7 Unsolved Disappearances
#7 Flight MH370
Four days after the flight disappeared, Malaysian officials revealed evidence that the plane
had turned toward the Malacca Strait, which put it on the opposite side of the Malay Peninsula,
away from its scheduled route.
Combined with the knowledge that that the 777 changed altitude – first reaching 45,000
feet and then dropping to about 23,000 feet – and may have flown for as many as six
hours after the last official message was received, investigators believe that catastrophic
failure is a highly unlikely scenario and the change in direction was, in fact, intentional.
Since then, several countries have joined in the quest to find MH370.
Initially spanning many oceans and continents, the search has been narrowed down to the Indian
Ocean seafloor.
Almost two years after the flight disappeared, there is still no trace of the aircraft or
any concrete explanation as to the cause of its disappearance.
#6 Louis Le Prince
Known as the “Father of Cinematography,” French inventor Louis Le Prince filmed the
first moving picture sequences using his single-lens camera and paper film several years before
the work of competing inventors the Lumière Brothers and Thomas Edison.
Before he was able to perform a planned public demonstration, he and his luggage — with
his original films and patent plans inside— mysteriously vanished from a train on September
16, 1890, and were never seen again.
Conspiracy theories abound, one of which focuses on Edison, who filed his patent for a working
movie camera and viewer just a year after Le Prince disappeared.
The death of Le Prince’s son, Adolphe, only adds more mystery to the story.
In 1898, he was called to be a witness for the American Mutoscope Company in a lawsuit
against Edison, regarding his claim to have invented the moving-picture camera.
Two years later, he was found dead from a gunshot wound on Fire Island, NY while duck
hunting.
A piece of the puzzle may have been discovered in 2003 when a photo of a previously unidentified
drowning victim from 1890 that looked a lot like Le Prince was found in the Paris police
department archives.
#5 Frederick Valentich
In 1978, light aircraft pilot Frederick Valentich reported seeing a UFO while on his way to
King Island, Australia in a Cessna 182L.
He radioed Melbourne air traffic control, telling them he was being accompanied by an
aircraft 1,000 feet above him.
When asked to identify exactly what he saw, he said the object had a shiny metal surface
and a green light on it and corrected himself by saying, “It isn't an aircraft.”
His transmission was then interrupted by "metallic, scraping sounds" before all contact was lost.
According to a Royal Australian Air Force spokesman, almost a dozen reports of UFO sightings
were documented during the same weekend and in the same area of the disappearance.
While skeptics believe he either staged his own disappearance or became disoriented and
crashed into the water, a rational explanation as to what happened to Frederick Valentich
on that fateful flight has never been found.
#4 MV Joyita
Just like the Titanic, the MV Joyita was considered unsinkable, but when the ship was discovered
leaning on its side without a crew or passengers on November 10, 1955, it was in very poor
condition, with rusted pipes and a radio which, while functional, only had a range of about
two miles.
The ship's logbook, sextant, mechanical chronometer, and Captain Dusty Miller's firearms were missing.
A doctor's bag was said to have been found on deck containing a stethoscope, a scalpel
and four lengths of a blood-stained bandage.
So, what happened to the 25 passengers and crew who had embarked on a 300 nautical mile
voyage from Apia in Samoa to the Tokelau Islands?
Auckland academic David Wright says there is evidence that the boat was taking on water
that was leaking from a corroded pipe in the engine cooling system for a long time before
anyone noticed.
Nevertheless, the extreme buoyancy of the vessel made sinking nearly impossible, leaving
investigators puzzled as to why the crew did not remain on board and wait for help.
Once the problem was discovered, its believed its occupants abandoned ship in life rafts,
but what happened to them remains a maritime mystery to this day.
#3 Solomon Northup
Former slave and author of Twelve Years a Slave, the autobiographical novel that became
an Oscar-winning film, Solomon Northup was born a free man in New York in 1808.
33 years later, he was drugged and kidnapped by slave traders in Washington, DC.
He then found himself in Louisiana, where he was severely abused and sent from plantation
to plantation.
After finding freedom, he wrote his memoir and embarked upon a book tour in 1857, at
which point he abruptly disappeared.
Some believe he was murdered or captured and sold into slavery again while others think
he died of natural causes — kidnapping for slavery in the late 1850s was unlikely because
he was too old to be of interest to slave catchers.
However, it’s all pure speculation — his final days are still a mystery.
#2 Martha Wright
Imagine driving into New York City’s Lincoln Tunnel — and never coming out.
That’s what allegedly happened to a woman named Martha Wright back in 1975.
Her husband, Jackson Wright, was said to be traveling with Martha from New Jersey to New
York via the tunnel.
According to Wright, he pulled the car over to wipe the windshield of condensation and
Martha volunteered to clean off the back window so they could more readily resume their trip.
However, when Wright turned around, Martha was just gone.
He neither saw nor heard anything unusual take place and a subsequent investigation
found no evidence of foul play.
Martha Wright had simply just disappeared.
#1 The Lost Colony of Roanoke
In 1587, Englishman John White established a permanent English colony in what is now
North Carolina with more than 100 men, women, and children.
Later that year, he went back to England for more supplies, but a naval war with Spain
delayed his return for nearly three years.
When he finally returned, on August 18, 1590, he found the colony abandoned and looted,
with no trace of the settlers.
Only two clues remained — the word "Croatoan" was carved into a fence post, and the letters
"CRO" on a tree.
Some have speculated that Native Americans attacked and killed the English colonists,
or they tried to sail back to England on their own and got lost at sea.
Another theory is, the colonists abandoned their settlement, were absorbed into friendly
Native American tribes and gradually assimilated.
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