"The unburied come back to haunt us." On July 2, 1937, Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan took off from Lae, Papua New Guinea (map) in their Lockheed Electra en route to Howland Island (map). They were never seen again. [more inside]
posted by kirkaracha on Sep 22, 2009 - 27 comments

Do you, or an older relative of yours, recognize any of these children? More than 70 children separated from their families during WWII, now all elderly men and women, are using the Internet to try to find some answers about their pasts, their families, and sometimes even their own names. They are soliciting help and suggestions in the comments sections on each story. [more inside]
posted by Asparagirl on Dec 19, 2008 - 21 comments

The disappearance of the pretty, middle-class Madeline McCann saw first an outpouring of sympathy verging on national hysteria and then the press wondering if the couple themselves had something to do with her disappearance. When Shannon Matthews, a nine-year-old from Dewsbury went missing months later, the media coverage centred on her mother Karen's private life and her council estate upbringing; the media was accused of classism because Shannon was less pretty and working class. Unlike Madeleine, Shannon was later found after one of the UK's biggest missing persons searches - inside the double bed of her mother's friend, with instructions to keep quiet and traces of temazepam in her hair. [more inside]
posted by mippy on Dec 5, 2008 - 56 comments

Theives bypassed all security systems by simply posing as the security company on the phone These days as a robber dealing with high-tech security systems it seems that it's not about being a hacker or having loads of money to pull off a heist, its about making a phone call, having bear spray, and waiting for a guard to go on smoke break. [more inside]
posted by figTree on Jun 4, 2008 - 42 comments

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

John Darwin disappeared while canoeing of the coast of North Yorkshire in 2002. He was presumed dead, until he walked into a police station on Saturday with no memory of where he has been for 5 and a half years. [more inside]
posted by roofus on Dec 3, 2007 - 38 comments

Steve Fossett has gone missing in Nevada. Fossett has broken many aviation records, including being the first person to fly solo around the world in a balloon and the first nonstop, solo airplane flight around the world. A list of all of his aviation records. He went missing during a recreational flight.
posted by backseatpilot on Sep 4, 2007 - 36 comments

Vancouver woman missing in Syria. Nicole Vienneau has gone missing while travelling in Syria. Her brother, Matthew, has started a blog in hopes of gathering information about what's happened to her. Information has already started coming in from other travellers about her last known whereabouts. via Matthew's interview on CBC radio this morning.
posted by GuyZero on May 7, 2007 - 67 comments

Alan Johnston ,the only western journalist (BBC) in Gaza is still missing. Despite calls from various quarters , local protests , a first ever meeting between the UK gov and Hamas, and unprecedentated 'global media' co-operation. He seems as far from his family as ever.
posted by burr1545 on Apr 13, 2007 - 12 comments

"Urgent . . . Jim Gray" Jim Gray is a well-respected researcher at Microsoft, and has been called "THE SQL Guru and Architecht." Last Sunday night he went out on his boat, and has yet to return. Read the touching story about how Silicon Valley's "best and brightest" are using all their technological savvy to find their colleague and friend. Godspeed. (previous post on Jim Gray here)
posted by Kibbutz on Feb 2, 2007 - 26 comments

James Kim still missing but wife and kids OK. Searchers found Kati Kim and two children but James, who left his family in the car, is still missing after going out for help two days ago.
posted by strangeleftydoublethink on Dec 4, 2006 - 91 comments

Remember this picture? Arguably the most famous flag raised since this one was, and apparently its now gone missing. And now the three firefighters who didn't know they were being photographed won't talk to the press about a flag appraised to be worth over $500K.
posted by allkindsoftime on Aug 31, 2006 - 49 comments

Allen, 24, and Brandon Day, 28, of Dallas, were in Southern California for a financial convention. They got lost Saturday west of Palm Springs after wandering off a trail during what was supposed to be a day hike. [On the third day] they discovered a campsite in a dead-end gorge. Day and Allen were elated, thinking someone there could help them find the way out. But something was wrong. A radio and flashlight were corroded. They realized the place was deserted. ``His last journal entry was one year ago to the day that we found it, which was very eerie,' Day said. ``Nobody knew where he was, nobody knew to come looking for him, so he was preparing for the end. We were looking at the words of a man who was passing.' The missing man was John Donovan, who had disapeared a year earlier while hiking the pacific crest trail. "Even in his death, he was helping people," Donovan's longtime friend, Chris Hook, said from Richmond, Virginia.
posted by 445supermag on May 11, 2006 - 26 comments

Who is 10641?
via via
posted by airguitar on Nov 15, 2005 - 77 comments

Cindy Sheehan says Bill O'Reilly is an "Obscenity to Humanity" [...]Asked how she feels about the MSM devoting so much time to the Natalee Holloway story, Sheehan said "Holloway is a tragedy for one family" but what she's doing is trying to help thousands of families avoid tragedy.[...]
posted by Postroad on Aug 10, 2005 - 77 comments

Fuck Natalee Holloway
posted by aerify on Jul 5, 2005 - 125 comments

Radioactive Material Lost By Halliburton Found In Boston Shit hapens:: "Halliburton Co. (HAL), an oil services company and major military contractor in Iraq and elsewhere, lost track of a shipment of radioactive material in October but didn't alert the government until this week. Federal authorities mounted an intensive search and found the material Wednesday in Massachusetts.
posted by Postroad on Feb 11, 2005 - 30 comments

Lonely Socks. Have you ever rifled through your socks drawer to find only three socks. One green, one blue and the other yellow? Where did the other one go? Post your single socks here and help them find their partners.
posted by fvw on Oct 11, 2004 - 20 comments

Spalding Gray, the witty and engaging actor and writer, has been reported missing.
posted by moonbird on Jan 13, 2004 - 24 comments

Almost two years later and they're still finding remains from the World Trade Center. Hopefully one more family gets a call they've been waiting for/dreading that their loved one is found.
posted by MediaMan on Sep 9, 2003 - 6 comments

Evelyn Hernandez: the forgotten Laci Peterson. SF Chronicle story on a nearly identical case of a missing pregnant woman...both sad stories, but one received almost no media attention. Laci was from the same town as Chadra Levy: was that the hook that created a ghoulish media darling? More inside...
posted by serafinapekkala on Apr 21, 2003 - 14 comments

FBI Discovers Bill of Rights after 138 years. No word on whether they will sell it or use it.
posted by flagrante_delicto on Mar 19, 2003 - 5 comments

Wisconsin "loses" 2,900 sex offenders. It seems that the state of Wisconsin has "misplaced" approximately 2,900 of it's 9,000+ population of registered sex offenders. Apparently, they've moved within or out of the state without letting the state know. Jim Stingl of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel thinks we should all pitch in and help find those missing offenders, and offers some ways he's helping out already
posted by djspicerack on Oct 14, 2002 - 17 comments

Nixon's Last Secret The race is on to try to recover the missing 18 1/2 minutes of the infamous Tape 342. While it will be interesting to see what's on the tape (if it can be recovered) the big question is this: Why erase part of one tape and leave all the others intact?
posted by Irontom on Jun 19, 2002 - 14 comments

They can't find Ken Lay. Via Reuters. Scroll down to "more business news". My guess is he headed for high ground.
posted by bas67 on Feb 4, 2002 - 62 comments

A large & unknown group of the WTC missing: temp workers. (more inside) (via not my desk)
posted by epersonae on Sep 28, 2001 - 10 comments

Reuters is publishing photos of those unaccounted for. I thought that this was a nice gesture on the part of Reuters, and of the AP if they're doing this as well. It's eerie to glance through yahoo's archive of the Reuters photos and to find random pictures submitted by families. They're not obvious, but if you look through enough pages, you'll find a few.
posted by moz on Sep 14, 2001 - 0 comments

Financial/NY people add your name If you were expected to be downtown in the area. Also, the FISD has set up this site to post questions about missing people and anything else.. that you're ok, if you need help.. if you can help... (one thing.. some places had decided to use the UBB to tout their wares.. how screwed in the head are you?.. I can understand people with a skill.. but a company trying to sell something...).. But use the sites responsibly, please.
posted by rich on Sep 13, 2001 - 0 comments

Police release composite photos of "showing what Chandra Levy may look like now if she has changed her appearance." OK gang, let's get to work.
posted by sylloge on Jul 15, 2001 - 38 comments

Something just a bit different in a kidnapping: the victim suffers from polydactyly. If someone you know has suddenly come up with a newborn baby with one extra finger on each hand, let the FBI know. (No joke.)
posted by Steven Den Beste on Nov 23, 2000 - 7 comments

Conspiracy theorists, start your engines. Regardless of the outcome, those "9 missing ballot boxes" are going to figure in conspiracy theories for decades to come -- there are still people talking about how Nixon was robbed by the Daley machine in 1960. (The fact that a Bush is governor in Florida surely won't shut anyone up.)
posted by snarkout on Nov 8, 2000 - 20 comments

Friends, family seek "Left Eye". If my friends referred to me as "Left Eye" I would have dumped them, too. But seriously, how does someone famous just disappear like this, especially in celebrity-crazed America?
posted by kristin on Sep 11, 2000 - 6 comments