In the year 2020, 543,000 missing persons cases were open in the United States alone,
the highest number since 1990 when a total of 663,000 missing people were on record.
Among these are some of the strangest cases and unexplained mysteries of people who mysteriously
disappeared, never to be seen again.
5.
Immaculate Basil
Immaculate “Mackie” Basil mysteriously disappeared on Friday, the 14th of June 2013.
The 27-year-old woman from Fort St. James, British Columbia in Canada was known as a
quiet, introverted person and so, it came as a surprise to her family that she was heading
out to a party alone that night, the same day that she had attended her aunt’s funeral.
She hadn’t packed an overnight bag which, according to her family, was out of character
for her.
She also didn’t have any extra clothes or a makeup bag and she didn’t own a cell phone.
She did, however have a dark blue iPod Shuffle with white earphones with her.
At the time of her disappearance, she was wearing a black hoodie with a maple leaf on
the front, grey yoga pants and white shoes.
She stayed at the party, which was being held on the Tachie reserve just 20 minutes’ walk
from her house, until just after midnight when she left with a man named Victor and
her cousin, Keith.
They were headed to a hunting cabin after purchasing a 26-ounce bottle of vodka.
At some point after leaving the cabin, the truck that they were travelling in got into
an accident on Leo Creek Forest Service Road and the two men claim that she separated from
them directly after the accident.
Later that morning, Victor was seen walking down a street in Tachie with his clothes wet
up to his chest.
A truck driver would report seeing Mackie hitchhiking alone in the Leo Creek area later
that morning, but that was the last time that she was seen and her fate after that is unknown.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police launched a search that lasted for four days along with
rescue teams and volunteers.
The Tachie River and old logging roads in a 20-mile radius were thoroughly searched,
but no trace of her or any of the items that she had with her that night have ever been
found.
Police consider it unlikely that she ran away, as she had a 5-year-old son and had a very
close relationship with her siblings and foul play has not been ruled out.
4.
Bethany Decker
A missing persons report was filed on the 19th of February, 2011 in connection with
the disappearance of Bethany Decker, a 21-year-old woman from Ashburn in Virginia.
She had just returned from a week-long vacation to Hawaii with her husband, Emile where they
tried to work on problems with their marriage.
Emile had been deployed in Afghanistan and returned home in January for a month’s leave.
On the 28TH of January, after returning from Hawaii, the couple had spent the night at
Emile’s parents’ house in Maryland and the following day, she returned to the apartment
that she shared with her boyfriend, Ronald Roldan.
Phone records show that she then phoned her employer at Carrabba’s Italian Grill in
Centreville at 2:08 pm and she asked if she could work the evening shift.
That would be her last phone call, as no other activity has been picked up from her phone
since.
She did not show up for work that night and she didn’t attend her classes at George
Mason University, however, her disappearance wasn’t noted until 3 weeks later since messages
were still being sent to her friends via Facebook.
But when her parents finally noticed her absence, they searched for her and found her car parked
near her apartment but with no trace of her.
They reported her as a missing person to the Loudoun County police and although extensive
searches were undertaken, she was nowhere to be found.
Roldan told police that Bethany left their apartment that afternoon while he was in the
kitchen and that he had no idea where she was headed.
He also claims that he never saw what she was wearing before she left.
After leaving the apartment to make a withdrawal from an ATM, Roldan returned as he was supposed
to babysit his children from a previous relationship that night.
He would tell his ex-girlfriend that he wasn’t sure whether Bethany would be coming back.
When she returned to pick up the children a few days later, he informed her that Bethany
hadn’t come back and she pointed out to him that Bethany’s car was still in the
complex’s parking lot, but he stated that he didn’t know why it was there.
Police then launched an investigation into Bethany’s Facebook activity and it would
come to light that both her and Roldan’s accounts were accessed from the same IP address
and they believe that Roldan was impersonating her to hide that fact that she was missing.
When a search warrant was executed at Roldan’s mother’s house, they found a key and a key
fob belonging to Bethany’s car.
He would be arrested in 2011 after an attack on his ex-girlfriend and before he could be
deported back to Bolivia, charges were filed against him for Bethany’s disappearance.
3.
Theo Hayez
Theo Hayez, an 18-year-old man from Belgium became a missing person on the 31st of May,
2019.
He arrived in Australia in late 2018 on a working holiday visa and his disappearance
came one week before he was supposed to return home.
When he hadn’t had contact with his family and hadn’t returned to his accommodation,
his family contacted New South Wales police on the 6th of June.
The Wake Up hostel where he was staying also phoned police on the same day after he had
failed to check out three days prior.
When his room was checked, it was found that all of his belongings, including his passport,
were still there.
Police started a search with the help of helicopters, drones, cadaver dogs, trackers, divers, and
rock climbers.
His family travelled from Belgium to Australia to aid in the search and his father made a
plea to the Australian public to help in the search for his son.
Attempts were made to track his phone and it was found that the last time that it was
used was near Cape Byron on the 1st of June.
In July, community search volunteers found a grey Puma hat similar to the one that Theo
was wearing when he disappeared in bushland at Tallow Beach, but as there were very few
leads to go on, the case started to grow cold.
Police stated that they believed he had fallen off the cliffs near tallow Beach lighthouse
and that he had lost his life due to misadventure.
Many theories were put forth to explain why he had been in that area after midnight.
Some people believe he was under the influence of alcohol, others think he may have been
misdirected there by Google Maps and that he had gotten lost or that he was taken there
by a local, as it wasn’t easy to traverse the bush after sunset.
Theo’s family requested that a crime correspondent from “The Australian”, a broadsheet newspaper,
join the search and he did so, documenting the case in a 6-part crime podcast called
The Lighthouse, but to this day, Theo has not been found and he remains a missing person.
2.
Tamera Russell Kingery
A missing persons report was opened on the 20th of September, 2014 when Tamera “Tammy”
Kingery mysteriously disappeared from her home in North Augusta, South Carolina.
Tamera, who was 37 at the time, worked as a nurse at a local branch of a NHC Healthcare
nursing home.
She was married to Park Kingery, a welder, but they had a strained marriage and her mother
would tell police that the couple had grown distant from each other since the birth of
their younger son and that they had spoken about getting a divorce.
Tammy had been struggling with depression for some time and was using medication to
control it.
This had caused further trouble in her marriage and it was known that she had been having
extramarital affairs.
On the morning of her disappearance, she started her shift at 7 am.
Her coworkers told police that she seemed agitated and had taken her own blood pressure
four times and found that it was high.
Shortly after, she phoned Park to ask him to fetch her as she was feeling unwell and
he picked her up, leaving her car at work.
Once home, she changed into her pajamas and lay down for a nap.
At around 10 am, Park left to do some errands with their two sons, dropping the older one
off at his mother’s house to mow their lawn.
When he returned to the house, he found their dog outside and the door locked.
Inside, he found a note from Tammy saying that she had gone a walk and that she would
be back soon.
He grew suspicious and drove the route back to her workplace, believing that she may have
walked there to fetch her car, but couldn’t find her.
Once back home, he searched the thick surrounding woods, but to no avail and they contacted
police.
Despite the fact that police believe that there was foul play involved and extensive
searches reaching as far as Atlanta, no further clues were ever found and Tammy’s disappearance
remains an unexplained mystery.
1.
Asha Kreimer
Asha Kreimer’s disappearance is one of the strangest cases in recent history.
By the 21st of September, the 26-year-old had been awake for 5 days straight as she
was suffering from a mental health issue.
At the time, she was living with her boyfriend in California and had never before experienced
mental health problems.
But on the 20th of September, she was shouting incoherently and was taken to Mendocino Coast
District Hospital in Fort Bragg and once there, she became so uncooperative that the police
had to be called for assistance.
She would eventually be released without being evaluated or treated and handed over to the
care of her boyfriend and a friend who was visiting from Australia.
They then drove towards Point Arena, stopping at the Rollerville Café along the way.
While inside the café, her friend got up to go to the bathroom and Asha decidsed to
do the same a few seconds later.
When the friend returned, her boyfriend told her that Asha had also gone, but she stated
that she hadn’t seen her there.
Neither her boyfriend, nor her friend ever saw her again.
Police believe that she never entered the bathroom and had wandered off, leaving her
money, credit cards and identification behind.
Her jacket would be found along a trail leading to the Point Arena Lighthouse some time later,
but she still remains a missing person.
A Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office spokesman later stated that Asha returned to her home
in Albion to fetch her German shepherd and a surfer at Gualala near the café where she
went missing told police that he saw her at around 3 pm on the day that she disappeared.
Her friends in Alice Springs, Australia where she originally hails from, continue to raise
funds to extend the search effort and her mother still regularly travels back to California
every few months to search for her.
Asha’s family would later tell police that it is possible that she is living under a
fake name, somehow connected to the mental break that she had suffered in the days leading
up to her disappearance.
In 2017, Asha’s mother, Jeannie was approached by Netflix and asked if they could produce
a story on Asha’s disappearance.
Her case was also covered on Episode 18 of the Thin Air Podcast which is dedicated to
covering missing persons cases.