The Savannah Guthrie’s Mom case got me thinking about something else. More than a half-million people “disappear” in this country every year. The vast majority are eventually found, alive or not, but there’s a small number who simply vanish and are never seen or heard from again.
For those who simply walk away from their lives, move elsewhere and change their names (as opposed to those who are found deceased or return on their own), I’m wondering how do they do it? Unlike the olden days, you can’t get a job or do practically anything else without a Social Security card or some kind of legal identification. You can’t just assume an alias and start a new life, can you?
Hoping Ms. Guthrie’s Mom is found soon and in good health.
Assuming we’re not talking about people who are abducted or kidnapped, there are probably lots of people, although I don’t know how many, who decide to start a new life somewhere else, as someone else, for whatever reason. One way to do that is to find someone who would be your age but died as a child, and assume their identity. You get a fake birth certificate, a real ldriver’s license, and a replacement Social Security card, and you’re on your way. Most people don’t care if you are who you say you are, as long as you pay your bill and don’t cause any trouble. If you’re asking why someone would do that, there are lots of reasons I could imagine, most of which I don’t want to go into.
I have heard of THAT method for over 40 years now.
I would think by now the Social Security Administration would have some sort red flag in their computer system to see why someone is asking SS card for a number that has NOT been used in decades. Does anyone know if they does this? (To be clear I don’t need a new identity I am just wondering if the US government has taking any actions to prevent this for happening.
When a big natural disaster hits - hurricane, flood, earthquake, whatever - I wonder if anyone takes it as the perfect time to disappear. How hard would it be to work for cash under the table, thereby making a SSN unneeded? Getting a driver’s license might be a problem, but I suppose of you’re careful, you could get away without one, and if you buy a car from a private seller, tho registration might be tough.
Maybe just hop on a sailboat and head for a mostly uninhabited island??
Since 1986, parents had to have SS numbers for their dependent children 5 years or older. A very young child who died might have one but also might not (not sure how you would check for that) and if they didn’t, you could apply for one under their name as that person. What could/should be a red flag is why an adult of a certain age would be applying for a SS number, so that they would get at least a little extra investigation before they got one.
Oh, sure you can. There are plenty of jobs that pay cash under the table.
A lot of them are manual labor jobs. You can cut lawns, shovel snow, work as a handyman, all sorts of things. You can sell crafts. You can buy things for cheap from yard sales or fish them out of the trash (if they aren’t too badly broken or can easily be fixed) and sell them online. Anything that you can think of where you are working for someone else for cash, and are not employed by a company. You can even make yourself up a cardboard sign and beg at traffic intersections or shopping centers.
You can be a crack commando team, fleeing arrest for a crime you didn’t commit, wandering the country as soldiers of fortune, seeking people in distress and rendering assistance.
I read a story several years ago about an anonymous “confession board” where you could admit to anything while protecting your identity. One of the entries was “My family thinks I died in 9/11.”
Though the thought has crossed my mind, I can’t imagine doing something like that to my own family. I have to wonder if they ever found out or if they are still unaware of what really happened.
Is disappearing much different than just living anonymously?
There are maybe a half million homeless people who are basically anonymous and invisible to society, living in tent camps.
And there are several million immigrants who live anonymously and off-the-record, even while working at jobs with enough pay to keep a roof over their head.
Nor could I, but I had a friend in years gone by who had a really bad relationship with his family. He went so far as to resort to a PO Box address wherever he lived so his parents couldn’t find him. I expect there are others like him out there.
I understand how someone can essentially live off the grid with some effort, as mentioned. But, what about those that disappear themselves and start over with another family? Some of these stories people just seem to have unplugged from one life and emerge somewhere else as someone else. I guess it may be easier to disappear to another country with lax immigration standards.
There are also around 700,000 homeless people across the country at any given time. So assuming that someone didn’t disappear because they ended up dissolved in a bathtub in Hell’s Kitchen or just wandered off into the wilderness, many people who disappear might be living on the street somewhere.
Also just because someone is reporting “missing” doesn’t mean the entire national law enforcement apparatus goes looking for them. If an adult isn’t wanted for a crime or considered at risk due to age or health reasons, They can “disappear” as long as they want so long as they pay their taxes.
Like if I up and decided to pull a Stede Bonnet, cash out on all my assets and leave my family to take up a under the table job working a fishing boat in the Bahamas or something, it might be pretty tough for anyone to find me without investing significant time and resources. Not that I’d ever think of doing that.
I do recall some years back in the early days of social media where a guy held some sort of contest in which he would try to disappear and put it to his followers to try and find him for some sort of cash prize. I recall he said it was very stressful and mentally draining trying to live like that in a constant state of paranoia.
I can’t fly a plane, I’m not swoony good looking, and I certainly can’t beat up 5 tough guys. I might be able to weld up a tank out of an old tractor and some water tanks. I’ve never had call to test my planning skills, and I’m not sure a half-pincer move would even work.
We used to do that here: a Doper would open a site somewhere and solicit 100% anonymous anecdotes, repost them here. Someone called for one a few years ago but this time got very few solicitations and the thread quickly died.
I was gonna say, Walt and Saul Goodman on Breaking Bad visited Best Quality Vacuum and for enormous sums, were both disappeared. Walt to a cabin in the frozen woods, Saul …not sure, ended up in a mall with a new identity, making Cinnabon rolls?
This part I question. Isn’t it pretty difficult to sell stuff online without some kind of bank account/equivalent to handle the money transactions? And isn’t it pretty hard to get a bank account without a social security number?
Or did you mean advertise them online to sell in person for cash? This is possible, I guess, although I’ve never tried it myself so I don’t know what kind of ID might be required by the advertising platform. There is the added risk with in-person transactions of being robbed instead of paid.
Assuming you’re not too burdened with scruples…. mightn’t it be easier to take over someone else’s existence? It’d probably take some time, but find a loner/loser person of the appropriate sex/age/ethnicity. Someone who is estranged from/never had close family, works some low level job that didn’t require certification/degrees, or such. Lives a sort of tumbeweed experience, moving from cheap rentals/boarding/complete homelessness.
Then kill him/her, dispose of the body neatly, and just move on to a new location with their name and social security number.
After that… well, you can find god or turn over a new leaf if you please. Miraculously reform “your” old addictions/gambling/alcoholism/whatever and start building up to a decent life. “Yeah, I used to be a lazy bum but I started to eat paleo and exercise and now I’m the shift supervisor at the warehouse and have my own apartment and car….”
I’m thinking one could skip the murder part. Find someone near your age who was homeless and looked like they’d been that way for quite some time, and offer to buy their identity from them for, say, $5000. They’d probably be happy to take the deal.