Tag: mysterious disappearances

Three of four missing US Army soldiers found dead in Lithuania

Three of the four U.S. Army soldiers who went missing in Lithuania last week when their vehicle sunk in a peat bog have been found dead at the site, while the search for the remaining soldier is ongoing, U.S. and Lithuanian officials said on Monday.

Lithuania had said earlier on Monday that rescuers had recovered the armoured vehicle of the missing soldiers in a military training area in the Baltic country.

“It is with deep sadness and sorrow that I received the news of the tragic loss of three U.S. soldiers,” Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda wrote on social media platform X.

“Lithuania mourns together with the American nation,” he said.

U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll said the search for the fourth soldier would continue.

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Eerie Cases of Children Who Mysteriously Vanished off the Face of the Earth

Although many people throughout history have vanished without a trace, the cases surrounded by the most tragedy are when the victims are children. Among the cases of children who have seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth, there are those that stand out as particularly bizarre and tragic, surrounded by odd details and circumstances that propel them beyond mere missing persons to firmly lodge themselves into the realm of the odd. Indeed, there is a disturbing tendency for some of the stranger vanishings to be those of children, and in many of these cases, we find mysteries and puzzles that go deep. Here we will look at some of the weirder cases of children who have vanished under odd, often sinister circumstances that only further serve to envelope them in shadows and the specter of the strange.

A bizarre vanishing related by missing persons researcher David Paulides, author of the Missing 411 series of books concerning people who have disappeared under bizarre circumstances, happened in the summer of 1938, when 4-year-old Alfred Beilhartz was on a fishing and camping trip with his family at Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park. As the boy and his parents were taking a hike along a river, little Alfred suddenly disappeared without explanation. One moment he had been there walking in a line behind them, and the next the parents had turned around to find he was gone without a trace. There had been no shout or sign of distress, and all calls to him went unanswered. He had seemingly just ceased to exist.

Although the parents claimed that the boy had gone nowhere near the water, authorities were nevertheless convinced that he had fallen into the river, and immediately went about blocking off the river so that it could be thoroughly searched and so that his body would not float too far away. A 6-mile stretch of the river where Alfred had vanished was searched and dredged for 5 full days without turning up any sign of the boy, and when bloodhounds were brought in they oddly tracked his scent to around 500 feet uphill from where his parents had been when he had disappeared, which was odd considering he had supposedly gone missing as he was walking behind them. Also strange was that, allegedly, the bloodhounds followed the trail for some time before reaching a fork and suddenly stopping and simply lying down, an odd behavior for trained scent dogs to display, and also strange because it seemed that the trail had just abruptly stopped to vanish just as surely as the boy had.

Even more bizarre than this was an odd report that came in from some hikers in the area in the early stages of the search, the very day after Alfred had vanished. The hikers, who were a couple, had been on Old Fall River Road about 6 miles away over rugged terrain and around 3,000 feet higher from where Alfred had disappeared, and at the time had had no idea that there was a missing boy in the area, yet they reported seeing a rather worrying sight. They claimed that they had seen a young boy perched up upon a high ridge in an area ominously called “The Devil’s Nest,” near the top of Mt. Chaplin. The hikers reported that the boy had been forlornly sitting alone up there and had then suddenly moved out of sight, which the hikers mysteriously allegedly said looked as if he were being “jerked back.” At the time, they could not figure out how such a young boy would be out there in the remote wilderness by himself or how he could have possibly climbed up onto that formidably high ridge. According to the hikers, as soon as they had gotten home and seen the news, they had realized that the boy they had seen was the missing Alfred Beilhartz.

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Seven years ago man told family he was going for a walk in Kentucky woods and vanished…until now

Human remains found by a stream have been identified as a missing Tennessee man who vanished nearly seven years ago after telling family he was going for a walk.

William Cross, 29, disappeared after being dropped off on Williamsburg Street in Whitley, Kentucky, on May 18, 2018, just 30 miles from his Scott County, Tennessee home.

He was last heard from that night when he told a family member that he was walking in the woods, reported WVLT.

‘The call disconnected, and Cross was not seen alive or heard from thereafter,’ his missing persons bulletin obtained by WATE said.

In October 2023, a Kentucky teenager made the grisly discovery of partial human remains while hiking through a wooded area off of Sweeney Drive in Revelo, reported the McCreary Journal.

The McCreary County Sheriff’s Office was notified of the discovery and began searching the area.

With the help of members of Southeast Search and Rescue, Inc. (SSR, Inc.) and their tools and a cadaver dog, additional human remains were located.

The remains were collected sent for examination. However, they were not identified as Cross until March 21.

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Horror as four American soldiers ‘are found dead’ after vanishing during training exercise in Lithuania

Four US Army soldiers have reportedly been found dead the day after they were reported missing during a training exercise in Lithuania. 

The four servicemen, who have not been identified by authorities, were with the 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division. 

Early reports indicate that the soldiers may have been traveling in an M88 recovery vehicle, one of the largest armored vehicles used by the US military, which may have fallen into a body of water. 

The soldiers had been reported missing at around 4:45pm Tuesday following a training exercise near Pabrade, Lithuania, sparking a widespread search conducted by the US Army and Lithuanian authorities. 

The soldiers were reportedly carrying out a tactical training routine at the General Silvestras Žukauskas training ground in Pabradė, which is less than six miles from the border with Belarus. 

The Lithuanian Armed Forces said Wednesday that they had identified a ‘possible location’ of the missing soldiers and their vehicle. 

The military said in a statement that ‘a search and rescue operation is underway, led by the Lithuanian Armed Forces, with additional capabilities from the Fire Protection and Rescue Department and other institutions.’ 

Officials have not offered any details regarding how the soldiers or their vehicle went missing nor the manner of their reported deaths.  

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Haunting breakthrough in case of Illinois woman, 23, who vanished one night in 1983

A haunting breakthrough has finally come in the cold case of Karen Schepers, 23, who vanished over 40 years ago in Elgin, Illinois, a suburb outside of Chicago. 

The Elgin Police Department announced on Monday that they have located Karen’s Yellow 1980 Toyota Celica buried in Fox River. 

The vehicle was first located near a boat launch before a diver located the car and identified the license plate, which matched Karen’s. 

The Toyota is scheduled to be removed from the river on Tuesday afternoon with the assistance of professional divers, the Elgin Fire Department, and the Kane County Coroner’s Office. 

Once the vehicle is safely recovered, authorities plan to search for the remains. Police Chief Ana Lalley said in a statement that the investigation is still open and the recovery process is expected to take some time. 

‘As the recovery of the vehicle is made, it is important to stress that this is the beginning of what is still considered an open and active investigation with many questions still to be answered,’ Lalley said in a media update. 

‘As we continue to investigate this case, we will remain steadfast in our resolve to provide answers and closure to Karen’s family.’ 

Lindsay Bussick, the manager of Chaos Divers, a nonprofit organization assisting in the search, told the Chicago Tribune that authorities used sonar technology to determine the license plate and model of the vehicle. 

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Mystery as missing Ukrainian model, 20, is found ‘close to death’ by the side of a road in Dubai ‘with her spine, arms and legs broken after hotel party’

Maria Kovalchuk, who was 20 this month, had been missing for eight days after telling friends she had been invited to a party at a hotel on March 9.

She was set to attend the event ‘with two men who introduced themselves as representatives of the modelling business,’ according to several Ukrainian media reports.

The model told her mother, Anna, that she would be staying with these representatives for the night, but she subsequently disappeared.

Maria had booked a flight to Thailand that departed Dubai on March 11, but did not turn up at the airport. 

Anna and concerned friends then contacted local authorities who launched a search for Maria and opened an investigation, but she remained missing for several days.

On March 19, ten days after she first went missing, a battered and bloodied Maria was found dumped at a roadside in Dubai with her limbs and spine broken, according to Russian outlets Shot and Life. 

Maria was rushed to hospital, and according to her mother underwent three surgeries to save her life, before later receiving a fourth procedure. 

She remains in a critical condition and is reportedly unable to speak. 

Friends and family hope she is able to make a full recovery to talk about her ordeal and explain what happened. 

Speaking to Ukrainian media earlier this week, Anna said: ‘There is an assumption that she went to a party. But the promoter who organized these parties did not see her. 

‘Today Masha was found in the hospital in serious condition. 

‘She has no documents, no phone, nothing. She has undergone three operations. And she cannot speak.

Maria’s friend, Russian model Angelina Doroshenkova, 31, said: ‘We all hope for the best and are very grateful to everyone who took part in the search and helped with information.’

She was spending time with Maria in Dubai and was reportedly invited to the same party on March 9, but ultimately decided to return to Russia days before. 

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Missing Boy Whose Case Was Featured on Netflix Show Located by Law Enforcement After 7 Years

A boy who was kidnapped seven years ago, and whose case was featured in a Netflix show, was coincidentally found in Douglas County, Colorado.

Deputies discovered 14-year-old Abdul Aziz Khan on Feb. 23 during an unrelated call about a home burglary, according to KDVR-TV in Colorado.

Two suspicious people had reportedly entered the vacant home, which was up for sale.

Upon arrival, deputies discovered two children in a vehicle parked in the driveway, one of them later identified as Khan. Police have not released the identity of the second child.

The two burglary suspects, a male and female, exited the home and told the deputies they knew the realtor.

But after four hours of attempting to identify the pair, police came to a startling realization.

The woman was 40-year-old Rabia Khalid who was wanted for kidnapping, and the male was 42-year-old Elliot Blake Bourgeois, her husband.

Khalid is the boy’s non-custodial mother, according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

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New Search for Flight MH370 Underway

Nearly 11 years after Malaysian Airlines flight 370 mysteriously disappeared, a new search is underway in the hopes of finally locating the lost passenger plane. The curious case captivated the world in March of 2014 when the Boeing 777 carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members vanished shortly after departing Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing. The unfathomable nature of a passenger plane simply disappearing in this day and age became all the more confounding in the years that followed after multiple exhaustive searches for the missing aircraft failed to find the lost flight. Now, for the first time since 2018, a new expedition has reportedly been launched in the hopes of solving the MH370 mystery at last.

Six years ago, maritime robotics company Ocean Infinity conducted a sizeable search of a specific area of the Indian Ocean where it was believed that the remains of the airliner might be found. Although that expedition ultimately came up short, the group eventually convinced the Malaysian government that new insights from the flight data had provided a more promising picture of where it likely went down. This led to an agreement wherein Ocean Infinity would once again look for the lost passenger plane with the understanding that they would only recoup their costs if the airliner is found.

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Brits who took best UFO picture ever ‘vanished’ as MoD insider addresses ‘assassination’ claims

A Ministry of Defence (MoD) insider has addressed claims of a “deep state assassination” after Brits reportedly took the best UFO photo ever before they “vanished.”

Chefs were out walking in the Cairngorms mountains, in the Scottish Highlands, in August 1990, when they took photos of a diamond-like object in the sky as what appeared to be a military jet flew by. But after sending the image to now-Mirror affiliate the Daily Record, the pair vanished without a trace and the image did not emerge until it was published by the Mail in 2022.

A former MoD insider who worked on the department’s UFO desk shared his view about what he believes happened with the chefs. Nick Pope said he believed a “fairly robust” conversation happened with the pair in a bid to keep them from sharing more information.

But he told The Guardian: “The idea that these people were assassinated by the deep state – that’s just nonsense.” He made the comments after a former colleague of the chefs at Fisher’s Hotel, in Pitlockry, told the Mail it was as thought the pair had “vanished off the face of the Earth.”

Richard Grieve claimed the duo had been left “visibly shaken” after they were approached by two people dressed in black during a shift. He said the pair then vanished for four weeks.

It is also not known why the Daily Record did not run the photos. Mr Pope, who worked on the UFO desk for three years from 1991 and previously claimed the ministry “buried” the photo. He told the 2024 UFO documentary The Program that the Daily Record’s article would have “blown our standard line out of the water.”

He said: “Therefore, we wanted to bury this – and we did. All the photographs and all the negatives were acquired by the Ministry of Defence and they were never seen again.”

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Key clue to fate of early American colonists found in Governor John White’s 400-year-old map

In 1587, a group of English settlers established the Roanoke Colony on an island between what is now North Carolina and the Outer Banks. However, by 1590, the traces of the colony had disappeared, and nothing remained of over 100 people. The only clue left behind was the word Croatoan carved on a wooden post.

An ancient map dating back 400 years, titled La Virginea Pars and exhibited at the British Museum, was examined by experts, potentially revealing details that could solve the centuries-old mystery of the lost Roanoke colony, according to Mail Online.

In 1587, a group of English settlers established the Roanoke Colony on an island between what is now North Carolina and the Outer Banks. However, by 1590, the traces of the colony had disappeared, and nothing remained of over 100 people. The only clue left behind was the word Croatoan carved on a wooden post.

Recently, a closer inspection of Governor John White’s map, La Virginea Pars, revealed two faint outlines that appeared to be repairs—small pieces of paper had been used to cover an error. Under advanced lighting techniques, experts discovered that one of these patches concealed a symbol of a fort, which could indicate the intended location of a new settlement.

“I said to Alice, ‘I think we just discovered the predicted location for the City of Raleigh, the colony for which John White was sent to Virginia,'” said Kim Sloan, a British Museum curator who made the discovery with her colleague, paper conservator Alice Ruhamer, according to Mail Online.

The covered area on the map corresponds to a location near present-day Bertie County, at the western end of Albemarle Sound. This site, known as 31BR246 or Site X, is approximately 1.5 kilometers away from where the Roanoke Colony disappeared, less than 100 miles from where English witnesses last saw the colonists.

In 2007, archaeologist Nicholas Luccketti of the James River Institute for Archaeology discovered pieces of English ceramic artifacts at Site X. These artifacts included fragments of Border ware, a specific type of English pottery that had been restricted to the early settlements in Virginia, probably dating from the sixteenth century. The find suggests that archaeologists had stumbled upon a previously unknown English settlement.

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