Tag: mysterious disappearances

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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The mystery of missing ‘French Madeleine McCann’: Estelle Mouzin disappeared aged nine on her way to school amid fears she was snatched by ‘Ogre of Ardennes’ killer… but her body has never been found

Over a span of more than 15 years, a series of killings of women and young girls haunted parts of France and Belgium, but perhaps none more than the murder of nine-year-old Estelle Mouzin – France’s Madeline McCann.

Between 1987 and 2003, at least 11 people disappeared across the region, with several of the cases seeming – at least at first – to be unconnected.

The first woman disappeared in Auxerre, in December 1987. The second vanished 90 miles away in Vitry-sur-Seine, a suburb of Paris, in 1988. 

Another woman went missing in Auxerre that same year, but then more vanished further north in Châlons-en-Champagne (1988) and Charleville-Mézières (1989. Then one in Saint-Servais in Belgium, then another in Rezé, over in the West of France.

After a flurry of eight disappearances from 1987 to 1990, there was a ten-year pause, but they restarted in 2000, in Charleville-Mézières again, then another in Sedan in 2001, and one more in Guermantes in 2003.

Of the places where the women went missing, only two appeared on the list more than once: Auxerre (three women) and Charleville-Mézières (two). When plotted on a map, the locations are spread across a vast area of 21,500 square miles.

It is easy to see, therefore, why authorities struggled to connect them to the culprit: dreaded serial killer Michel Fourniret, known as ‘the Beast of Ardennes’.

Finally arrested in 2003 in Belgium, Fourniret was convicted to life in prison in 2008 for the murder and rape or attempted rape of seven teenagers and young women, after he admitted to killing several women and girls.

Fourniret would go on to be convicted again after confessing to more killings, and he confessed to three more he was never convicted of – including 20-year-old British tutor Joanna Parrish, who was killed in Auxerre in 1990.

But of all of Fourniret’s horrific killings, one stood out in particular: That of nine-year-old Estelle, who went missing in 2003. The whereabouts of her body remain a mystery to this day, and is a secret that Fourniret took to his grave.

The youngest of Fourniret’s victims, Estelle’s disappearance has been likened to that of Madeleine McCann‘s, the three-year-old British girl who went missing in 2007.

As with McCann, who vanished in Portugal, Estelle disappeared without a trace, leaving investigators stumped while capturing the attention of the public and media.

The girl had been returning from school on January 9, 2003 in the commune of Guermantes, some 15 miles east from the centre of Paris.

The nine-year-old was last seen that winter’s day in front of a bakery, en route to the house belonging to her mother, Suzanne Mouzin.

Suzanne, who was in the middle of a divorce from Estelle’s father Eric, raised the alarm with the local police station at around 7pm that evening.

Little did she know, in going to the police she had lit the touch paper on an investigation that would span seventeen years, spark huge media coverage in France, and yet would never truly discover what had happened to her little girl.

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The baffling disappearance of the anthropologist Sam Dubal on Mt. Rainier

Dr. Sam Dubal, 33, left for Mt. Rainier National Park on Friday, October 9, 2020, for a solo hike and was supposed to return the next day. He was spotted that day on the Mother Mountain Loop trail near Lake Mowich in the Park. Sam was reported missing on October 12 after he didn’t return home.

He was well equipped for the overnight hike, with a tent, a sleeping bag, snow gear, rain gear, a cellphone, and a charger. Sam was also an experienced hiker under challenging conditions. After an extensive search, Sam was unable to be located.

Mt. Rainier is considered one of North America’s most dangerous mountains due to its high chance of volcanic eruption. Still, it has also had a heavy toll of hiking deaths, with many visitors dying on its icy slopes because of accidents, misadventures, foul play or reasons unknown.

As of November 2023, the only clue has been a water bottle found in October near the Loop trail. No other sign of Sam has been located despite many searches in the park. The nature of this disappearance is very puzzling, as he was experienced, and the Mother Mountain trail is not difficult nor dangerous.

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The puzzling disappearance of Jared Negrete from Mount San Gorgonio

12-year-old, Jared Michael Negrete (born September 11, 1978), was a Boy Scout who was on his first overnight backpacking trip. He was last seen on Friday, July 19, 1991, at about 6 pm, when he fell behind his fellow Scouts on a hike to the summit of 11,500-foot Mt. San Gorgonio in San Bernardino National Forest, Southern California.

An extensive search turned up only some candy wrappers and a camera with a haunting image of Jared on it. Thirty years later, despite the large search and follow-up hikes into the area by amateur investigators, no remains have been found.

Many are asking why would a Scout Leader leave Jared alone on his first trip, whilst he and the other scouts completed their hike?

San Gorgonio Mountain, also known locally as Mount San Gorgonio, or Old Greyback, is the highest peak in Southern California and the Transverse Ranges at 11,503 feet (3,506 m). It is in the San Bernardino Mountains, 27 miles (43 km) east of the city of San Bernardino. It lies within the San Gorgonio Wilderness, part of the Sand to Snow National Monument managed by the San Bernardino National Forest.

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Police searching for four missing teenagers on a camping trip in North Wales find the Silver Ford Fiesta they were travelling in as village is cordoned off and air ambulance lands nearby – as boy’s worried mother says she ‘didn’t know he was going camping’

Police searching for four missing teenagers who went on a camping trip in North Wales have found the silver Ford Fiesta the group were last seen travelling in and sealed off the area around it.

Sixth form students Jevon Hirst, Harvey Owen, Wilf Henderson and Hugo Morris  were last seen in the Porthmadog area of Gwynedd on Sunday morning.

The teenagers, from Shrewsbury, Shropshire, were due home on Monday but none of them have made contact with friends and family or been active on WhatsApp. 

On Tuesday afternoon, the A4085 which runs through the village of Garreg was cordoned off following information from a member of the public. An air ambulance and forensics van are also on the scene. 

North Wales Police have not said whether the boys have been found or given an update on their condition, but are set to give a press conference later today. 

Locals reported that it had rained at the weekend, leading to rising river levels and ‘poor visibility’ in the mountainous area. One resident, Emyr Owen, told the BBC there had been ‘atrocious weather’ on Sunday, the day the boys went missing.

Crystal Owen, the mother of Harvey, a 17-year-old student at Shrewsbury College doing A-levels, said she was unaware her son had gone camping and thought he was staying at a friend’s grandfather’s house for the night. 

She said: ‘If I’d have known [where he was going] I wouldn’t have let him due to the winter weather conditions. They are all sensitive, intelligent lads and we are just hoping they parked up, got lost and are OK.’

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Headless corpse with no arms washes up on NYC beach – two weeks after missing Irish filmmaker, 44, was last seen on nearby stretch of sand

An investigation has been launched after a headless body was discovered on a beach in the Rockaways in New York City. 

The NYPD were on the scene at  Breezy Point Beach just after noon on Friday after reports of human torso came in to 911.

Officers with the 100th Precinct responded to the gruesome sight which saw a human torso with legs still attached but without arms, was found lying on the sand.

The discovery comes only weeks after a talented Irish film maker named Ross McDonnell disappeared from his New York home with his bike later being found at Fort Tilden Beach near Roxbury – just three miles away from Breezy Point Beach. 

Emmy award winner McDonnell, 44, was last spotted late on the night of Saturday, November 4 at Fort Tilden Beach near Roxbury, where his bicycle was found locked up three days later.

Earlier this month, friend Gene Gallerano, told The Irish Times that McDonnell appears to have been on the beach but ‘went out into the ocean’ before disappearing.

The identity of the body found on Friday will not be released until the family is notified. 

The NYPD has not revealed whether the body had washed up on shore or been dumped on the beach. 

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Police hunt for Washington couple who vanished in ‘suspicious’ circumstances after wife’s co-workers raise alarm when she didn’t show for work

Fears are growing for a popular chiropractor and her husband who disappeared suddenly from their Washington home at the weekend and have not been seen since.

Police arrived to carry out a welfare check at the Lacey home of Karen Koep and her husband Davido when she failed to turn up for work in the center of town on Monday.

The couple, who have two adult children, were not there, but their silver 2015 Toyota Yaris was found abandoned five miles away later that day at the Chehalis Western Trailhead in East Olympia, a popular starting point for hikers.

‘Deputies responded to the residence located in Lake Forest Development and found that the husband and wife were missing and the circumstance surrounding their disappearance is suspicious,’ said Thurston County Sheriff’s Office in a statement on Tuesday.

‘The couple’s vehicle was missing from the residence and was later located by law enforcement near 67th Avenue SE and Ranier Road SE.’

‘To ensure the integrity of the investigation we have not released many details.’

Local TV channel KING 5 Seattle reported that police initially arrested a suspect near the O’Reilly Autoparts store in the north-east of the city but he was later released without charge.

Davido is landlord to several properties in the area and police have been interrogating his tenants for clues to his disappearance.

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