Bobby Dunbar was a four year-old boy that vanished in 1912, while on a fishing trip with his family in a Louisiana swamp. For weeks, searchers combed the area looking for him. The lake where he went missing was dynamited. Alligators were captured and had their bellies slit open to see if the body was inside. Nothing was found except a set of child's footprints leading to an old railroad trestle. Eight months later, the police found Bobby in the company of a drifter with a horse-drawn cart. He protested his innocence but was arrested and charged with kidnapping. Another woman came forward and claimed Bobby was, in fact, her son. But she was an unmarried fieldworker, and her claims were dismissed. The crime became a nationwide media event and the boy was returned to his parents, and their hometown held a parade in his honor. Bobby returned to his life. Ninety-one years later, Bobby Dunbar's granddaughter uncovered the truth.
posted by smoothvirus on Mar 19, 2008 - 78 comments

The Mystery of Sneha Philip, the Possible 2,705th Victim of 9/11 At 4 PM on September 10th, 2001, Dr. Sneha Philip left her lower Manhattan apartment. Credit card records show that she made a couple purchases at the department store Century 21. Then she vanished. What happened?
posted by anjamu on Jun 20, 2006 - 36 comments

Where's Raed's brother? Iraqi weblogger Khalid Jarrar has been abducted by the mukhabarat -- Iraq's secret police. Khalid Jarrar was seized at his college in Iraq shortly after his mother, Faiza, toured the U.S., calling for a timetable for U.S. withdrawl. So, why is it that arrests of Iranian webloggers made international news, but Iraqi webloggers from prominent families can be "disappeared" without a single major news organization reporting on it?
posted by insomnia_lj on Jul 19, 2005 - 15 comments

A "Disappearance" In America - Arrested without charge. Secret warrants and subpoenas. No arrest record. No accusation of a crime. Solitary confinement. No access to a lawyer. No comment from the authorities. No court appearance. In other countries, this would be a "disappearance". Here in America, it's just the Patriot Act at work. Read the story of Mike Hawash, and ponder where this country is headed.
posted by laz-e-boy on Apr 7, 2003 - 44 comments