CCTV video can be crucial to solving mysterious disappearances, and police will often share
either snippets or several minutes worth of footage of the person shortly before the vanished
into thin air.
But sometimes no amount of footage will explain what happened after they left the camera view.
Number 5
Something had changed in Marilyn Bergeon’s life a few months before she disappeared in
February 2008.
She had become withdrawn, anxiety and memories of something truly terrible plaguing her.
What exactly had happened to Marilyn in the fall of 2007 remains a mystery, but is likely
key to explaining what happened after she left for a walk on February 10th and where
she is now.
Marilyn was a well educated young woman.
She spoke three different languages and had a degree in media arts and technology.
After graduating from university she moved to Montreal, where she worked at as music
store and as a freelance sound editor.
The area of the city she lived in was known for criminal activities, including sex work
and the trafficking of illegal substances.
But Marilyn lived there for about two years without any issues.
She later told her mother she hadn’t formed healthy relationships, and some sources said
she had a controlling ex-boyfriend, but it’s not clear if the neighbourhood she found herself
in had anything to do with her disappearance.
By 2007, Marilyn was looking for a change.
She was taking a finances course and was working towards becoming a flight attendant.
She had also talked about moving west.
It was around October time that her friends started to notice something had changed in
Marilyn.
One friend from university came to visit her just before Christmas, and noticed she looked
extremely sad.
After they ran into another friend at a party, the conversation turned to old memories, and
Marilyn appeared to have a breakdown.
She told her friend something horrible had happened to her four weeks earlier, but wouldn’t
tell him what it was.
On February 10th, she called her mother to say she could no longer stay in Montreal.
She again wouldn’t say what was wrong but was soon on a bus headed to Quebec City where
her parents lived.
Her parents tried to get her the mental health help she needed.
She started to visit a therapist, who thought hospitalisation would be necessary to help
her.
But before that could be arranged Marilyn walked out of their lives.
It was only her and her mother at home on February 17th.
She told her mother she was going for a walk and refused when her mother asked if she could
go with her.
She said she would be back that afternoon.
CCTV captured footage of Marilyn at an ATM a few minutes later, trying to withdraw money,
though the transaction didn’t go through.
She was wearing a backpack that her mother didn’t recognise.
About five hours later, a barrister served Marilyn at a coffee shop some 20km away.
She was alone and, according to the barrister, looked depressed, but left no clue as to where
she was going when she left.
It was initially thought she may have taken her own life, and Marilyn’s family thought
police worked under this assumption for too long.
Two years later, there was over two dozen sightings of a woman matching Marilyn’s
description in the town of Hawkesbury.
She was always accompanied by a young man and looked under duress.
Police investigated the claims, but the leads would go nowhere.
Marilyn’s parents and family continue to search for her, believing she is still alive.
Number 4
William Ritchie could often be seen out and about around Fraserburgh in Scotland.
Despite being 90-years-old he was still active and liked to go on walks around the town centre
or along the coastal roads.
But in January 2018, his neighbours noticed they hadn’t seen him out for about a week.
They decided to check on him and found nobody home.
It was only then that he was reported missing.
William, who also went by the name Bill, was last seen leaving his house at around noon
a week before he was reported missing.
How long it had been since he had actually been home is uncertain.
William lived alone, and it’s possible his neighbours simply missed him coming home and
heading back out, so he hadn’t been missing for as long.
But as the days and weeks wore on, it was clear something was very long.
Extensive search efforts took place along the routes William used to walk.
Dog units and dive teams were called in.
Given they were so close to the coast, there was a fear William might have gotten into
an accident there.
However, they found no sign of him.
Temperatures were below freezing for several days, and it was unlikely anybody would have
been able to survive for very long in those conditions, let alone someone of William’s
age.
Some sources also claim he looked more feeble in the weeks leading up to his disappearance
and he may have had health problems.
Police trawled through CCTV from the sites where William was known to walk.
It’s not clear if anything was found, though.
The only CCTV released by police was from the December before he went missing.
The footage was released to show what he may have been wearing when he vanished, but police
had also said he may have been wearing a different style of coat, suggesting they were unable
to find enough CCTV to even determine when he went missing.
After searches of the locations William was known to frequent, the case went cold.
It’s possible William ended up in a health or care facility and nobody realised he was
considered missing, but many fear something darker may have happened on his last walk
around Fraserburgh.
Number 3
Jake Cefolia has been described as the man who’s been everywhere, but the one thing
people are asking is where he is now.
For years, Jake had been living the high life.
He was a United Airlines executive who had travelled everywhere from Hong Kong to Tel
Aviv.
Recently divorced, he was known to have a number of girlfriends and romantic interests
across America, and flying from Hawaii to San Francisco to see them wasn’t a problem
for him.
But 2020 was naturally a bad year for him.
He was responsible for a number of lay offslayoffs at United Airlines after the global pandemic
brought air travel to a stop.
He had also taken a significant pay cut, but was still paying the same amount to the mother
of his children as laid out in the divorce settlement.
Then, in August, police arrived at his house with a search warrant.
What Jake was being investigated for has never been disclosed and he was never charged with
a crime.
But it was only days after the police arrived that Jake vanished into thin air.
Even before the visit from policefrom the police, it seems he had been acting strangely.
Two days earlier, he had been in San Francisco with a girlfriend where he was drinking more
than usual.
At the time, she didn’t think anything of it.
He returned back to Illinois on August 6th, communicating with another girlfriend.
He also didn’t seem worried then, and she had no reason to believe he wouldn’t show
up for a dinner they had planned in a few days time.
Later that evening, after a visit from police, his teenage son came round for dinner.
He also later reported his father was heavily intoxicated.
The last confirmed sighting of Jake was on the morning of August 7th.
CCTV at a gas station showed him filling up his Land Rover.
He paid by credit card, spending about $60.
The car would later be spotted at Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve, a site where Jake had
been hiking a number of times in the past.
As Jake hadn’t been reported missing at this point, nothing was done.
It wasn’t until later that day that his ex-wife reported him missing.
She hadn’t heard from him since the 6th, and his other contacts had also been unable
to get hold of him since then.
The car was quickly located in the same parking spot it had been seen earlier that morning.
Inside they found a pullover, face mask, golf bag with clubs and $120 in cash.
They also found herbal medication which is believed could have been used to treat anxiety.
A search of the forest turned up nothing.
There were a few items of clothing found, but police couldn’t link them to the missing
person case.
A few weeks later, someone in Idaho reported someone matching Jake’s description at a
golf resort.
In CCTV from the resort, the man in question is wearing a facemask, and Jake’s family
isn’t certain this is their loved one.
A year on, there has been little progress in the case and what happened to this airline
executive remains an unsolved mystery.
Number 2
The last time anybody saw Brandi Wells, she was leaving a club in Longview, Texas, alone.
It was an area she didn’t know well, and she was worried about running out of gas.
15 years later, police are still no closer to finding out what happened to her.
Brandi had never been to the Graham Central Station club before, but she thought it sounded
like fun.
She was going back to university in the fall and wanted to check out the club before she
started studying again.
She asked her sister and god mother if they wanted to go with her, but both declined.
Instead, she went by herself, driving the 45 minutes from her mother’s house, though
at one point she did make a wrong turn and got lost.
CCTV footage showed Brandi arriving alone.
She spoke with a number of people at the club, all of whom said she appeared to be sober.
She told many of them she was worried about running out of gas on the way home and, while
she didn’t ask for gas money, some people got the impression she was hoping someone
would give her some.
She didn’t meet anyone she knew, though and, although she got a man’s cell phone
number, she left alone.
Following close behind her as she left the club was a man in a white cowboy hat.
The two seem to be leaving separately and head off in different directions, but the
shadows in the grainy footage seem to indicate Brandi may have headed in his direction after
leaving the view of the camera.
A number of other people were leaving at the same time, but it’s unknown if any of them
have come forward to say what they saw that night.
When Brandi’s mother woke to find her daughter hadn’t returned, she assumed Brandi was
at a friend’s house and would likely go to the apartment she shared in a nearby city
instead.
But when Brandi’s flatmate called her mother asking if Brandi was with her they knew something
was wrong.
At first, police thought Brandi had left voluntarily, but when it emerged her car had been found
abandoned on the side of the road they started to take the case more seriously.
There was no sign of a struggle having taken place, but the driver’s seat had been pushed
back, as if to let someone much taller than Brandi drive.
Her purse and wallet were both found in the car, along with a cell phone.
However, it would later emerge thisemerge that this phone belonged to Brandi’s ex-boyfriend
who was in the military, and offered no clues.
They also found a gas canister that her mother said did not belong to Brandi.
Working under the assumption of foul play, police searched the local area and shared
CCTV images with the media in the hopes someone with information might come forward.
They managed to obtain her phone records, which indicated Brandi’s phone had not been
used for more than a week after her disappearance before it was suddenly used to place hundreds
of short calls one after the other.
Police believed it was being used to sell illegal substances and managed to track down
the new owner.
He claimed another man had given it to him.
This second man said he found the phone on the floor in a dodgy part of town, nine days
after Brandi went missing.
This man was already known to police for his involvement in other crimes but, while he
remained a person of interest, they couldn’t find any evidence to link him to Brandi’s
disappearance.
Number 1
It was just after 10pm on June 1st, 1990, when Connie Royce walked into the Hayloft
bar in Mount Clemens, Michigan.
She was on a date with a man named Greg who she had met the previous week.
Earlier that evening she’d gone to his place for some drinks before they had gone with
Greg’s friend Brad to the bar.
They were all seen on CCTV entering the bar and paying the cover.
As they waited, Greg and Connie chatted.
She seemed happy and wasn’t particularly drunk.
Bar staff and servers noticed all three were in good spirits that night, and they didn’t
notice anything wrong.
But after about 50 minutes something changed for Connie and she needed to get out.
Greg had gone to the bathroom, leaving his date with Brad.
Brad heard Connie say she couldn’t do this but before he could ask her what was wrong
she picked up the shoes she had taken off and left the bar.
The same CCTV camera that showed them entering the venue also captured Connie leaving.
It looks a little quieter, as the bouncer doesn’t look like he’s expecting to have
to greet anyone.
Instead he just looks ahead as Connie stumbles past.
She looks significantly more inebriated than she had been when she entered the club, isn’t
wearing shoes, and walks into the wall as she leftleaves.
Brad waited for his friend to get back from the bathroom and told him what had happened.
They realised Connie had left her purse at the table and went out to see if they could
spot her, but she had already left.
Nobody had seen which way she had gone.
The two men waited at the bar until closing, expecting Connie to come back for her belongings,
but she wouldn’t return.
Greg would later find the car Connie had driven to his house in stillhouse still parked where
she had left it.
Connie also didn’t return to the home where she lived with her parents and was later reported
missing.
As CCTV wasn’t as common at the time, there was no footage of where she went after leaving
the bar.
Some sightings say she had gone to a phone box a block away and was seen making a call
at 11:15pm.
Police tried to get the call logs from the box but had no luck.
It’s possible she tried to walk home and fell into the Clinton River.
The river and nearby lake were checked by divers, again with no results.
Many believe she met foul play, given how quickly she seemed to get drunk.
She was 24-years-old and the third of four children.
Her maiden name was Bostic and she was divorced.
She had been in a serious relationship with a man after the divorce but that had recently
ended too.
Both men she was with before she disappeared were cleared by police, as was her ex-husband
and ex-boyfriend.