Missing person cases are filled with twists and turns and investigators go to great lengths
to solve these cases and help provide the family with answers.
But sometimes, it appears as if some people mysteriously vanish into thin air, leaving
behind no clues or evidence as to what could have happened to them.
5 - Owen Parfitt The case of Owen Parfitt is truly one of the
strangest missing person mysteries in history and his case takes us back to the 1760s.
A time when forensic investigation techniques were a far cry from what it is today and record-keeping
was merely an afterthought.
Sources are unable to agree on whether Owen’s mysterious disappearance took place in 1763
or 1768 and due to a lack of proper historical records, it’s unlikely that we will ever
know the truth.
By the 1760s Parfitt was in his 60s and his years of being a rambunctious youngster had
finally caught up with him, added with the fact that he had spent the last few decades
doing back-breaking work.
As a result of his wild lifestyle, Parfitt was severely disabled and some sources even
describe him as being “virtually a cripple.”
As a result, Parfitt had to surrender his independence and was forced to move in with
his sister who lived in Shepton Mallet (ma luht), England.
Once a fun-loving spirit, Parfitt found the adjustment hard, however took it in his stride
and made the best of a bad situation.
On the evening in question, whether that was in June 1763 or 1768 we don’t know, Parfitt
was sitting on a chair on the front porch of the house.
As Parfitt was disabled and unable to move, he required the assistance of both his sister
and a neighbour to be carried outside onto the chair.
This is a detail that becomes important later on and makes his disappearance all the more
bizarre.
According to his sister, one moment he was sitting on the chair on the front porch taking
in the warm evening air.
Not wanting to disturb him, she went into the house and finished up the housework however
she noticed that a storm was rolling in and went outside to bring him inside.
However when she reached the front porch there was no sign of Owen, he had simply vanished
into thin air within a matter of minutes.
There were other people in the area at the time and they didn’t report seeing or hearing
anything out of the ordinary.
The local community rallied behind Owen’s sister and went to great lengths to try and
find him, after all, how far could he have gotten if he was unable to walk.
The case takes a bizarre twist when after hours and even days of searching, no sign
of Owen Parfitt was found.
Everyone was baffled as to how he could have gotten up and vanished.
This gave way to strange theories such as pirates had taken him or that the Devil himself
had come up from the fiery pits of hell to take him away.
Despite numerous searches, no sign of Owen Parfitt has ever been found.
There was a glimmer of hope in 1813 when skeleton remains were recovered in Shepton Mallet,
however, it was later determined that the remains belonged to a young woman.
For centuries, people in Shepton Mallet and across Southwest England have continued the
search for Owen but no new evidence has ever been recovered.
4 - Diderici The mysterious case of the prisoner known
as Diderici is one of the most bizarre and baffling missing person cases to ever occur
in human history.
There are very few details known about Diderici but the details of his disappearance are chilling
and have left many investigators baffled for centuries.
According to historical sources, Diderici was the personal aide to Captain Fritz Alswanger,
a respected knight in the Prussian Army in the late 1700s.
The Captain was a man of great wealth and great social standing and after he passed
away, Diderici assumed his identity and began living a life he had always dreamed of.
He was able to keep up the charade for a while, however, others slowly began to notice that
something wasn’t quite right.
Diderici was caught red-handed after he had withdrawn money from the Captain’s bank
account whilst wearing a wig.
For his crimes, he was sentenced to prison and ordered to serve at least 10 years.
The offence of impersonating an army Captain was quite the scandal and outraged the public.
Other details about Diderici are sparse, that is until his mysterious disappearance in 1815
from Prison.
One day whilst out in the prison yard for his daily exercise, Diderici began to slowly
fade away in a mysterious fog.
Prisoners and guards alike scrambled, trying to make sense of what was unfolding before
their eyes but by the time they could react, Diderici had literally disappeared into thin
air.
Prisoners recalled that his shackles mysteriously fell to the ground and became devoid of the
human figure that once held them around their wrists and ankles.
There have been many theories over the years and many historians have tried to piece together
what really happened to Diderici.
One historian was able to find that a man by the name of Diderici was reported missing
from this prison in 1812/13 and that staff had just assumed that he had escaped.
The exact details of his disappearance still remain shrouded in mystery and many have speculated
that the paranormal stories were added to embellish the story and make it more exciting.
One thing is for certain however, there was a prisoner named Diderici at this prison who
disappeared into thin air, never to be seen again.
3 - Shannon Michelle Hokanson The details in Shannon Michelle Hokanson’s
disappearance are few and far between and her case has not received the wide scale media
attention that some missing person cases garner.
However, it is important to highlight these cases and use our platform to help reunite
these people with their families.
Shannon Michelle Hokanson, also sometimes listed as Shannon Baldwin-Hokanson was last
heard from on May 27th 2012 when she made contact with her family via phone.
Despite not being able to contact their loved one for months, her family did not officially
report her missing until August 7th 2012 and an investigation was quickly launched.
Investigators learnt that Shannon was last seen with Mark McVickers and Eric Herrera
and that McVickers had been in possession of Shannon’s car at the time of her disappearance.
Shannon had a history of drug use, however, had recently made attempts to get herself
clean and begin working on rebuilding a relationship with her 3 children who lived with other family
members.
Shannon is just one of the hundreds of people who have gone missing from Oklahoma in the
last few years but detectives say that her case haunts them the most.
Detective Ramsey of the Enid Police Department said “It’s something I think about everyday
and every day when I’m at work, I work on it.
I’m very hopeful that someone will call me one day or come to the station and say
that they know where she is.”
After posting missing person posters one potential witness came forward claiming that McVickers,
the man who Shannon had been with at the time of her disappearance claimed to have been
responsible telling her that “They had dumped her body on the other side of the Texas border
in a body of water.”
Despite extensive searches and numerous interviews, nothing has ever come of this lead and investigators
are desperate to give Shannon’s family answers.
Shannon may use the names of Shannon Robinson, Shannon Baldwin or Shannon Baldwin-Hokanson
and is described as a white female 5’0 - 5’3 with brown hair and brown eyes.
She was last heard from on May 27th 2012 and is a resident of Enid, Oklahoma.
She has numerous tattoos including; a frog with a mushroom on the outside of her ankle,
blue roses on her lower back, an orange flower on the top of her left foot, a butterfly on
her right shoulder, a heart that sits between her thumb and index finger and flames running
down her back that remain unfinished.
According to Shannon’s Doe Network profile, she also has breast implants and a cesarean
section scar on her abdomen, dentals and fingerprints are available for comparison and DNA is underway.
If you have any information about the disappearance of 29-year-old Shannon Michelle Hokanson you
are asked to contact the Enid Police Department on 580-616-7119 quoting case number 2012-10118.
2 - Barbara Bolick The case of Barbara Bolick is just one of
the thousands of cases of people who go missing in the woods and national forests of the USA
and author David Paulides (pull eye diss) has even coined a name for this bizarre phenomenon,
missing 411.
Paulides believes that there is something otherworldly or supernatural at play in America’s
National Park’s and his books cover cases such as Barbara’s in detail to help highlight
the epidemic of people who mysteriously vanish from national parks and forests.
55-year-old Barbara Bolick was last seen on July 18th 2007 near the Bear Creek Overlook
in the Bitterroot Mountains in Montana.
On the day that she went missing, Barbara was hiking with a friend and the two were
headed towards the Bear Creek Overlook as previously mentioned.
According to this friend, who has not been publicly named, the pair stopped to take a
look at the spectacular view in front of them and the friend placed the time anywhere between
11:30 am and 1 pm.
This friend told investigators that Barbara was just feet in front of them whilst they
stopped to take in the view.
When the friend turned back around, Barbara had mysteriously vanished without so much
as making a sound or leaving a trace.
At first, the friend believed that Barbara had set off further down the trail without
them, however, after searching for her, they knew that something was very wrong.
Investigators were called to the scene and the friend told them that Barbara had been
carrying a .357 Magnum pistol with her at the time and that she was very familiar with
the Bear Creek Overlook and Bitterroot Mountains area.
When Barbara’s husband was informed that she had disappeared, he reiterated that she
was a keen hiker and was unlikely to have wandered too close to the edge of the overlook
as she was terrified of heights.
He also confirmed that he believed she had no reason to voluntarily disappear as she
had left behind her pets and also all of her ID documents, something that she would have
needed had she wanted to start a new life somewhere else.
The Ravalli Sheriff’s Office has confirmed that the friend who was with Barbara on July
18th 2007 is not considered a suspect or a person of interest, however, they do have
two hikers that they would like to speak to in regards to Barbara’s bizarre disappearance.
The two hikers were seen in the area walking their dogs during the time that Barbara went
missing; police have not revealed why they wish to speak to these two individuals pertaining
to Barbara’s case.
Both men were in their early 20s in 2007 with the first man being described as dark-skinned
with black hair and the second man being described as medium-skinned with red hair.
Ravalli County Sheriff’s Officers have also revealed that they believe the two men may
have been travelling in a light coloured Chevrolet S-10 SUV with Montana license plates.
Barbara Bolick is described as a white female with red hair and brown eyes, she is 5’0”
and 115 lbs and is known to wear glasses and has both of her ears pierced.
She was last seen wearing a pastel coloured t-shirt and tan shorts and anyone with information
is asked to contact the Ravalli County Sheriff’s Office on 406-375-4005.
1 - James Tetford James Tetford was a war hero and celebrated
veteran in his local community of Bennington, Vermont.
However, Tetford’s name made international news for very different reasons in 1949 when
he mysteriously vanished and became part of a phenomenon known as “The Bennington Triangle.”
Tetford certainly wouldn’t be the first or the last person to disappear under mysterious
circumstances from Bennington, Vermont but the details of his case will leave you baffled.
On December 1st 1949 James Tetford boarded a bus from St. Albans Vermont to Bennington
Vermont after visiting his family.
At the time, Tetford was living in a veterans retirement home in Bennington, Vermont after
he had returned from the war.
Tetford was married, however in the years before his move to the retirement home his
wife, Pearl disappeared under mysterious circumstances.
Historical sources tell us that Tetford returned home one day to find that Pearl had gone,
there was no note waiting for him on the table and he simply never heard from her again.
Tetford was crushed by his wife’s sudden disappearance and unable to cope with running
the home by himself, along with his loss, he moved into a veterans retirement home where
he could receive the care and support he needed.
On December 1st 1949, Tetford boarded the bus that took him along Route 7 and home to
Bennington.
The journey would take around 8 hours as they passed through the Green Mountain area and
gave Tetford time to think and relax.
On the day of his journey, there was heavy snowfall resulting in a much slower journey,
much to the other 14 passengers' dismay.
Despite the setback, everyone stayed in their seats and tried to entertain themselves the
best they could and hoped that the time would pass quickly.
All of the passengers on board and the driver testified that they saw James Tetford asleep
in his seat for the entire journey including at the stop before Bennington where the service
terminated.
As the bus pulled into its final destination the passengers made their way off the bus
one by one, however, it was quickly noted that the elderly man who had been asleep was
now nowhere to be seen.
No one on the bus had seen Tetford leave and even more bizarrely was the fact that all
of his luggage was still neatly placed into the luggage racks.
An open bus timetable was found on his seat but there was no sign of Tetford.
How had he seemingly vanished into thin air without any of the other passengers noticing
and why had he left behind all of his luggage?
To this day, these questions remain unanswered and the case of James Tetford and the Bennington
Triangle may never be resolved.