Great Disappearances

[GUT]

Earlier this year the South Australian govt offered $1,000,000 rewards in relation to cases involving 18 chldren

http://www.theage.com.au/national/rewards-offered-for-18-missing-sa-children-20140209-329lz.html

What is really sad is the number that are relating to missing children, I can only imagine the pain to the families with no closure.

[GUT]

True Gut. What d'ya expect from a dumb Yank who thinks in terms of the "qu" combination, not of natural tendencies to drop off the "u" after "q" that exist elsewhere (in Arabic, f'r instance).

Jeff

G'day Jeff

It's the same here and see plenty of Aussie spell it wrong too, it's an Acronym that's why the "U" gets dropped.

[Mayerling]

Robert Beutel was a guy I graduated from high school with. Bob vanished, with another man, in a flight over Laos in 1971. It was never known if he was shot down or if it was some sort of mechanical issue or what. He is listed as an MIA. No wreckage was ever found.

Thanks for sharing Stan. Sometimes I wonder about people I have known over the years but lost contact with - whether they died in any travel accident, natural disaster, or worse.

Jeff

By the way, it reminded me of another person who disappeared in that area, but in a war zone and was probably killed: Sean Flynn, Errol's son.

[Mayerling]

Tut, Tut tut Jeff

No "U" in Qantas. naughty boy.

True Gut. What d'ya expect from a dumb Yank who thinks in terms of the "qu" combination, not of natural tendencies to drop off the "u" after "q" that exist elsewhere (in Arabic, f'r instance).

Jeff

[Mayerling]

I hate Wikipedia but it actually gives a reasonable account in this case:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaumont_children_disappearance

Some believe that they are still alive. Every now and then someone crops up that is claimed to be one of the children, but nothing has ever been proven.

Thanks for the Wikipedia cite you gave. The article is interesting, if very sad. When Charlie Ross was kidnapped in 1874 from Germantown, Pennsylvania, he was never found (although his main kidnappers were killed in an unrelated burglary, and an accomplice named Westervelt was tried and got a prison sentence of a number of years). Until the 1930s men would turn up (originally boys would turn up) claiming to be Charlie, and adding to the sorrows of Charlie's father Christian Ross (who never stopped hoping to find him) or his brother Walter, who was the last member of the family to ever see his brother.

Even though a body was identified as Charles Lindbergh Jr. in later years several men claimed they were the real Charles Jr. and the dead baby some other child.

Jeff

[GUT]

Robert Beutel was a guy I graduated from high school with. Bob vanished, with another man, in a flight over Laos in 1971. It was never known if he was shot down or if it was some sort of mechanical issue or what. He is listed as an MIA. No wreckage was ever found.

G'day Stan

Jim Steadman was the other man unless my memory fails me.

[sdreid]

Robert Beutel was a guy I graduated from high school with. Bob vanished, with another man, in a flight over Laos in 1971. It was never known if he was shot down or if it was some sort of mechanical issue or what. He is listed as an MIA. No wreckage was ever found.

[Magpie]

It probably doesn't fit Jeff's intent, but Dame Agatha Christie's missing 10 days was a disappearance that has never really been accounted for and held a nation in suspense. Why did she make it look like a possible death?

Personally I think she was trying to frame her ex for murder, but her plan got torpedoed when someone recognized here at the hotel she was holed up in.

[GUT]

Had to include the man who helped found Quantas. I mentioned another Australian mystery man on the other thread: Harold Lassiter, who died presumably still seeking the biggest gold reef in the world outside of Johannesburg.

Tut, Tut tut Jeff

No "U" in Qantas. naughty boy.

[GUT]

Some students on disappearances point out the Lang story sounds similar to a short account written by Ambrose Bierce about the disappearance of a man named Williamson in Kentucky in 1854 (Lang vanished in Tennessee) and also the disappearance of a boy named Oliver Larch, who vanished one night going to a well.

Jeff

G'day Jeff

I know that many classify it as a hoax, but it still intrigues me.

[Mayerling]

It probably doesn't fit Jeff's intent, but Dame Agatha Christie's missing 10 days was a disappearance that has never really been accounted for and held a nation in suspense. Why did she make it look like a possible death?

This is also a fitting mystery. So would the missing crews (but not the ships themselves) of the "Mary Celeste" and the "Carroll Deeming".

[GUT]

Who were the Beaumont children?

I hate Wikipedia but it actually gives a reasonable account in this case:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaumont_children_disappearance

Some believe that they are still alive. Every now and then someone crops up that is claimed to be one of the children, but nothing has ever been proven.

[Mayerling]

In no particular order:

Henry Hudson
Indiana Dunes Women
Dorothy Arnold
Alois Brunner
Bela Kiss
Andrew Irvine
Jodi Huisentruit
Suzy Lamplugh
Jean Spangler
Vincent Mangano
Hale Boggs
Helen Brach
Lord Lucan
Felix Moncla
Glenn Miller

Locally:

Fay Rawley
Richard Griener
Walter Donley

Personal Friend:

Robert Beutel

Nice list, but who was Robert Beutel (if you wish to say)?

Jeff

[Mayerling]

The Beaumont Children in Adelaide, but 'm afraid I think that the answer there is obvious.

Who were the Beaumont children?

[Mayerling]

Or David Lang who was said to have disappeared before the very eyes of his wife, children and his friend the Judge, in USA in 1800's, or was this just a cover-up by the judge and the family.

Some students on disappearances point out the Lang story sounds similar to a short account written by Ambrose Bierce about the disappearance of a man named Williamson in Kentucky in 1854 (Lang vanished in Tennessee) and also the disappearance of a boy named Oliver Larch, who vanished one night going to a well.

Jeff