Great Disappearances

[gallicrow]

Sodder children

It seems to me that the most likely scenario is that the "missing" children died of smoke inhalation in the house that night and that their bodies were burnt to an extent that their remains were not easily recognisable. Then these remains were broken up and scattered by the inexpert searchers over the next few days. I think the entire area was bulldozered by Mr Sodder about a week after the fire, which severely diminished the chances of finding the remains of the children after that.

[Harry D]

It seems to me that the most likely scenario is that the "missing" children died of smoke inhalation in the house that night and that their bodies were burnt to an extent that their remains were not easily recognisable. Then these remains were broken up and scattered by the inexpert searchers over the next few days. I think the entire area was bulldozered by Mr Sodder about a week after the fire, which severely diminished the chances of finding the remains of the children after that.

Is that even possible?

[GUT]

Is that even possible?

I don't think so, unless there was a lot of accelerant added.

[Harry D]

The Disappearance of Damien Nettles, while not an exceptional missing persons case, has often haunted me.

Damien Nettles disappeared from the Isle of Wight on November 2, 1996 when he was 16. The investigation into his disappearance has been ongoing ever since, with five men arrested in 2011, although no charges have been brought.

This is the last remaining CCTV of Damien that night:
http://youtu.be/yOrMuplmxWo (Damien's the guy on the left with his back to the camera when it starts)

Does anyone see anything amiss in this brief video? I do wonder if Damien happened to have been jumped by some yobs that night, it got out of hand, and they ditched the body. I can't really see a lanky 16 year-old being abducted for nefarious purposes. His mother has speculated that he might have owed money to drug dealers, since he smoked cannabis, and they murdered him.

Apparently there was another CCTV of Damien walking down the street, he was only 15 minutes from home. However, the police lost the footage. Was this police incompetence or cause for suspicion?

[Mayerling]

I don't know if anyone was following it but the authorities in Atlanta, Georgia just located a boy who was missing for four years. It turned out he had been hidden in a cubby behind a linen closet in the home of his father and stepmother (both arrested with some of her relatives). The boy managed to contact his mother in Florida with some pocket computer or phone, and she tipped off the Atlanta Police. The boy is now with his mother again.

Jeff

[Ginger]

I don't know if anyone was following it but the authorities in Atlanta, Georgia just located a boy who was missing for four years. It turned out he had been hidden in a cubby behind a linen closet in the home of his father and stepmother (both arrested with some of her relatives).

I saw that! Words pretty much fail me here.

[GUT]

I don't know if anyone was following it but the authorities in Atlanta, Georgia just located a boy who was missing for four years. It turned out he had been hidden in a cubby behind a linen closet in the home of his father and stepmother (both arrested with some of her relatives). The boy managed to contact his mother in Florida with some pocket computer or phone, and she tipped off the Atlanta Police. The boy is now with his mother again.

Jeff

It even made the news here in Aus.

I can't even begin to imagine how his family is feeling.

I understand that the house had been searched previously.

[Mayerling]

It even made the news here in Aus.

I can't even begin to imagine how his family is feeling.

I understand that the house had been searched previously.

The kid managed to contact his mother as I said, and she tips off the Atlanta police. But the first time they look through the house and don't see anything. The kid does it again, and the mother contacts the police again, and this time they find the kid and arrest the father, etc.

I can believe the mother is relieved to have her son back, and he must be relieved to be back. To me this is the most incredible return from oblivion story in terms of disappearance kidnappings since the one about those three women in Ohio held by a man who was assisted by his two brothers - four up to eight years (I believe)! The guy showed how brave he was when sentenced to prison by killing himself within one month.

Jeff

[Ginger]

The Disappearance of Damien Nettles, while not an exceptional missing persons case, has often haunted me.

This is the last remaining CCTV of Damien that night:
http://youtu.be/yOrMuplmxWo (Damien's the guy on the left with his back to the camera when it starts)

Does anyone see anything amiss in this brief video?

What's he doing right at the very beginning, when he flexes his knees briefly? He's looking between the two men in the background, and it looks to me rather as though he were looking out the window, perhaps crouching a bit to get a look at something obscured by a sign taped to the window.

[Ginger]

To try to start this off, I will list my initial choices of the best known vanishing acts.

Ships
City of Glasgow
Collins liner "Pacific"
City of Boston
Naronic
Warahtah

From what I've read on the Waratah, many people, then and now, believe that the ship simply rolled over in rough seas and didn't recover. It had apparently been designed in such a way that it was very slow to recover from a roll, which made for a comfortable ride for passengers, but posed an obvious risk under extreme conditions. This was, IIRC, only the ship's second voyage, and on the first one it had taken a list to one side so severe that water would not drain from the bathtubs, and held that position for an hour or more. On the ship's last port of call before vanishing (in Durban, South Africa), an engineer with passage booked through to England got off and booked a different ship, declaring the Waratah to be dangerously top-heavy. On the night the ship went missing, there were high winds and seas, to the extent that one of the ships sent to search for her (a cruiser, HMS Hermes) suffered hull damage from the waves.

[Mayerling]

Waratah

From what I've read on the Waratah, many people, then and now, believe that the ship simply rolled over in rough seas and didn't recover. It had apparently been designed in such a way that it was very slow to recover from a roll, which made for a comfortable ride for passengers, but posed an obvious risk under extreme conditions. This was, IIRC, only the ship's second voyage, and on the first one it had taken a list to one side so severe that water would not drain from the bathtubs, and held that position for an hour or more. On the ship's last port of call before vanishing (in Durban, South Africa), an engineer with passage booked through to England got off and booked a different ship, declaring the Waratah to be dangerously top-heavy. On the night the ship went missing, there were high winds and seas, to the extent that one of the ships sent to search for her (a cruiser, HMS Hermes) suffered hull damage from the waves.

Everything you point out is true, but there remains exact information regarding the last hours of the ship (which was seen by at least one vessel, but possibly two others). The engineer who was lucky enough (or smart enough) to get off at Durban had had a particularly odd and frightening dream three times during the voyage where a monstrous male figure with a sword arose out of the sea and with a threatening look uttered "Waratah". This too may have played a role in the gentleman's lucky decision. Oddly enough others (including a physics professor on the first voyage to London) also noted the balance problem, but Captain Iberry dismissed the fears. Yet there is a good chance that Iberry told his wife and family he planned to retire after "Waratah" returned to Australia at the end of the following voyage because of his feelings about the boat's seaworthiness. So he was lost on the second voyage.

"Waratah" was lost with about 212 people on board, but is known as "the Titanic of South Africa" due to the mystery involved. There have been numerous attempts to locate the wreck along the coast (not the easiest to plumb the depths of due to the dangerous currents from the Cape of Good Hope). Clive Cussler thought they found the wreck in 2002, but it was a torpedoed British ship from World War II.

Jeff

[Harry D]

I see the remains of Gavin Smith (missing since May 2012) were found in a shallow grave at Angeles National Forest last month. Clearly he got mixed up with the wrong people!

[Rosella]

The disappearance of SS Waratah, the Titanic of the South as she was known, was a tragic occurrence. Most of the passengers were Australians sailing to Europe via South Africa, and there was widespread mourning in Australia when it became apparent that the ship was lost.

The Waratah was carrying 1,300 tons of lead in her hold, lead and lead concentrate. There was talk at the time that in certain conditions the friction created by the lead moving might summon up enough heat to make the ship turn turtle. There were also piles of untrimmed coal kept on her decks.

However, I think it was a freak wave that did for the Waratah. Huge walls of water of up to 20 metres in height are not uncommon along the coastline in question. There's a deep continental shelf there and the Algulhas current combined with severe gales can cause a buildup of treacherous seas.

[Harry D]

Just read a story about a young guy who went missing after responding to a job advert on Craigslist for a caregiver:

http://www.kgw.com/story/news/local/2014/10/20/portland-man-missing-after-responding-to-craigslist-ad/17602387/

[Mayerling]

The disappearance of SS Waratah, the Titanic of the South as she was known, was a tragic occurrence. Most of the passengers were Australians sailing to Europe via South Africa, and there was widespread mourning in Australia when it became apparent that the ship was lost.

The Waratah was carrying 1,300 tons of lead in her hold, lead and lead concentrate. There was talk at the time that in certain conditions the friction created by the lead moving might summon up enough heat to make the ship turn turtle. There were also piles of untrimmed coal kept on her decks.

However, I think it was a freak wave that did for the Waratah. Huge walls of water of up to 20 metres in height are not uncommon along the coastline in question. There's a deep continental shelf there and the Algulhas current combined with severe gales can cause a buildup of treacherous seas.

The freak wave is a distinct possibility. Sometimes, in reading of a ship mystery or disaster one gets the sad feeling that from the day construction was planned it was a disaster just waiting for it's moment. The few surviving shots of "Waratah" show it's bridge is rather highly set up for a ship of it's dimensions. Incredibly the "Blue Anchor Line" was about to start building a second ship along the same design when the disappearance occurred. Within a few years the line itself was liquidated and disappeared.

May I suggest an old but useful book, "Posted Missing" by Alan Villiers - it was written in the 1950s - which has some interesting chapters on the "Waratah", as well as other missing ship stories.

Jeff