Tag: mysterious disappearances

Daughter of D.B. Cooper Suspect Calls on FBI to Release Necktie to Clear His Name

The daughter of a man suspected of being D.B. Cooper has called upon the FBI to provide access to the skyjacker’s necktie in the hopes that new DNA analysis of the evidence will clear her father’s name. The surprising development reportedly came about after researcher Eric Ulis made headlines earlier this month with his theory that microscopic metallic particles found on the object could help identify the mysterious individual behind the legendary cold case. He specifically pointed the finger at an individual named Vince Petersen, who worked as an engineer at the only facility that produced the alloy at the time of the skyjacking. As one might imagine, the man’s daughter was not too thrilled when she saw the news that her late father had somehow become a suspect in the Cooper case.

Explaining that she was surprised and dismayed by Ulis’ bold assertion, Julie Dunbar reached out to the researcher to express her considerable skepticism over his hypothesis. “I spoke to Eric about this clip-on tie,” she recalled, “as far as I know, my dad didn’t have one in his wardrobe.” While Dunbar conceded that “anything is possible” and that perhaps “it was something that he kept at work” that was subsequently borrowed by the skyjacker, she flatly dismissed the possibility that her father had anything to do with the 1971 caper. “As far as my dad being DB Cooper himself,” she declared, definitely not.”

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6 People Vanished from a Home Near St. Louis in August. Police Suspect They’re Involved in an Online Cult

Authorities are befuddled by the disappearance of six people — one man, three women and two young children — from a St. Louis-area home in August, which police believe to be related to the existence of a cult.

It’s been months since Naaman Williams, 29, Gerielle German, 26, her 3-year-old son Ashton Mitchell, Mikayla Thompson, 23, Ma’Kayla Wickerson, 25, and her 3-year daughter Malaiyah were last seen. The group had been living in a rented home in Berkeley, Mo., near St. Louis Lambert International airport.

Berkeley police Major Steve Runge tells PEOPLE that the four missing adults are believed to be part of a cult allegedly revolving around Rashad Jamal, who was convicted of child molestation charges in 2023 and is currently serving a prison sentence in Georgia.

Over the past few years, Jamal has amassed thousands of followers on social media with his spiritual teachings, operating what he calls the University of Cosmic Intelligence, which according to its website is “geared toward enlightening and illuminating minds” of Black and Latino people.

Speaking to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch from prison, Jamal denies being a cult leader and maintained his innocence in his child molestation case. 

Runge says some of Jamal’s followers, which he says includes three of the missing adults, have changed their names in honor of those they believe to be spiritual gods or goddesses. Williams is also known as Anubis Aramean, Thompson goes by Antu Anum Ahmat, while Wickerson is Intuahma Aquama Auntil, according to Berkeley police. 

According to police, the Berkeley quartet has now allegedly exhibited some of the other followers’ behaviors: total disconnection from family and loved ones, a desire to go off the grid, quitting their jobs and embracing sovereign citizenship, among other behaviors.

“It’s confusing, the internet is [the cult’s] home,” Runge says. “It’s not like ‘OK, we’re going to go to St. Louis.’ No, the internet is its home. [Jamal] has 90,000 followers.”

On Aug. 12, Runge says Wickerson’s mother, Cartisha Morgan, called police and said she was worried about her daughter, who she hadn’t heard from. Days later, detectives began investigating and searched the Berkeley home and found no signs of foul play. Runge says they discovered the group’s Facebook profiles, which contained references to Jamal and were once extremely active and public before the activity abruptly stopped.

Through further investigation, Runge says the group was last seen at a hotel on Aug. 13, in Florissant, Mo. No one has heard from them since. 

While Wickerson, who according to her LinkedIn profile once worked for JP Morgan & Chase, and Thompson are both from St. Louis, Williams is from Washington D.C., while German is originally from Lake Horn, Miss., near Memphis.

Thompson, like the other two women, is also the mother of a young child whom she left behind with her mother, according to Runge.

Runge believes the missing group will resurface eventually, most likely when they run out of money.

“I know we’re going to find them,” Runge says. “It’s just a matter of going through the motions … we are going to put in the work.”

Morgan spoke to PEOPLE and says she is worried about both her daughter and granddaughter, whom she hasn’t seen in months. She believes Wickerson had been suffering from depression following the birth of her daughter, and that she was preyed upon as a result.

“I’m not doing so well, but I’m just holding on by my faith,” Morgan tells PEOPLE. “I just wish that people are made aware of this.”

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The Dramatic Life and Mysterious Death of Theodosia Burr

IN 1869, A VACATIONING DOCTOR named William Gaskins Pool was called to help an ill old woman named Polly Mann, who lived in a shack near Nags Head, North Carolina. When he and his daughter, Anna, gingerly entered the dark, cobweb-covered home, they were drawn to a picture on the wall, Anna remembered, “of a beautiful young woman about twenty-five years of age.” After extensively questioning Polly about the painting, Dr. Pool believed his initial hunch was correct. He was staring at a portrait of the long vanished Theodosia Burr Alston, a portrait which may hold the key to her long-debated fate at sea.Today, if people know anything about Theodosia, it is because of the lovely lullaby “Dear Theodosia,” sung by the character of Aaron Burr in the sensational musical Hamilton. But the real-life Theodosia grew from a beloved child into a highly intelligent, complex adult, whose fascinating story is largely unknown and worthy of its very own Broadway smash.

Theodosia Bartow Burr was born in Albany, New York, on June 21, 1783. Her mother, also called Theodosia, was a brilliant, cultured woman. She had scandalized New England society, when as a married mother of five, she fell in love with an equally brilliant and much younger blue-blooded lawyer and Revolutionary War soldier—Aaron Burr. After her first husband’s death, the two were married, and little Theodosia, the couple’s only child to survive, became the center of her parents’—particularly her father’s—world.

“Your dear little Theodosia cannot hear you spoken of without an apparent melancholy,” the elder Theodosia wrote to a traveling Aaron in 1785, “insomuch that her nurse is obliged to exert her invention to divert her, and myself avoid to mention you in her presence. She was one whole day indifferent to everything but your name. Her attachment is not of a common nature.”

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Florida dive team claims it’s finally solved mystery of Orlando woman, 47, who vanished 11 YEARS AGO while driving home from McDonald’s date with a man she met on SpeedDate.com – as they discover van at the bottom of a pond near Disney World

A Florida-based search team claims to have found the body of a mother of three who went missing over a decade years ago after meeting up with a man she met online.

Sunshine State Sonar announced the discovery of Sandra Lemire’s remains in a van that sunken into a pond near Disney World.

In a Facebook post, the group claimed to have found the 47-year-old’s body as well as her personal belongings.

Lemire was last seen in May 2012. She hailed from Michigan but moved to Florida to care for her grandmother, Pauline Varner.

‘If she said she was going shopping and would be back in an hour, she would be back in an hour,’ Varner told the Orlando Sentinel after Lemire’s disappearance.

Police said the mother of three was heading to Kissimmee to link up with a man she met on a now-defunct dating website, SpeedDate.com.

Lemire’s son, Tim Lemire, Jr. told WXYZ that he had discouraged her from meeting up with strangers.

‘I told her from day one just quit it, just meet the guy the old-fashioned way, not online,’ he said.

Lemire’s loved ones feared the worst when she did not return home, not even to pick up insulin for her diabetes.

Video surveillance showed that Lemire did meet with the man, a manager at a local McDonald’s, for about two hours. Police ultimately ruled out the man as a suspect.

The 47-year-old was last seen driving her grandmother’s 2004 red Ford Freestyle van.

Sunshine State Sonar claimed the car was a match to the one they found in the lake, including the license plate.

They revealed that the search had taken place across 17 months as they combed 63 bodies of water with detectives from the Orlando Police Department.

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Oscar Zeta Acosta: The Wild Life and Strange End of Dr Gonzo

In the annals of counterculture history, certain figures emerge as both mysterious and iconic, leaving an indelible mark on the zeitgeist of their time. Oscar Zeta Acosta, an attorney, politician, and writer, is one such figure.

Best known as Hunter S. Thompson’s larger-than-life companion, Acosta’s life is a tapestry woven with activism, literature, all leading to a mysterious disappearance. There are numerous theories as to what happened with Acosta but with a figure so controversial in his own time it can be hard to separate fact from fiction.

What happened to Oscar Acosta? Was it an accident, a drug deal gone wrong or something even more sinister?

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Major claim missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 could be found in ‘a matter of days’ finally bringing an end to the nine year mystery

The mystery of missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370 could be solved in a matter of ‘days’ if there was a new search, experts have revealed.

Flight MH370 disappeared about 38 minutes after leaving Kuala Lumpur airport in southern Malaysia en route to Beijing, China, on March 8, 2014.

Despite a frantic search by governments and private companies, the plane was never found and the fate of its 237 passengers remains unknown.

In September, aerospace expert Jean-Luc Marchand and pilot Patrick Blelly called for a new search based on revelations about the fate of the flight.

During a lecture before the Royal Aeronautical Society, the pair said the new search area could be canvassed in just 10 days in an open call for help.

‘We have done our homework. We have a proposal … the area is small and considering new capabilities it will take 10 days,’ Mr Marchand said.

‘It could be a quick thing. Until the wreck of MH370 is found, nobody knows (what happened). But, this is a plausible trajectory.’

The pair called on the Australian Transport Safety Authority, Malaysian government, and exploration company Ocean Infinity to begin a new search.

Last year, Ocean Infinity revealed it was interested in a restarting its search having canvassed swathes of Indian Ocean on a ‘no find, no fee’ basis.

Mr Marchand said the ‘swift’ search could be a good proving ground for the company’s new unmanned sub-nautical search technology.

Importantly, the pair told the RAS the new search area was based on the belief the plane was purposefully hijacked and downed in deep ocean.

Mr Marchad described it as an ‘atrocious one-way journey’, which he believed was likely carried out by an experienced aeroplane pilot.

‘We think, and the study that we’ve done has shown us, that the hijacking was probably performed by an experienced pilot,’ Mr Marchad said.

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Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Against FBI Over Access to D.B. Cooper’s Necktie

A Federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a D.B. Cooper researcher who hoped to force the FBI to hand over a necktie that had been left behind by the famed skyjacker. The legal challenge was brought back in March by Eric Ulis, who discovered that the piece of evidence featured an adjustable spindle that had allegedly been overlooked by investigators. The researcher argued that, if Cooper had used the mechanism, then there was a possibility that the skyjacker’s DNA could be extracted from the attachment. Ulis ultimately wound up suing the FBI in the hopes that they would be legally compelled to provide the piece to him so that the tantalizing theory could be put to the test.

Alas, the Cooper hunter had his proverbial day in court on Monday and it reportedly did not go well as a judge ruled in favor of the federal government’s request that the case be dismissed. In explaining her decision, Judge Jia M. Cobb observed that “regardless of the intrigue and mystery that shrouds the case of D.B. Cooper,” the necktie at the center of the lawsuit falls outside of the purview of the Freedom of Information Act, which Ulis cited in reasoning for why he should receive the piece. She explained that the FOIA “only compels production on ‘records,’ not tangible objects.” She went on to posit that the necktie could not be considered a ‘record’ because it “is incapable of replication or copying.”

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Missing WWII fighter plane is FOUND after 80 years: Aircraft that vanished in a daring raid on Italy is discovered 40ft underwater off the Gulf of Manfredonia

A fighter plane that vanished in a daring raid on Italy – just days before the allies invaded – has been found, solving a mystery that’s endured since the Second World War.

Warren Singer, a US airman, disappeared with his P-38 Lightning on August 25, 1943, during an attack on Italian airfields near Foggia, in the east of the country.

The mission sought to blunt Italy’s aerial response to the coming landings, and was a great success – destroying 65 enemy planes, at the cost of seven P-38s.

But 2nd Lt Singer never reached his target, and air force records show he was last seen flying near Manfredonia, a town 22 miles east of Foggia.

Now, 80 years later, divers have found the wreckage of Singer’s plane at a depth of 12 metres (40ft) beneath the Gulf of Manfredonia.

Singer, who was just 22, was survived by his wife Margaret, who he’d married five months earlier, and who later gave birth to their daughter, Peggy, in January 1944.

Reacting to the discovery of the plane, grandson Dave Clark said: ‘Warren is a hero to us all, and we love him.

‘He was a very young man with love, hope, and dreams.

‘One of the really amazing things about the story is that Warren has 12 descendants.

‘We are all alive because of the very short time that that Margaret and Warren had together.

‘My mother recently realised there were three days between the wedding and him being shipped out.’

The diver who identified the wreck, Fabio Bisciotti, said that it was in surprisingly good condition.

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Mystery as body is found in ventilation system of Michigan community college’s performing arts center after students complained of a ‘foul odor’

A month-long search for a missing father of two is over after his decomposing body was found inside the ventilation system of a Michigan community college theatre.

Police were called to Macomb Community College in Detroit after staff realized the odor permeating the school’s performing arts center might have a sinister cause.

They traced the smell to a vent where they found the body of Jason Thompson, 36, who had vanished from his sister Shelby’s apartment less than a mile away on October 25.

His family had plastered the city’s Clinton Township district with fliers appealing for information before the grisly discovery on Sunday night.

‘Jason was loved by many people and his family have been through a lot over the past month while he has been missing,’ wrote his cousin Carissa Thompson on a Gofundme page.

‘Jason was a father to two beautiful children, Killian and Kiara. He was a son, uncle, brother, cousin but most important he was loved by his family and friends and will be missed.’

A security camera in Shelby’s apartment caught the moment he disappeared, stepping out in Sterling Heights wearing black pants, adidas shoes and a hoodie.

His family reported him missing on November 1 and began a series of daily calls to hospitals, the medical examiner’s office, jails and police departments in a bid to find him.

‘Never in his life has he ever gone without contact with our family for more than 24 hours, not once,’ wrote Shelby on Facebook.

‘This is completely unusual for my brother, someone knows something- what will it take for you to speak?’

College police are awaiting a cause of death from the Macomb County medical examiner, but Macomb College Police Chief William Leavens said there was ‘no reason to suspect foul play’.

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NEW suspect in case of DB Cooper is named as Pittsburgh engineer Vince Petersen – 52 years after hijacker got away with $200,000 ransom by parachuting out of the plane

A sleuth has named a new suspect in the case of DB Cooper – the hijacker who got away with a $200,000 ransom by parachuting out a plane 52 years ago never to be seen again.

Eric Ulis, a citizen investigator who sued the FBI for access to the case’s files and evidence, claims the man behind the November 24, 1971, mystery was engineer Vince Petersen from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.

Petersen worked as a Boeing subcontractor at a titanium plant and fits the evidence left behind by the infamous hijacker, the DB enthusiast told told The U.S. Sun. He would have been 52 at the time of the crime and has been long dead.

Ulis – who was five when the plane-jacking occurred – first landed on Petersen’s name after analyzing microscopic evidence left on the clip-on black tie DB left before he parachuted out of the plane.

Several of the particles found were consistent with specialty metals used in the aerospace sector, such as titanium, high-grade stainless steel and aluminum, Ulis explained.

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