Famous People Who Mysteriously Disappeared, and Are Still Missing

An English navigator who extensively explored the Arctic, Henry Hudson was searching for the Northwest Passage, a sea route to Asia through the Arctic Ocean, when his crew mutinied due to his continual lies and mistreatment. They abandoned Hudson along with his son and seven crew members in what is now the Hudson Bay, and sailed back to England without him.

A New York farmer and violinist who was kidnapped in Washington D.C. and sold into slavery in Louisiana, Soloman Northrup later regained his freedom and wrote a memoir entitled “Twelve Years A Slave” – made into an Oscar-winning 2013 film by Steve McQueen, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor as Northrup. While working as an abolitionist, Northrup disappeared from public records. Although the details of his death are unknown, some family members believed he was kidnapped and forced into slavery once again.

This impeccably dressed 25-year-old heiress left her parents’ Upper East Side home to go dress shopping one afternoon and never returned. She headed down 5th Avenue, where she bought chocolates and stopped at a bookstore, but after that, she vanished. Arnold’s parents hired a private detective agency to investigate her disappearance, but no substantial clues were ever found.

The first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, Amelia Earhart was a celebrated aviator whose final flight was a journey around the world that ended when her plane ran out of fuel as she and her navigator sought Howland Island, a coral atoll between Hawaii and Australia. The bones of a castaway found on the Pacific island of Nikumaroro in the 1940s were consistent with Earhart’s build, but they have since been lost.

A child novelist who had written three books and become a success by the age of 14, Barbara Newhall Follett lived an adventurous young adulthood sailing on ships, hiking the Appalachian Trail, and tramping through Europe. When she married and settled down, however, her waning career and her husband’s infidelity triggered an episode of depression. After a quarrel with her husband one evening, she left the house with $30 and a notebook and was never seen again.

The author of the acclaimed children’s book “The Little Prince,” was also a pioneering aviator. While flying a reconnaissance mission for Allied forces in 1944, Saint-Exupéry took off in a P-38 from Corsica and disappeared. A French fisherman found his identification bracelet off Marseilles in 1998, and in 2000, divers found remnants of his aircraft in the same location.

Trombonist and big band leader Glenn Miller headed one of the most popular swing bands of the 20th century. Wishing to serve the U.S. military by entertaining soldiers during WWII, Miller joined the U.S. Army Air Forces. While attempting to get from England to France for a performance, he boarded a small flight that disappeared over the English Channel, possibly crashing due to frozen fuel lines.

A high ranking SS officer and head of the Gestapo, Heinrich Müller was last seen alive in Hitler’s bunker the day after the dictator’s suicide. After remarking that he would never let the Russians take him prisoner, the Gestapo chief disappeared and is presumed to have been killed or committed suicide during the fall of Berlin.

A dancer and model attempting to make it big in Hollywood, Jean Spangler had just broken into the acting world with a few bit parts when she vanished at the age of 27. Her purse was found a few days after her disappearance in Griffith Park with a cryptic note addressed to someone named Kirk that stated she couldn’t wait any longer, and was going to see a doctor. Her whereabouts were never discovered.

An influential poet as well as a writer and filmmaker, Weldon Kees became distraught after separating from his wife and began drinking heavily, even admitting to attempting suicide. One evening after telling a friend he may move to Mexico, Kees disappeared. His car was found abandoned on the north side of Golden Gate Bridge, but his body was never located.

While attempting to collect indigenous art from the Asmat people of New Guinea, the youngest son of Nelson Rockefeller was on a pontoon boat that overturned offshore. Although two local guides went to get help, Rockefeller eventually attempted to swim the 12 miles to shore and disappeared. He was presumed drowned, but many believe he made it to shore and was killed by the Asmat.

Along with two other inmates, brothers John and Clarence Anglin, federal convict Frank Morris planned and executed an escape from the maximum security prison on Alcatraz Island. Using plaster dummy heads with real hair to fool the night guards, the men crawled through air vents and used a makeshift raft to leave the island. However, no evidence exists that the three ever made it to shore. The escape was the subject of a book by J. Campbell Bruce and a 1979 Don Siegel film starring Clint Eastwood.

An avid outdoorsman and spearfisher, Australian prime minister Harold Holt went for a swim at Cheviot Beach in Portsea and quietly slipped under the waves after being dragged out by a strong undertow. His body was never recovered and although he likely died of accidental drowning, many conspiracy theories arose in the aftermath of his disappearance, one suggesting that Holt had faked his own death and defected to China.

Formerly an OSS operative, Jim Thompson began trading in silk after WWII and is credited with revitalizing the silk industry in Thailand. While on vacation in Malaysia, Thompson went for a walk and vanished. Despite extensive search efforts including bloodhound tracking, he was never found. Rumors swirled that he was assassinated by the Communist Party of Malaysia.

The son of Hollywood star Errol Flynn, Sean Flynn was a successful war photojournalist who disappeared during the Vietnam War while on assignment along with photojournalist Dana Stone. The two were heading out of Phnom Penh on motorcycles toward a checkpoint manned by Vietnamese Communists the last day they were seen. Some eyewitnesses reported that the two men were stopped at the checkpoint and taken into the woods.

After a man calling himself Dan Cooper boarded a flight from Portland, Oregon, to Seattle, he hijacked the plane along with $200,000. After allowing passengers to deplane in Seattle, the plane took off again toward Mexico, and Cooper parachuted out into the night with the cash. His body was never found, but $5,800 of the money was found in the Columbia River in 1980.

House majority leader Hale Boggs, a democrat from Louisiana, was traveling in a twin-engine Cessna along with another congressman when their plane disappeared in a storm between Anchorage and Juneau. Despite over a month of search efforts involving 40 military aircraft and 50 civilian planes, no wreckage or bodies were ever found.

After attempting and failing to make a living as a musician in Greenwich Village’s folk scene, Connie Converse moved home to Michigan and fell into depression. Days after her 50th birthday, she packed her car and left Ann Arbor, telling friends and family she was heading out to make a fresh start. She was never seen or heard from again.

An attorney, activist, and novelist who inspired Hunter S. Thompson’s character “Dr. Gonzo” in the novel “Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas,” Oscar Zeta Acosta was a central figure in the Chicano Movement before he disappeared in Sinaloa, Mexico. His last known conversation was a phone call to his son, informing him that he was about to board a sailboat.

After recording two unsuccessful studio albums in Los Angeles, singer-songwriter Jim Sullivan decided to drive to Nashville to see if his career would take off there. On the way, he stopped to stay at a motel in Santa Rosa, New Mexico, but didn’t sleep in the room. His car was later found abandoned 26 miles away on a remote ranch, with his money, guitar, and records inside.

A labor organizer and former president of the Teamsters Union, Jimmy Hoffa had various connections to organized crime throughout his career and faced multiple prosecutions for fraud, jury tampering, and conspiracy. After heading to a restaurant to meet with two known mobsters, Hoffa called his wife and informed her that the men never showed up. He was never heard from again and is largely presumed to have been killed by the Mafia.

A Miami boxer who often substituted as a last-minute opponent in the ring when another fighter didn’t show up, “Sweet” Jimmy Robinson is best known for fighting Cassius Clay (the future Muhammad Ali) in 1961 and losing to a knockout in the first round. He retired in 1969 and was last photographed and interviewed in 1979. Reporters and sports enthusiasts have since attempted to learn of his fate, but no records exist of the rest of his life or death.

While on a family outing with her two older brothers and her parents, Michael and Lindy, nine-month-old baby Azaria Chamberlain was sleeping in a tent unaccompanied. Upon hearing Azaria cry, Lindy approached the tent to see a dingo running away from it. Azaria’s bloodstained clothing was later found at the base of Uluru, but her body was never located. Her parents were temporarily jailed for her murder but eventually released. The case has been the subject of several books and the 1988 film “A Cry in the Dark,” starring Meryl Streep and Sam Neill as the Chamberlains.

The guitarist and lyricist for the Welsh band Manic Street Preachers, Richey Edwards struggled with substance abuse and self-harm. When he disappeared at age 27, his car found near a bridge that was famous for suicide attempts, then, many assumed that he’d killed himself. However, his body was never found and some evidence suggests that he staged his disappearance.

Canadian musician Scott Smith was best known as the bassist for the band Loverboy. While at the wheel of his sailboat off the coast of San Francisco, a freak 25-foot wave pummeled the vessel and turned it on its side. Smith was washed overboard and despite immediate efforts to locate his body, it was never recovered.

After retiring early from his professional basketball career, former NBA center Bison Dele bought a catamaran and set sail from Tahiti toward Hawaii with his brother, Miles Dabord; his girlfriend, Serena Karlan; and skipper Bertrand Saldo. Two weeks later, Dabord sailed the boat back to Tahiti alone. Authorities assume that Dabord murdered the three other passengers, whose bodies were likely thrown overboard, but before the matter could be resolved, Dabord intentionally overdoses on insulin and died.

After appearing in multiple movies in the Beethoven film series as well as in “Varsity Blues,” child actor Joe Pichler returned to his hometown in Washington and vanished one evening. During his last phone call to a friend, he was described as inconsolable and intoxicated. His car was found abandoned with a note inside that expressed his wish to be a better sibling, and a desire for some of his belongings to be passed to his younger brother.

Up and coming Canadian rapper DY (Die Young) released his hit single “Passenger” with fellow artist Danny Fernandez in 2009. In August 2010, he told his parents he planned to head to Mexico to shoot a music video, but there is no proof that he ever left the country and he has not been seen since. His last Twitter post came in early September of that year, but his whereabouts remain unknown.

After a promising college basketball career, Rico Harris briefly played for the Harlem Globetrotters but quit due to complications from a previous injury. He subsequently struggled with alcohol dependence before getting clean in 2007. In 2014, Harris left his mother’s home in Alhambra, California, to drive to Seattle, but never made it. His car was found abandoned in the mountains west of Sacramento.