- [Dispatcher] 911, do you have an emergency?
- [Caller] Hi, yes. (suspenseful music)
There's somebody stuck in a sewer over here on Atlantic.
- [Narrator] What is up, EWU Crew?
Today, we will be exploring three unbelievable cases
of missing people,
discovered in extremely bizarre circumstances
that will leave you wondering just
how these events could happen.
Let's get into it.
The first case we have for you today is one
that you may have stumbled across
in recent headlines.
Though you may not have realized
just how bizarre the story truly is.
Around 9:00 AM in Delray Beach, Florida
on Tuesday March 23rd, 2021,
a pedestrian passed over Atlantic Avenue.
They paused and their walk as something appeared to be off.
Though, they weren't quite sure
what it could be at first.
Then they heard it.
The muffled noise of what sounded like someone yelling.
Somehow, the voice seemed to be coming
from below the street.
The pedestrian realized in shock
that someone had to be trapped in the storm drain
below the busy Delray Beach thoroughfare.
Realizing that something was seriously wrong,
they began shouting for help.
Another passer-by saw the commotion
as she drove through the area.
And with her window of her car rolled down,
she heard the trapped person screaming.
This passer-by called 911 to report the bizarre situation.
When told that someone was trapped in the sewer,
the 911 operator can be heard incredulously asking,
what is going on?
In the background of the call,
the woman who is trapped in the storm drain
can be heard shouting up to those who found her.
She yells that she is not hurt.
- [Dispatcher] 911, do you have an emergency?
- [Caller] Hi. Yes.
There's somebody stuck in a sewer over here
on Atlantic and 11th Avenue. - I'm sorry, there's
somebody stuck in the sewer? - There's a lady stuck
in the sewer, yes ma'am.
She cannot get out.
She's screaming for help.
- [Dispatcher] How did she get in there?
- [Caller] I'm not sure.
I don't know.
She was just screaming for help
and the lady was walking
and like, I had my window down.
I was driving.
And she heard her screaming
we heard her screaming so-
- [Dispatcher] All right, we have help
that already on the way.
Can you see any visible injuries on her?
- [Caller] Are you hurt? Hey!
- No. - No, she ain't hurt.
She just don't got on no clothes.
- [Narrator] Police and the Delray Beach Fire Rescue
responded to the scene
where they began trying to move the grate
over top of the storm drain
in order to see what was going on below.
By this time, a small crowd had gathered at the scene.
What they found inside the drain
was a naked 43-year-old woman.
Using a ladder and harness,
the rescue team was able to get access
to the eight-foot-deep drain underneath the road
and carefully bring the woman up to safety.
When she was finally raised up to the ground level,
the gathered crowd cheered. (suspenseful music)
The woman appeared relatively unharmed, though dehydrated.
Dani Moschella from the Del Ray Beach Fire Rescue
said that the woman's struggled when
she attempted to stand up and ultimately
was unable to stand on her own.
Moschella described that, "She was very dirty.
"She had some superficial wounds.
"Her knees were all scraped up."
When taken to the hospital,
the woman explained to police how she ended
up trapped in the drain in the first place.
Police documents reveal
that she claimed to officers she had been swimming
in a canal that was located near the housing complex
where her boyfriend lived.
While swimming, she said that she noticed a doorway
in the shallows of the canal, which opened to a tunnel.
She then became curious to see where the tunnel led.
Following into the first tunnel,
the woman found another
and then another and soon she realized
that she had become lost
and couldn't find her way out again.
According to police documents,
the woman claimed that while in the tunnels,
she found an unopened can of ginger ale, which she drank.
But it is currently unknown
if she had anything to eat while she was trapped.
At first, it was believed that the woman had been trapped
in the drains for a few days, perhaps a little longer.
But what is most bizarre
about this case is that the woman claims
that she first went into the tunnels on March 3rd,
almost three weeks before she was found.
If she was correct,
that would mean she had been wandering around
in the tunnels for about 20 days.
This seems almost unbelievable.
What brings credence to her story, however,
is that some new sources say that she was reported
to be missing in a different county almost three weeks prior
to her discovery.
The woman finally found her way out
when she saw a glimpse of light,
which would turn out to be the grate
from which she was eventually pulled out.
Police say that she saw people walking by through the grate
and decided to sit down and call for help.
The spokesperson for the Delray Beach Police Department,
Officer Ted White, said that officers at the scene agreed
that this event was by far the most bizarre incident
they ever responded to.
The woman's situation could have easily become critical
if the area had received any significant rain
or if she had wandered into a smaller pipe,
which could have resulted in her drowning
or seriously injuring herself.
According to police documents,
the woman has since been released
from the hospital to recover at her home
in the care of her mother.
Her mother described her daughter is having a history
of doing odd things and making bad decisions.
While the police officers noted
that the woman appeared lucid after she was rescued,
they are still unsure of the accuracy of her statements
and exactly how long she really was
within the tunnels.
Police sources reveal that it is entirely possible
that the truth of how she ended up in the storm drain
or just how long she was trapped down there
may never be known.
Though her story leaves many questions unanswered,
one thing is for certain,
the woman is lucky to be alive under the circumstances.
The next case we have for you is one
that is likely every parent's worst nightmare.
In 2013, a two-year-old little girl mysteriously vanished.
On October 8th, around 2:00 PM,
Amber Smith was reported missing
after she was said to have wandered
out of her family's house in Newaygo County, Michigan.
Her family included several siblings and her parents,
Dale and Diane Smith.
At the time that she made it out of the house,
her mother had been at work,
while her father was in a different room.
When he returned, he found Amber missing.
Her panicked father set out in search of her.
He looked for half an hour
to no avail before contacting authorities
and reporting that she was missing.
What was most concerning was
that the Smith family home was near dense woods
and it appeared that Amber had wandered into the trees.
It wasn't entirely unusual
that Amber had made it out of the house.
As she was reportedly known to have done so
on previous occasions in the past.
Those times, however,
she hadn't become lost.
At first, suspicion turned to the father,
but the possibility of him being involved
in the little girl's disappearance was quickly ruled out.
Police were clear that they were unaware
of any previous incidents
when they had been called to the Smith home
or have any past trouble regarding the parents
or any children.
As news spread about the missing two year old,
volunteers crowded onto a bus
at Hawkins Township Hall to aid
in the search for the little girl.
Just under 300 people in total showed up
to help in the efforts.
Police employed the use of a helicopter,
off-roading vehicles, and a tracking dog in the search,
hoping that it would be able to backtrack her scent
and determine the path
that she would have taken from her home.
The woods that Amber wandered into
are described as being pitch-black at night and 42 degrees.
And so the search
and rescue efforts were intent on finding her before dark.
Despite a coordinated and intensive search effort,
there was no sign of Amber anywhere in the woods.
In fact, it appeared as if she had vanished into thin air.
But 24 hours later, miraculously Amber was found by police
and Department of Natural Resources conservation officers
the next afternoon, near 12 Mile Road and Cedar Avenue.
This area is within the boundaries
of the Manistee National Forest
When they discovered her, it was reported
that the little girl was simply standing alone
in the middle of the woods next to a fallen tree.
Reportedly, Amber was crying when she was first found,
but calmed down as soon as she was approached
by a conservation officer and realized she was safe.
Amber was reportedly dressed in only a tank top,
without shoes or pants.
It was reported by news outlets
that her father had been the one
to find her pants outside of their house
on the day that she went to missing.
The police have stated publicly
that they believe she took them off herself.
Amber's mother spoke
to a news outlet and said that the discovery of Amber alive
and safe was the best day of the family's life.
And that her mind had been racing over
whether or not she's going to be alive or dead.
The Newaygo County undersheriff,
Brian Boyd, described the discovery
as a welcomed surprise.
While at the hospital for evaluation,
Amber appeared to be surprisingly calm
and simply asked for some hot chocolate.
When Amber was examined, scratches were found on her body
which the Undersheriff Boyd described
as being consistent with her walking a long distance
through the woods.
Though the conclusion to the case was a happy one,
it was unexpected and uncommon.
Speaking to this, Undersheriff Boyd said,
"It's hard to imagine how a two and a half year old
"can survive that distance through the woods
"with that kind of temperature."
To make from her house to where Amber was found,
she would have had
to walk about one and three quarter miles
and crossed at least one road.
However, what was most troubling
for those who found Amber was trying
to figure out not only how the young girl had managed
to survive the night alone
in the woods, relatively unharmed,
but also how had those looking for her not found her
when they went over the area earlier?
If Amber had been there, it was assumed
that they would have found some clue indicating it.
Undersheriff Boyd described the circumstances
as very suspicious.
When he interviewed Amber,
he hoped to see if she could explain
how she had managed to get to the place
where she was located on Wednesday.
However, he said, "I don't think she's old enough
"to really comprehend things.
"I don't think she can formulate reason."
Amber's parents have a theory of their own,
one that they believe could explain how Amber
had survived 24 hours alone in the cold and dark woods.
- What I get from talking to some of the officers,
they said that does happen a lot.
Well, in certain circumstances
that if someone takes the child or abducts them,
they get scared later,
seeing how much law enforcement was after
them and everything.
They might get scared and drop them off.
- [Announcer] They wonder how Amber
could have just a few scratches
after spending the night in the woods.
An abduction, they say, makes more sense.
- I think so. - You think so?
- Because it don't make no sense.
- Yeah. - Especially her being two
and walking that distance. - Mummy, it's hot out here.
- Yeah. - Don't seem possible.
- [Narrator] Amber's father Dale went on
to share that the police had told him
that they discovered evidence
of tire tracks near where Amber was found.
However, that lead hasn't resulted in anything conclusive.
For now, many questions remain about what happened to Amber
over those 24 hours when she was gone.
Where she had been,
and most importantly, had someone taken her?
Currently, there are no definite answers.
The final case we have for you today is one
that may be the most bizarre of all.
23-year-old Steven Kubacki
was a student attending Hope College in 1978.
As an avid outdoorsman,
the student often liked to spend days
at a time out in the wilderness.
In February of 1978,
Steven decided to go solo cross-country skiing
near Saugatuck, Michigan for a few days.
When he didn't return at the time
that he told his parents he would,
they became concerned and alerted authorities
to the fact that they believed their son could be missing.
An investigation uncovered something very odd.
The investigators found 200 yards of footprints,
but no sign of Steven.
His parents told authorities where Steven
had claimed he would be exploring.
And footprints were discovered exactly
where Steven had said he would be.
But, concerningly, the footprints led all the way
to the edge of the frozen lake where they stopped.
There was no sign that Steven had walked away.
Rather, it looked like he had paused
at the edge of the water and then simply vanished.
There was also no evidence that the ice had been broken.
So where had Steven gone? (eerie music)
Despite the evidence, the main conclusion had been
that Steven had simply lost his balance
and fallen into the lake where he became trapped
under the sheet of ice and drowned.
On February 21st,
his abandoned skis and backpack were found.
The case was never closed.
And though he wasn't stated to be officially dead,
he was presumed to have died in that icy lake.
Then, one year and three months later, Steven returned.
On May 5th, 1979,
Steven reportedly claimed that he had woken up
and realized that he was laying
in the middle of a field in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
He was 700 miles from the location where he was
believed to have vanished.
Later, when speaking to reporters,
Steven told them that when he woke up,
he found that he was wearing strange clothes
that were not his own. (eerie music)
And that he had a backpack
with him that was filled with maps,
which he reportedly interpreted
to mean that there had been extensive hiking
or traveling done since he had disappeared.
As well, it was reported that he found he had a t-shirt
from a marathon in Wisconsin
that he had no recollection of ever run.
Apparently after he woke up,
Steven had no idea how much time had gone by
since he vanished until he walked to find a newspaper.
According to various news outlets,
Steven claimed to have absolutely no memory of what happened
to him over those 15 months,
nor any idea where he had been.
The last thing that he claims to remember
was his footprints in the snow.
The ones that investigators discovered.
At the time, Steven's story made headlines
and fascinated the public.
Steven only added fuel to the speculative fire
when he frequently declined to talk publicly
about what had happened to him
and often outright refused to give any interviews.
One main theory was that Steven
had simply chosen to run away
and later changed his mind and returned.
But rather than admit it,
he had come up with an elaborate hoax.
On the odd occasion when Steven spoke to reporters,
he insisted that he had no reason
to choose to disappear.
Steven said that before he had gone
on his doomed cross-country skiing trip,
everything in his life was going well.
He said, "My father was going to sign
"over the house to me.
"I had three courses at school and no trouble.
"I left a romance in Germany.
"There was no trouble with girls.
"I had a job lined up with the Holland Sentinel newspaper."
He also reiterated that he has no memory whatsoever
about those 15 months.
There has been much speculation
about what happened to Steven.
Some of the theories, more outlandish than others.
The possibilities of UFOs
and alien abduction have been tossed around.
As well as the chance that Steven hit his head
and suffered brain damage
or that he blacked out for over a year
and wandered around the wilderness as another person.
Divine intervention has been posited
as a possible explanation.
Other theories focus on the area where Steven went missing
and assumed that he was a victim
of a geographical phenomenon known
as the Lake Michigan Triangle.
This area has become infamous for disappearances
similar to those of the Bermuda Triangle.
What is apparent is that any
of the numerous theories could be true,
as there is so little evidence to prove
or disprove any of them.
And Steven doesn't appear to have any answers himself.
Steven even eventually went back to Saugatuck
in an attempt to bring back any memories
about what happened to him.
But he said that while there,
nothing came back to him.
Steven eventually earned his PhD.
Today, he reportedly works as a professor of psychology
and runs a clinical practice.
It appears that soon after he returned,
he stopped speaking publicly about what happened to him.
Is this because he simply cannot remember
and wants to move on with his life?
Or is there a chance that Steven has slowly pieced together
what happened over those 15 months
and the events are too troubling for him
to acknowledge publicly?
We may never know.
To this day, Steven Kubacki's bizarre disappearance
has never been solved. (eerie music)