14 Haunting Missing Person’s Cases That Are Just Truly Bizarre
Over on Reddit’s r/truecrime forum, some dedicated true crime fans shared the most bizarre missing person’s cases they’ve heard of. The whole thread is a good read if you’re itching for an internet hole to fall into, but here were some of my favorite responses:
Mateusz Kawecki
In 2018 a 30 year old polish man goes missing on the way to the hospital where his wife is giving birth. 5 months later, after complaining about the stench, neighbors find his body in his parents barn 400 miles from where he was supposed to be. There were two nooses, some mysterious items in a backpack, and his car is missing. How did someone overlook his body hanging from the rafters for 5 months? There are a lot of unanswered questions.
More reading: “The Strange Death Of Mateusz Kawecki”
Bennington Triangle
The “Bennington Triangle” disappearances are both creepy and mind-boggling. During a five-year period (1945 – 1950), five individuals, male and female, ranging in age from 8-years-old to 70+, vanished under mysterious circumstances.
Wikipedia can help you walk through the timeline.
Sabrina Aisenberg and Haleigh Cummings
Baby Sabrina just basically vanished into thin air. I know a lot of people think the parents killed her but I think Sabrina is out there alive somewhere.
As for Haleigh it seems obvious dad’s girlfriend had something to do with the little girl’s disappearance but I still can’t believe she was smart enough to fool the police.
Where are these girls? It’s so bizarre, I hope someday the truth comes out.
More reading: Notorious Unsolved Missing Children Cases
The murder of Beth Barnard and the disappearance of Vivienne Cameron
Doesn’t matter what angle you look at this case from, it simply doesn’t make sense. A popular consensus is that after murdering Beth, Vivienne killed herself by jumping off a bridge where her car was found, but her best friend got a call from Vivienne the following morning to talk about knitting, which was corroborated by another friend who was also there. There’s also a bunch of other problems with this theory.
Casefile true crime podcast do an amazing episode on it which I highly recommend. I’ve read books on this case and it’s still just as mysterious, as to who murderer Beth and what happened to Vivienne.
Somebody on Reddit has some theories which can be found here.
Asha Degree
Apparently, for no reason anyone can think of, a 9- year old girl gets up and starts walking down a highway during a rainstorm with no shoes on, in February, in western North Carolina. And then just disappears off the face of the Earth.
The FBI found her book bag buried inside a plastic bag at a construction site. Almost certainly somebody else was involved in her disappearance. But there’s no proof that anyone else was in that house. She was seen by two witnesses alone walking down the highway. She did not have access to the internet in her home- no chance she was trying to meet an internet stranger. And the FBI has never suspected the parents.
I honestly think the real story has never been told to the public. And the FBI is looking for some random green car. Nobody knows why.
More reading: Wikipedia
Amy Lynn Bradley
If she really fell off the ship, it would have been terrible, but if they had at least found her body, her family would have had closure. Not knowing what happened all these years later is mind-boggling as any of the most popular 2-3 theories of what happened to her are possible.
Maura Murray
She seems to have been wrestling the usual demons and ran away from her life. She certainly was not being stalked or harassed, just drove away from her life. The exact circumstances at the end are murky at best, but she seems to be have the actor. A sad situation, that causes her father no end to his grief. Foul play could have played a part, but no actual evidence, to that end.
More info: Oxygen created an awesome docu series on this case!
David Dewayne Bell
David disappeared for Owensboro, Ky in 1986. Was he a killer or a victim of convicted killer John Reneer? What does his disappearance have to do with Shannon Green’s disappearance and Angie Dickens murder? There is an audiotape of Dewayne saying killed the girls and his father helped. Police had the tape in their possession for over 20+ years and said they lost it. In 2005 the tape magically reappeared. Very strange.
More reading: The Charley Project
Ben McDaniel
He was a self-taught diver who went diving in Ponce De Leon, Florida in a treacherous cave that literally had a sign saying “there’s nothing in here worth dying for”. To even get into the cave, he had to be a certified cave diver (this cave had a locked gate – you had to show proof of your certification in order to get a key for the gate to go in). The witness who saw him go into the cave, a park employee, later admitted that he let him into the cave due to the fact that he’d snuck his way in numerous times before, so he figured there was no harm in just letting him through seeing as he’d sneak in anyway. He never returned from the cave, and his remains have NEVER BEEN FOUND despite extensive searching. His vehicle never left the parking lot he’d parked it in. Multiple of the “worlds best cave divers” aided in the search, but nothing was found. They sent a camera into the cave, but the cave eventually become so narrow that the camera could go no further. There was also extensive searching through the silt within the cave. Some of his belongings were found (his diving equipment), but his remains have never been found.
More reading: Wikipedia
Lindsay Buziak
Lindsay is a young real estate agent showing a house to someone that she felt used a fake accent and somehow had her personal phone number. She was uncomfortable enough to ask her boyfriend to meet her at the showing and he did, but he showed up late and waited outside. He could see that the showing was still in progress. She never came out. Texts to her phone went unanswered and she was found murdered in an upstairs bedroom. The front door was locked and the suspects (a man and a woman) apparently fled out a back door while her boyfriend waited for her outside. This one bothers me because I feel like she did everything right.
More reading: Wikipedia article, Crime Junkie episode
Monica and Michael Bennett
I learned about the case from a podcast called The Fall Line which is an in-depth investigation of each case they cover including family interviews. I am amazed at how many teenagers were running away in the 1970s according to the police.
More reading: Wiki
Brian Shaffer
He went out with friends to a bar. He’s seen arriving with friends. All exits had security cameras. He’s seen hanging outside an hour later chatting with some girls. He goes back in and that’s it. His friends said they got separated from him. No cameras saw him leaving.
More reading: Wikipedia article
Najal Ferrell
Last year a women name Najal Ferrell went missing from my town. They found her car about a half hr from here at a movie theater and then just her foot in a pond off of highway 65. She lived the next block over from me and was always curious what happened to her but the cops never released anymore information.
More listening: Crime Junkie did an episode on Najal