I was thinking about a recent thread here involving a missing friend, and I was happy and relieved when it was learned the person had been found. But sadly, this isn’t always the case. In my own life, I have personally known of two people who just “vanished”, and to this day I wonder what could have happened.
The first was my father’s older brother. He left home to go to college across the country in 1959. For a few months, letters would come on a fairly regular basis. And then they stopped. And they have remained stopped to this day. The brother, James, was 19 at the time, and was paying his own way through school. When the letters stopped coming, my father’s parents contacted the school and were told that James had dropped out, moved off-campus, and all contact had been lost. My grandparents spent several years writing letters to various state and government agencies trying desperately to find some clue as to where their son had gone. Home life had been completely normal, no problems, and while James was not close to his parents or siblings, he was not exactly distant either. He did not drink, do drugs, gamble, or consort with criminal types, so far as anyone could learn. He just picked up one day and walked into oblivion. Both my grandparents and my father died without ever learning what had become of James. My father’s sister hired a private investigator some 15 years ago, who turned up precisely nothing. James was gone- there was no James.
Now, my uncle could very well have decided to just break contact and start a new life somewhere else. Maybe a little unusual, but certainly not a rare occurence. The second “vanishing” in my life was bizarre, and remains unsolved. I’ve periodically asked friends for info, and even conducted a few internet searches, but nothing. Here’s the story: When I was 16, a young boy (I think he was 12 or 13 at the time) from our town disappeared. He was last seen walking home around 5 or 6 pm on a summer evening by friends at a local park. He lived just two blocks away, the sun was still fairly high in the sky, but he never made it home. Now, I grew up in an extremely quiet rural community. There was no crime, especially not violent crime. Theft of fishing equipment was considered a major deal. But this kid just vanished- the police had no clues, no one saw anything, and nothing was ever found. State police showed up- they searched woods, abandoned buildings, they even dragged a pond. There was no clue. He was just…gone. And to this day, AFAIK, no one has seen or heard from him again.
These two experiences have left quite an impression on me. To this day, they worry and fascinate me. I still wonder. I used to compulsively check phone books in every city I visited, even overseas, for my uncle’s name; I was part of the volunteer group who searched for the boy, in which bloodhounds were used to track him, leading to my life-long love of the breed. I devour books and news stories about missing persons. I’m an atheist, but I lit candles for Elizabeth Smart and Danielle van Damme, just in case. I worry often about what could have befallen these and all the other people who disappear; I worry that I myself will one day be in a similar situation.
So I’m looking for support here, obviously. Does anyone have similar stories or experiences? Anyone find resolution?
