Unsolved Disappearances That Haunted Us In 2022

Her car was found. She vanished near St. Louis, MO, 25 minutes from her family's home. On December 18, 2011, Phoenix Coldon's parents watched their 23-year-old daughter leave and never saw her again. This started a nightmare for the Coldon family.The car was found.The car was found in the middle of the street, 25 minutes from her family's St. Louis, MO, home. Phoenix Coldon was nowhere to be seen. On December 18, 2011, Phoenix Coldon's parents watched their 23-year-old daughter leave and never saw her again. This began a nightmare for the Coldon family.

The car was impounded that night. Coldon's parents learned this weeks later. They accused the police of negligence. Coldon's parents searched for her themselves, spending tens of thousands of dollars, but faced costly hoaxes.Costly hoaxes.These hoaxes cost them their home and life savings.

Coldon has never been found despite their dedication. A 2018 Oxygen documentary featured revelations about the young woman's personal life and a Snapchat video she recorded about a month before her disappearance.The Disappearance of Phoenix Coldon.The documentary featured revelations about the young woman's personal life and a Snapchat video she recorded.This happened about a month before her disappearance."I just want to be happy, man. I can't remember a time when I was happy," Phoenix Coldon says in the video. Oxygen describes the video as showing a "girl in crisis."

Did Phoenix Coldon run away to start a new life, or did something bad happen to her that chilly December afternoon? Her family still does not know.

Original text by Orrin Grey.

"Oh shit!" Brandon Swanson said on a phone call with his parents. On May 14, 2008, he drove his car into a ditch after celebrating the end of spring semester with friends. He called his parents to come get him, but when they drove to where he said he was, they found no sign of him.

The conversation continued on and off. Both parties tried to find each other without success. After 47 minutes, the call cut off. Brandon uttered that final expletive before the line went silent.The line went silent..

The Swansons phoned the police right away. Officers did not immediately get involved. They pointed out young men often stay out all night after college classes.

When authorities investigated, phone records showed Brandon Swanson was not near the location he described to his parents. His cell phone calls bounced off a tower 20 miles away. Authorities found his abandoned car there, but there was no sign of Brandon.

Brandon's parents have not given up hope since the case. A year after their son vanished, the Swansons helped convince the Minnesota Legislature to pass Brandon's Law.Brandon's Law.This law "requires authorities to conduct a preliminary investigation without delay when a missing persons report is received."

Original text by Orrin Grey.

In the summer of 1992, 15-year-old Monique Daniels vanished from her Moore, OK, home. People first thought she ran away. Then, some suspected foul play. Over twenty years later, investigators still lack answers.

That summer, Monique's younger sister, Angelique, was at church camp with their mother. When the stepfather picked them up, he told them Monique was gone.He said she ran away.Neither he nor her mother reported Monique missing at first. Monique was gone for over a year before her parents filed a report. Her mother and stepfather never worked with the police.

While her sister was missing, Angelique's stepfather made her write letters to her mother, pretending to be Monique and claiming she was fine. He even drove her out of state to mail the letter with a Texas postmark. Angelique eventually left home to live with relatives in Michigan. She cut off all contact with her parents.

Original text by Chrissy Rose

Leah Roberts disappeared in March 2000. By that time, Leah had already faced more tragedy than many. At twenty-two, Leah lost both parents. Her mother died while Leah was a college sophomore. Her father died the next year.

"Leah was a young woman who felt lost.Her older sister, Kara, later said on Larry King Live. "By age twenty-two, Leah had lost both parents. She was close to graduating college. She felt lost; she lacked direction. I think she used this trip for soul-searching."

That trip started Leah's disappearance. Inspired by Jack Kerouac's writing and having dropped out of school, Leah drove across the country, heading west from her home in Durham, NC. She left enough money for a month's rent and a note reading, "I’m not suicidal.. I am the opposite." This happened on March 9.

Her sister tracked Leah's route using debit card spending, but those transactions stopped on March 13. Five days later, Leah's Jeep was found, crashed at a ditch in Washington State. Leah was not inside.

Numerous investigations since have found no solid clues about Leah's location. Her disappearance partially inspired the On the Road to Remember Tour, an annual trip tracing Leah's known path to raise awareness about her and other missing people. The Community United Effort (CUE) Center for the Missing sponsors this.

Original text by Orrin Grey

On a cold night in January 2010, 55-year-old JoAnn Romain left her car in a church lot after an evening service. She walked across a main road, down a snowy bank, over two seawalls, and into the icy water of Lake St. Clair, ending her life.

Police give one story, but JoAnn's family disagrees. Her children say their Catholic mother would not have taken her life, yet the story has more parts.

No one knew what happened to JoAnn Romain for 70 days. Then, on the first warm spring day, her body surfaced about 30 miles away in the Detroit River. How did her body travel that far? This is one mystery about her.Unlikely disappearance, which occurred in the wealthy Detroit suburb of Grosse Pointe Farms. This appeared on the Netflix revival ofUnsolved Mysteries, JoAnn Romain's case holds more questions than answers, even with the official story.

Her children offer a different account. They claim foul play victimized their mother and that police covered up the crime. These claims led them to sue two towns and dozens of officers, often blaming JoAnn's cousin, Tim Matouk.

Matouk served as a police officer in Harper Woods when his cousin disappeared; he was on duty that night. Though heremained silenthe kept quiet about the issue for years after theUnsolved Mysteriesepisode aired, he spoke to reporters and asked the accusations against him to stop.

Original text by Orrin Grey

On September 17, 1982, Diane Copsey dropped off her 14-year-old daughter, Misty, and Misty's friend, Trina Bevard, at theWashington State FairPuyallup, WA, an area police later said had at leastsix active sexual predators. Puyallup was small, with about 26,000 people, but the fair made the population four times that number.

Misty called her mother that evening, saying she missed the bus but assuring her she could get a ride from Rheuban Schmidt, an 18-year-old high school dropout Misty knew. When Copsey arrived home and found Misty gone, she called 911 and reported her daughter missing; police claimed Misty likely ran away and ignored Copsey's worries. They started investigating Misty's vanishing a month later.

Copsey suspected Schmidt right away, but the teenager told her he lacked the gas to pick her up even though Misty called him. Later, Schmidt told a coworkerhe knew the exact locationof Misty's remains. When police questioned him, he claimed hemade up the story; he also said he had a blackout the night Misty disappeared andcouldn't recall anythingafter Misty's call.

Trina Bevard, who first told police she walked home after the fair and left Misty at the bus stop, later revealed her 23-year-old boyfriend, Michael J. Rhyner, picked her up, but she did not know where he went after dropping her home. Rhyner faced investigation but never became an official suspect.

Puyallup resident Cory BoberHe got involved with Misty's case.Steven Clark told police he suspected Misty had been a victim of the Green River Killer, whom Bober claimed was a local named Dan Achziger. His fixation on the serial killer (later identified as Gary Ridgway) made him help search for Misty.Gary RidgwayThis obsession with the serial killer prompted him to help search for Misty.

In late 1992, Bober formed a search group. He wanted to back up his guess that Misty was the third young girl murdered and dumped along Highway 401.The previous victims were 15-year-old Kim Delange and 14-year-old Anna Chebetnoy.He was murdered and dumped along Highway 401. Previous victims included 15-year-old Kim Delange and 14-year-old Anna Chebetnoy. On February 7, 1993, Bober's search party searched.The search party found some of Misty's clothing from the night she disappeared on the highway's north side.Some people became suspicious of Bober's motives and the luck of his find. However, Bober never named a suspect.Bober never named a suspect in Misty's case.Several other theories and suspects appeared over the years. None of these theories proved true. In 2000, the Pierce County Medical Examiner declared Misty, who was 22 then, legally dead.

Other theories and suspects appeared over the following years. None proved conclusive in 2000.The Pierce County Medical ExaminerThe Medical Examiner declared Misty, who was 22 at that time, legally dead.

Original text by Stephen MorinStephen Morin

Shortly after Christmas, on December 28, 1992, Doris and Steven Clark walked near the Saltburn beach in England. During their walk, the mother and son used public restrooms. Doris left first and waited for Steven.He never returned..

Doris was unsure what to do at first. Steven was 23; he was not a child. She went home and told her husband, Charles, who returned to the beach with her to look for Steven. They found nothing. Steven had a physical disability from a childhood accident, making his parents more worried someone might have taken advantage of him.

Police found Doris and Charles suspicious at first. They could not find evidence against them. They found it strange that an adult could just disappear from a public place without witnesses. Some people asked why Doris did not enter the restroom to check on Steven. She replied:

I came out and stood, and people asked me why I did not go in. He would have been horrified—he was 23, not a child.

No one gave any information about Steven's disappearance at that time. The case eventually died down.

Things changed in September 2020. Detectives got information from an alleged eyewitness who saw Steven near his family home hours after he supposedly vanished. Charles and Doris were arrested that month on the suspicion they had killed Steven.

The charges were later dropped. Steven's disappearance stays a mystery.

Original text by Christina ChilinChristina Chilin

An Oxygen documentary series.The Disappearance of Maura Murray, called the 2004 vanishing of 21-year-old New Hampshire nursing student the “First crime mystery of the social media age.

Maura Murray disappeared after crashing her car into a snowbank on February 9, just five days after Facebook launched. The name gets attention not from social media's role in the disappearance, but from how social media and the internet changed how many amateur sleuths got interested in the case, even though Murray's location remains unknown decades later.

The details of her disappearance are strange. On the day she vanished, Murray emailed her professors at the University of Massachusetts Amherst College of Nursing. She told them she would be gone for a week due to a family death, but her family later denied any such tragedy. She packed her things and got into her car.

After 7 pm, her car hit a tree in Woodsville, NH. A bus driver in the area stopped to help. He said the young woman in the car did not look hurt but asked him to—Some reports say she pleaded with him not to call the police.He called the police later. They arrived nine minutes after he called, but Maura Murray was gone.

Police found Murray had packed most of her belongings when they searched her dorm room. She also had...Police searched her room the day before.Directions to Burlington, VT, were in her car. She had called about lodging in Stowe, VT, but had not booked anything.

Some people think someone caused foul play after the car accident. Others think she fled and walked into the woods where she died from the weather. Since police dogs could not track her scent, others believe a second car followed Murray, picked her up, and she started a new life.

She has not reappeared in years, despite work by many detectives, both amateur and professional, and several...Some leads are potentially promising.Maura Murray disappeared after crashing her car into a snowbank.

Original text byOrrin GreyandPatrick Thornton

Jodi Huisentruit was a news anchor for the CBS affiliate in Mason City, IA, by age 27. Weeks after her 27th birthday, she vanished. Within a few years, she was declared legally dead. The search for what happened to her continues.

On June 27, 1995, Jodi Huisentruit did not show up for work. A coworker called her. Huisentruit said she overslept but was on her way. When she still did not arrive, concerned colleagues called the authorities, andpolice found Huisentruit's red Mazda Miata in the parking lot of her apartment complex.Police found Huisentruit's red Mazda Miata in the parking lot of her apartment complex, along with personal items nearby, including a blow dryer and a pair of women's shoes.

By the first day of the search, the police chief admitted the department found no solid clues. This pattern continued over days, weeks, and months. Police questioned hundreds of people, including Huisentruit's neighbors, who claimed they heard a scream near her usual work time. Some saw a white van in the area, but this yielded no results. They offered over $30,000 for information on Huisentruit's location, yet Huisentruit remained missing.

In September 1995, Huisentruit's family hired a private investigator. In 2004, they flew to California and appeared in the pilot episode of "Psychic Detectives".Psychic DetectivesHuisentruit's case appeared on "America's Most Wanted".America's Most Wantedand "Unsolved Mysteries".Unsolved MysteriesThe TV shows brought in hundreds of calls, but none resolved. In 2001, Huisentruit was declared legally dead. Her family still hopes she will return. They keep updating FindJodi.com, a site tracking what happened to her.

Original text by Orrin Grey

Many mysteries surround the Grand Canyon. One involves honeymooners Glen and Bessie Hyde. In 1928, the Idaho couple went to explore the Grand Canyon because Bessie wanted to be the first woman to boat through it.

Trips across the canyon in the 1920s and '30s were very dangerous. There were no commercial trips; only experts could succeed. The couple loved the outdoors and thought they could be among those successful people.

The Hydes' tripbegan in October 1928The first few parts of their trip succeeded. They restocked supplies at several posts around the canyon. People last saw the couple on November 18 at the final stop at the Grand Canyon Village on the South Rim. Some last witnesses said Bessie seemed ready to end the trip early. The Grand Canyon in winter was a harsh place to live; light barely reached the canyon floor. After this last stop, the couple vanished.

Months later, searchers found only their boat. It was completely intact, holding all the couple's belongings and supplies. No trace of either person existed.

Theories and rumors started after this. A bullet-pierced skull was found in the home of a dead river guide who might have known the couple. Some thought he killed them. Another idea arose when a secret guide died, and police found her real name was Bessie. The Hydes' marriage certificate was also found with her things. Could she be the real Bessie Hyde living a secret life after killing her husband?

Brad Dimock, a river guide and writer who hasinvestigated the caseEach appearance carried hints of murder, mayhem, and mystery.

Glen and Bessie Hyde disappeared on the Colorado River. This event sparked one of the Grand Canyon's biggest mysteries.Christina Chilin

On October 21, 1978, Australian pilot Frederick Valentich disappeared mid-air. He reported a UFO above him during the flight.Valentich rented a Cessna 182L.Valentich set out to fly across the Bass Strait toward King Island. The sky was clear; the winds were calm that day. Friends waited for him on the island.

Unfortunately for Valentich, things went wrong. At 7:06 pm, he called Air Flight Service and reported seeing a craft circling him, saying:

It seems like a large aircraft, below five thousand… It passed over me at least a thousand feet up. It is approaching now from the east toward me… I think he is playing some kind of game.

Valentich was at 4,500 feet then. He did not know what to do or what he saw. In his final call to Air Flight Service, Valentich told them the craft stopped before it started orbiting above him. He also said he heard a big engine rumble. A loud, metallic noise was the last thing Air Flight heard before Valentich and his plane vanished completely.

Various theories exist about Valentich's disappearance, but nothing proves it. One theory suggests extraterrestrials. Valentich liked alien life and strongly believed an alien race would soon take over Earth. Many deny alien theories, yet eyewitnesses near the coast reported strange lights in the sky that night.

Aviation experts suggest Valentich likely got disoriented and entered a graveyard spiral. This is a deadly dive pilots can fall into from spatial disorientation and losing altitude awareness. The fact that he was an inexperienced pilot supports this theory.

Some suggest Valentich staged his disappearance. This idea grew when reports surfaced that a plane unexpectedly landed on Cape Otway. Authorities never found Valentich or the craft, leaving his disappearance unsolved.

Original text byChristina Chilin

Bethany Anne Decker, a 21-year-old college senior studying global and economic change, went missing in early 2011. Bethany Decker's last phone call went to the Carrabba's Grill in Centreville, VA, where she worked as a server. She called at 2:08 pm on January 29, 2011, to get her schedule and an extra shift for that evening; however,Decker never showed up, which was strange for her. Decker also stopped attending classes at George Mason University.

Messages kept coming from Decker's Facebook account, but authorities and the public later learned Ronald Roldan, Decker's boyfriend whom she claimed was abusive, was the oneThese messages made Decker's friends and family think she was safe.Decker's friends and family thought she was safe after these messages.

Police searched Decker's apartment on Orchard Grass Terrace in Ashburn, VA. They found Decker's car in the parking lot and no forced entry. Investigators found Decker's cellphone, wallet, passport, credit cards, and other personal items inside. Nothing seemed out of place; there was no sign of a struggle. Investigators later found Decker's car keys at Roldan's mother's home after getting a search warrant.

In 2014, a few years after Bethany Decker went missing, Roldan faced charges for the attempted murder.Roldan attempted to murder his then-girlfriend, Vickey Willoughby, at her North Carolina home. Roldan beat Willoughby, then shot her three times. She ended up with a broken neck and lost an eye.Roldan beat Vickey Willoughby and shot her three times at her North Carolina home. She suffered a broken neck and lost an eye.

In November 2020, Ronald Roldan finished his sentence for attacking Vickey Willoughby.Decker's disappearanceWilloughby told an interview that Roldan said he could make people disappear. Roldan told her to be quiet and not contact the police.

In November 2020, Ronald Roldan finished his sentence for attacking Vickey Willoughby.Roldan was extradited from North Carolina to Virginia.Roldan faced abduction charges in Virginia. Being found guilty of abduction in Virginia means up to ten years in prison.

A month later, Roldan faced second-degree murder charges in Decker's case. Roldan's lawyers sought bail, but a Virginia judge ruled Roldan was...Six hours later, the Laspisas' doorbell rang, but it was not Bryce. Police went to the door to tell the Laspisas their son's car was found abandoned and on its side in a ravine near Castaic Lake. Bryce's phone, wallet, and laptop remained inside. The lack of Bryce was even more disturbing.Despite Laspisa telling his parents he was stopping to sleep at 2:09 am, surveillance showed him driving down the access road to Castaic Lake at 2:30 am. Two hours later, at 4:29 am, the same camera photographed Laspisa's car again.

Original text byPatrick Thornton

Around 2 a.m. on August 30, 2013, Karen and Mike Laspisa received a phone call.They received a phone call.Their son, Bryce, called. The 19-year-old drove to their home in Laguna Niguel, CA, between Los Angeles and San Diego.

Bryce had started drinking heavily and using Vyvanse, an amphetamine derivative sometimes used for ADHD, even though he lacked it, according to his roommate and girlfriend in recent weeks.His parents asked him to come home because he was drinking heavily.Bryce called that morning. He said he was driving home but was too tired to continue. He planned to pull over at a rest stop and nap. His parents never heard from him again.

Six hours later, the Laspisas' doorbell rang, but it was not Bryce. Police arrived at the door to tell the Laspisas their son's car was found abandoned and on its side in a ravine near Castaic Lake. His phone, wallet, and laptop remained inside. No sign of Bryce existed.

Laspisa told his parents he was pulling over to sleep at 2:09 a.m. Surveillance footage showed him driving down the access road to Castaic Lake at 2:30 a.m. Two hours later, at 4:29 a.m., the same camera photographed Laspisa's car again.photographed Laspisa's car againHis crashed Toyota Highlander was found an hour later. Bryce Laspisa was not seen.

Police dogs tracked his scent to a truck stop. Authorities dragged the lake, but they never found a body. Bryce's parents still hope.Facebook pageA Facebook page keeps search updates coming from people.

Original text by Orrin Greyand Patrick Thornton