists,” one of the scientists working on the project told a local media outlet, “and if something valuable is found, it could become one of the greatest archaeological sensations.” One reason for such optimism is that an early examination of the area uncovered what is described as a “brick-lined underground warehouse,” seemingly designed for valuable objects and with its entrances purposely filled with dirt long ago. An additional intriguing element to the peculiar spot is that the subterranean structure was not included on any contemporaneous Nazi maps of the training ground.

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More questions than answers as RCMP gives update on missing Nova Scotia siblings

Despite reviewing 5,000 video files and 600 public tips, the RCMP’s “intensive” investigation into the disappearance of two young Nova Scotia siblings nearly three months ago remains unsolved, according to Global News.

Lilly (6) and Jack Sullivan (4) went missing May 2 from their Lansdowne Station, Pictou County home. Mounties began a missing persons investigation the same day.

RCMP are forensically examining seized materials, including a pink blanket, found during ground and air searches. 

Daniel Robert Martell, stepfather to the missing children, confirmed it was a piece of Lilly’s blanket. “There is more evidence than what the public knows, but I can’t elaborate on any of that,” he said in a CBC interview.

RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Carlie McCann told reporters it was found outside near Lilly and Jack’s home. “Police are investigating if and how it relates to her and her brother’s disappearance.”

Volunteers and rescue officials dedicated 12,000 hours to the search, looking for the children and clues. Police scaled back the search on May 7, citing low survival odds.

Searches of surrounding areas found little evidence, save a boot print and the blanket.

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Communist Billionaire Accused Of Funding Anti-ICE Riots Mysteriously Vanishes

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) posted on X Wednesday, exposing how Communist billionaire Neville Roy Singham—who operates a dark-money NGO network allegedly tied to funding anti-ICE riots in Los Angeles and resides in China with close ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)—has suddenly vanished. 

“Neville Singham— the billionaire communist with ties to the CCP, who funded the LA riots and used immigration & Mexicans as a Trojan horse for communism— is hiding from our letter requesting testimony,” Rep. Luna wrote on X.

She said, “This poses an issue for delivering subpoena,” adding, “Therefore, if he decides to hide in CHINA,  we will now be asking the State Dept. and Treasury to freeze his assets/visa.” 

“Singham is literally hiding,” she emphasized. 

In June, U.S. Congressional Republicans, led by Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY), launched a formal investigation into Singham’s dark money networks and the political affiliations… 

Singham is suspected of funding far-left color revolutions in the U.S. with alleged ties to the CCP. The Oversight Committee’s inquiry focuses on Singham’s possible role as a proxy in CCP propaganda operations and his potential legal exposure under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. 

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Missing Maine Paddleboarder Was Murdered

Police in Union, Maine, have ruled the death of 48-year-old Sunshine Stewart a homicide, days after she was found in Crawford Pond. Stewart disappeared last Wednesday evening after heading out on a paddleboard around 6pm, CBS News reports, and was reported missing six hours later. Her body was discovered last Thursday near 100 Acre Island, which is in the middle of the pond and only accessible by boat, reports WMTW. Authorities have not disclosed the cause of death. Sources close to the investigation tell ABC News that the body was found under “unusual circumstances” that rule out suicide or accidental drowning.

Kathy Lunt, who runs the Mic Mac campground near the pond, said Stewart was a seasonal resident and was last seen by her roommate. When Stewart failed to return, the roommate raised the alarm. Police urged the public to “remain aware of their surroundings and report any suspicious behavior to law enforcement,” the Bangor Daily News reports. Area residents say they are shaken by the killing. Police are asking anyone who may have seen Stewart on her paddleboard between 6pm and 9pm last Wednesday to contact them

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Revealed: Mystery donor who paid £1,300 fine that freed lead Madelaine McCann suspect is a former police officer investigating him – as she blames ‘misunderstanding’

The mystery donor who paid the £1,300 court fine that has paved the way a key suspect in the Madeleine McCann‘s case to walk free has been identified as a former police officer. 

The woman, who has not been named, claims to have formerly been involved in wire-tapping the jail cell of paedophile Christian Brueckner, The Sun reported. 

Brueckner is the main suspect in the unsolved disappearance of three-year-old Madeleine McCann, who vanished from her family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in May 2007.

The 48-year-old is currently serving a seven-year jail sentence in Germany for the 2005 rape of an American woman, then 72, in the same Algarve resort where Maddie went missing. 

The woman who paid the fine is said to be a former member of the BKA, the German equivalent of the FBI. 

She told German newspaper Der Spiegel that she was the person responsible for settling Brueckner’s oustanding balance with the courts – but claims her decision to do so was based on a ‘misunderstanding’. 

Until now the convicted rapist was only able to raise £210 of the total amount owed, meaning he was set to remain in jail until January 2026. 

However thanks to the former officer’s intervention Brueckner is now set to be released on September 17 this year – three weeks time.

The former police officer’s actions appear to undermine her former employer, with German police still seeking to find forensic evidence to charge Christian Brueckner with Maddy’s disappearance. 

The woman, who claims to work in ‘Operative Technology Audio’, says that she was previously reponsible for bugging the paedophile’s jail cell.

However, she reportedly thought that the outstanding fine was due only to Brueckner insulting a police officer – a charge she said ‘wasn’t justified’. 

She claims that by the time she learnt that the financial penalties related to a number of more serious infringemnts, including bodily harm, it was too late.

The woman told Der Spiegel that the payment was a ‘misunderstanding’ and that she had attempted to reverse it, but to no avail. 

The reasons for paying the fine appear bizarre, but the former officer alleges that she has ‘never had any personal contact with Christian B’.

The German newspaper was, however, able to confirm that she had transferred the total sum – £1,300 – into an account belonging to the Braunschweig public prosecutor’s office. 

The payment covered outstanding fines on Brueckner’s record, including a 2016 charge for drunkenness in traffic and forgery of documents and another from 2017 for assault.

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Families plead for answers in the mystery of the Yuba County Five almost 50 years later

The Plumas National Forest has held the mystery of the Yuba County Five for almost 50 years. Their disappearance has puzzled people around the world.

The five men, who lived with intellectual disabilities, were known as “the boys.” They were Ted Weiher, Jack Huett, Bill Sterling, Jack Madruga and Gary Mathias. 

“Madruga was from Yuba City and everybody else lived in Yuba County in the Olivehurst area,” said Brian Bernardis with the Yuba County Sheriff’s Office.

Dallas and Perry Weiher remember their brother Ted as a gentle giant. Tony Wright, the author of “Things Aren’t Right: The Disappearance of the Yuba County Five,” describes the other boys as very active and friends who loved to spend time together.

“You had Jack Madruga who was 30 years old. He was a very quiet introverted person but very very smart, very kind and loving. That’s how he was remembered by his family. Bill Sterling was 29. He was a very avid bowler, he too was an athletic individual known for being very sweet individual. There was Gary Mathias who was 25 years old. He was very athletic, known as a great brother, he was a musician who played in a rock band in high school, was a great harmonica player, spent time in the military. And then there was Jackie Huett. He was 24 years old. He was a great friend. A very loving person. Very kind, very sweet,” said Wright.

The boys met in the 70s on a basketball team for a Yuba County nonprofit helping people with disabilities. They followed UC Davis basketball and on Feb. 24, 1978, the five men piled into Madruga’s car to watch a college basketball team in Chico.

“I think it was Chico State and UC Davis. Davis was their kind of home team. They really want to see them do well so they had traveled this before. It wasn’t the first time for him, so he was familiar with the territory,” said Bernardis.

Bernardis, the cold case investigator for the Yuba County Sheriff’s Office, says there’s no doubt the boys made it to the game. 

“The editor of the Chico newspaper actually recalls seeing the five of them there where they were because they were kind of out away from everybody else. There was something very distinctive about them,” said Bernardis.

They stopped at a convenience store in Chico after the game.

“Their next reported appearance would have been at the Behr Market not too far from the college. They’d stopped in there and picked up candies and cakes and milks,” said Bernardis.

But what happened next still puzzles law enforcement agencies today.

“We know nothing. From that point, we know nothing. They literally disappeared into nowhere,” said Bernardis.

They vanished without a trace and their families reported them missing the next day.

“That night they were saying, ‘Well, they’re grown boys, they can go do what they want. They’re not lost or anything.’ Well, those weren’t normal grown boys. They were different boys,” said Perry.

“Back then they, that small town, small community, everybody knew everybody. It paid a large impact on how they responded and how they felt about the case,” said Bernardis.

The five men had big plans to play in a basketball tournament the following day. The prize for the winning team was tickets to Disneyland.

“These men were not going to miss that basketball game for any reason. It was of utmost importance and they were going to get home come hell or high water,” said Wright.

Jack Madruga’s car was found in the snow on the Oroville Quincy Highway in Butte County four days later — about 70 miles in the wrong direction from home. ABC10 asked what condition the car was found in.

“It was intact and undamaged? (The) best way to describe it. It was abandoned for lack of a better term. Windows were down or at least one of the windows were down. The candies and milk and things that they’d purchased at the store; those wrappers were in the car. There were some maps that were found in the car which Madruga was kind of a map student, so nothing would indicate that there was any foul play or some type of heinous act that occurred,” said Bernardis.

A massive search followed near where the car was found.

“So now you have Yuba and Butte counties both working the case. They brought in snow equipment so they could travel across the snow and search the area looking for the guys. They’d spent a couple of days, but then that was a very bad snow year and the weather came in and put a complete halt to any efforts to look further,” said Bernardis.

Families searched for their missing loved ones for days on end. Detectives wouldn’t get a break in the case until about three-and-a-half months later.

Motorcyclists off-roading near a rural Plumas County campground came upon some portable buildings used for fire crews during fire season. They found a broken window and went to take a closer look.

“When they opened the door, the smell of decomposition was pretty intense and they realized that something significant was in there and they found a body, a human body in there on a bed. So that was four months after the disappearance, a little less,” said Bernardis.

It was Ted Weiher’s.

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Stunning breakthrough in infamous case of eight women who have been missing for 28 years raises hopes that one of Ireland’s biggest mysteries could finally be solved

One of Ireland’s biggest unsolved cases may finally find a resolution after three decades thanks to a new witness.

Between the late eighties and early nineties, eight women went missing from across the Emerald Isle – in what’s became known as Ireland’s Vanishing Triangle.

One of the women, Fiona Pender, was 25 and seven months pregnant when she went missing from her flat in Tullamore in August 1996. 

The cases have baffled police from years, but in a major update the Gardai have upgraded Fiona’s disappearance to murder.

This week they searched a new area of land at Graigue, close to the village of Killeigh, around 8km from Tullamore, County Offaly, in the middle of Ireland. 

It is understood Gardaí received new information deemed credible enough to warrant the latest search and the upgrading of the investigation. 

The search of a remote area of bogland started on Tuesday as gardaí hoped for a breakthrough in the nearly 30-year investigation.

However it quickly moved to a second location on Wednesday and continued well into the night. 

The force told The Irish Independent: ‘Gardaí investigating the disappearance and murder of Fiona Pender in August 1996 have today, Wednesday 28th May 2025, commenced another search operation on open ground at a location in Co. Laois.   

Fiona was last seen leaving home by her boyfriend John Thomson. 

In 2008 a small cross bearing her name was found along the The Slieve Bloom Way, but her body has never been recovered.

She was just one of a string of disappearances that haunted Ireland in the 1990s commonly referred to as the Vanishing Triangle, none of the women have ever been found so investigators have very little evidence to link the disappearances. 

In a major update on the case, police have upgraded Fiona’s disappearance to murder and have decided to search a new area of land at Graigue, close to the village of Killeigh, around 8 km from Tullamore, Co Offaly.

 ‘This area of land will be searched and subject to excavation, technical and forensic examinations.

‘This search forms part of a sustained investigation carried out by Gardaí in Laois/ Offaly Garda Division over the last 28-years to establish Fiona’s whereabouts and to investigate the circumstances in which Fiona disappeared.’

Gardaí have since concluded the search operation in Co Offaly, however the results are not being released for operational reasons. 

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Mysterious ‘UFO base’ uncovered by CIA becomes new US alien hotspot

A ‘UFO base’ mentioned in a declassified CIA document has fueled a surge in sightings, turning Mount Hayes into one of America’s top alien hotspots.

Rising over 8,000 feet, Mount Hayes sits within the so-called Alaska Triangle, a region notorious for unexplained disappearances and paranormal activity.

However, the CIA has never confirmed the alien base and the US government’s stance is that extraterrestrial life does not exist. 

Locals have reported streaks of colored lights, orbs traveling at high speed, and mysterious vanishing people. 

One report came from Jared Augustin, a former security officer, who claimed he saw a glowing orb hovering in the night sky near Mount Hayes before it suddenly split into three.

‘It was a UFO, of extraterrestrial origin,’ Augustin told DMAX UK, adding that he stood frozen, shaking as the bizarre sight unfolded.

Theories about alien activity have led the public to scour Google Maps for signs of the secret base.

Some conspiracy theorists claim there’s missing satellite data over Mount Hayes, allegedly to hide the base’s location.

‘Wow, that’s a big coincidence, in a very specific shape,’ one Reddit user commented, pointing to a rectangular patch seemingly missing from the mountain on Google Maps.

Mount Hayes is located within an area known for unexplained disappearances and paranormal activity.

Locals have aimed trail cameras at Mount Hayes, hoping to capture proof that the area is a UFO hotspot.

In an episode of History Channel’s Missing in Alaska, a local resident named Wilbur shared footage he believed showed an alien craft.

The video captured a glowing green light hovering over Mount Hayes. Within seconds, it appeared to vanish behind the mountain.

Investigators said the object had ‘hovering capabilities like a helicopter, but could also reverse direction instantly’ — something no known aircraft can do.

Based on its position and movement, the team estimated the object’s drop speed to be just over Mach 1 (the speed of sound).

In addition to mysterious airborne sightings, more than 2,000 people have vanished in the area since the 1970s.

Notable incidents include the 1972 disappearance of a plane carrying US House Majority Leader Hale Boggs, which vanished en route from Anchorage to Juneau. 

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