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This is a list of solved missing person cases of people who went missing in unknown locations or unknown circumstances that were eventually explained by their reappearance or the recovery of their bodies, the conviction of the perpetrator(s) responsible for their disappearances, or a confession to their killings. There are separate lists covering disappearances before 1950 and then since 2000.
J.K. Rideout, a British linguist and professor of Oriental Studies at both the University of Sydney and the University of Hong Kong, disappeared on 16 February 1950. His body was found 12 days later upon the shores of Lantau Island. Although suspicion pertaining to a mooted connection to British intelligence surrounds his death, authorities ruled Rideout's death to be accidental.[1][2]
Luis Albino, an American child who was kidnapped in Oakland, California on February 21, 1951 and was discovered to be alive living with a family in 2024.[3]
Fiebelkorn, a USAAF fighter ace who shot down nine aircraft during World War II and also fought in the Korean War, was listed as missing in action together with his radar operator Captain John J. Higgins on July 6, 1950, when they both failed to return to base while flying as part of a four-ship element sent to locate and strafe advancing enemy ground forces through heavy low overcast at the Suwon-Seoul area. The remains of both men were found in 1953 by UN troops on a mountainside approximately 40 miles (64 km) north of Seoul.
Bill Barilko, a player for the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team, disappeared in August 1951 while returning from a fishing trip at Seal River, Ontario. He was with his dentist, Henry Hudson, flying aboard Hudson's Fairchild 24 floatplane at the time of their disappearance. Barilko and Hudson remained missing for 11 years until the plane's wreckage was found 56 miles (90 km) off course north of Cochrane, Ontario, partially burned and submerged in a swamp with the men's bodies found still strapped in their seats.[4][5]
A mafia underboss of Mangano crime family (the future Gambino crime family), Philip Mangano disappeared on April 19, 1951. His body was found the same day. Also that same day, his brother Vincent Mangano disappeared; his body was never found. Both are believed to have been murdered on the orders of family underbossAlbert Anastasia in Brooklyn in 1951 as part of a coup.[6][7][8][9]
The first of three victims murdered by child killer John Straffen. Brenda was lured to a meadow and strangled to death on the afternoon of July 15, 1951; her body was discovered approximately four hours after her foster mother reported her missing.[10]
On July 20, 1951, children playing in the sand near the village of Senec discovered a human leg, leading to the discovery of the decaying remains of Renata Balleyova, a photographer from Plzeň who had intended to defect from Czechoslovakia. This in turn led to the arrest of Hubert Pilčík, a human smuggler who also killed Balleyova's father, Emanuel, and kidnapped and repeatedly raped Emanual's 12-year-old niece while forcing her to write letters addressed from Bavaria, demanding payment for the letters in jewelry. Both Balleyova and her father were killed with baton blows to the head. Pilčík killed himself in prison on September 9, 1951.[11]
Davis was a highly decorated fighter pilot and flying ace of the USAAF during World War II and later of the USAF during the Korean War. During his final combat mission in northwest Korea on February 10, 1952, Davis surprised and attacked twelve Chinese MiG-15 fighter jets about to attack friendly aircraft in "MiG Alley", downing two of the MiG-15s before he was shot down and killed. He was not seen bailing out and was declared missing in action and presumed killed. The Chinese military later recovered his body from the crashed aircraft, although they never returned it to the United States. Controversies arose surrounding the circumstances of his death, and he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions that day.
21-year-old Wilma Montesi was last seen alive on 9 April 1953; her body was discovered on the shore of Torvaianica two days later. Montesi was found partially dressed; her handbag and several of her clothes were missing. Ugo Montagna and Piero Piccioni, son of deputy prime minister Attilio Piccioni, were alleged to have been involved, causing a scandal, though both were absolved of all charges. Montesi's murder remains unsolved, and the cause of death remains unknown.[12]
Kyllikki Saari, a girl from Finland, was last seen alive on May 17, 1953, cycling home from a prayer meeting. Kyllikki's bicycle was recovered in a marsh that summer and her remains were found on October 11, 1953, in a bog.[13]
Gilkey disappeared while climbing K2 mountain in 1953. He had developed thrombophlebitis (blood clots in his leg), followed by a pulmonary embolism, and his fellow climbers, including Charlie Houston and Pete Schoening, wrapped him in a sleeping bag to bring him down the mountain. However, while resting at camp, Gilkey was swept away by an avalanche and disappeared. His body was found at the base of the south side of K2 in 1993.[14]
Victims of the "Towpath Killer" Alfred Whiteway. Reed and Songhurst were teenage friends last seen cycling along a towpath close to the River Thames on 31 May 1953. Songhurst's body was found in the river the following day; Reed's body was discovered on 6 June. Both had been bludgeoned and raped. Whiteway was hanged for their murders on December 22, 1953.[15]
Father and son Eugene and Richard Lindsey, and their friend Frederick Claar, were last seen on June 12, 1953, in the Gaspé region of Quebec, where they had driven to from Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, on a hunting trip. Eugene Lindsey's body was discovered in deep bush a month later (July 15) and those of the other two men on July 23, some 4 kilometres away. Their clothing bore bullet holes. The discoveries led to the arrest of a prospector named Wilbert Coffin and his conviction based on circumstantial evidence. He was eventually hanged. The case is well known in Canada as the Coffin affair.[16]
Henri La Masne was a French man who went missing, while he was skiing in the Italian Alps on March 26, 1954,[17][18] and his body was discovered in Valtournenche, Cime Bianche in 2005[19][20] and identified in 2017.
Froze to death after being buried underneath snow during a storm
Murdered by her 16-year-old daughter, Pauline Parker, and her daughter's friend, 15-year-old Juliet Hulme, in Christchurch, New Zealand. The murder had been planned by the schoolgirls as she was viewed as an individual who would refuse to allow her daughter to move to South Africa with her friend. Her body was found the same day.[21]
The first-known murder victim of Ed Gein. Hogan was a tavern proprietress whom Gein confessed to murdering on December 8, 1954. Gein transported her body to his farm, where he mutilated her corpse but retained her skull and preserved face. These were discovered following his 1957 arrest.[22]
Curtis Chillingworth was a Florida attorney and state judge who disappeared from his Manalapan, Florida home in 1955. He was later discovered to have been murdered though his body was never recovered.[23]
Abducted and murdered by Burton Abbott on April 28, 1955; her body was discovered in a shallow grave in Trinity County on July 20. Abbott was executed for her murder in March 1957.[24]
Herman Schultheis was a technician and photographer who worked for Walt Disney Studios who disappeared on May 20, 1955, near Tikal, Guatemala. His remains were found on November 23, 1956, as well as some of his belongings.[25][26]
Peter Weinberger was a male toddler in Nassau County, New York, who, on July 4, 1956, was abducted and held for ransom. His kidnapper, Angelo LaMarca, was arrested over a month later. On August 24, LaMarca directed authorities to a location near a highway where he claimed he had abandoned Weinberger alive. By the time of LaMarca's arrest, Weinberger had died of asphyxiation, with starvation and exposure as contributing factors; a medical examiner posited he could have lived up to a week before perishing.[28]
Barbara and Patricia Grimes were sisters who disappeared from the Brighton Park, Chicago, Illinois area on December 28, 1956, while returning home from a movie. Their bodies were found on January 22, 1957, down an embankment off a roadway.[29]
Willie Edwards was a black American man who on January 23, 1957, was killed by unknown members of the AlabamaKu Klux Klan. His body was thrown into the Alabama River, Montgomery County, Alabama and was found three months later.[31] His murder remains unsolved.
The naked, extensively beaten body of 4-year-old Joseph August Zarelli was discovered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on February 25, 1957. Authorities believe the cause of death to be blunt force trauma. Zarelli remained unidentified for over 65 years and was known only as "the Boy in the Box." On November 30, 2022, the Philadelphia Police Department announced that Zarelli's identity had been determined via DNA and genealogical databases. Zarelli was publicly identified on December 8, 2022.[32]
Mary Jane Barker, a girl from Bellmawr, New Jersey, went missing on February 25, 1957, along with her playmate's dog.[33] Barker was found dead in the closet of a vacant house near her home on March 3, 1957, after becoming trapped with the dog, who survived (but was euthanized for examination in an attempt to better understand the circumstances).[34]
Lawrence Joseph Bader was a cookware salesman from Akron, Ohio who disappeared on a fishing trip on March 15, 1957, in Lake Erie. Eight years later he was found alive in Omaha, Nebraska working as a local TV personality named "Fritz" Johnson. He died from a brain tumor a year later, leaving six children from two wives. It has been debated, but never determined, whether he was an amnesiac, had multiple personalities, or was simply a hoaxer.[35][36]
Maria Ridulph was an American girl who disappeared on December 3, 1957, from a street corner in her neighborhood in Sycamore, Illinois.[37] Her body was found in Woodbine, 100 miles from her home, on April 26, 1958.[38]
Watford Technical College student who disappeared while travelling to her home in Marshalls Heath on December 30, 1957. Her fully clothed body was found in a wooded area near Whitwell on January 31, 1958. It was determined that she had been killed, but to this day, nobody has been arrested in her murder.[39]
British credit draper (loan shark) who disappeared on June 6, 1958, while visiting customers in Bootle. More than two weeks later, Baker's body was found wrapped up in two sacks, showing signs that he had been beaten and strangled.[41]
Mack Charles Parker, was an American black man, who was accused of raping a pregnant white woman. On April 24, 1959, which was two days before he was to stand his trial, while being held in the jail, a white group broke into his cell and abducted him, then took him out to the Pearl River Bridge on the Mississippi-Louisiana border, then shot him and threw him into the river. On May 4, 1959, his body was found floating in it and was recovered.[42]
A Canadian schoolgirl who disappeared on June 9, 1959. Harper's raped and strangled body was discovered two days later. Fourteen-year-old Steven Truscott was arrested and convicted of Harper's murder; he was released from custody in 1969 and his conviction overturned in 2007.[43]
Bob Doll was an American professional basketball player who disappeared from Rabbit Ears Pass, Colorado in early September 1959 and was found dead on September 18, 1959.[44]
Portuguese naval officer who was kidnapped by FNLA guerillas while patrolling the Zaire River in Angola. He was eventually released, and went on to participate in the Carnation Revolution.[45]
Tang was a Singaporean entrepreneur who founded the Tangs department store and later the Orchard Road, two of the country's principal retail stores. He was abducted by four armed gunmen in 1960, but released without incident three days later after the ransom demanded was paid.[46]
Garza was a schoolteacher and beauty queen who went missing on April 16, 1960, while going to confession at a church in McAllen, Texas. Her body, bearing signs of sexual assault and suffocation, was found in a canal five days later. John Feit, the priest who heard her confession, was the prime suspect in her death for decades, until he was arrested and convicted in her murder in 2017, receiving a life sentence.[47]
Thorne was an Australian schoolboy who was kidnapped on July 7, 1960, in Sydney, Australia, by a man who wished to extort his parents who had recently won the lottery. His body was found on August 16. A Hungarian immigrant was later convicted of the killing.[48]
Abducted by unknown individuals from her home in Alamogordo, New Mexico, with her body found in Congress, Arizona, Gallegos could not be identified at the time, and was known as "Little Miss Nobody" until her identification in 2022. Her abductors have never been apprehended.[49]
Abducted by his own grandparents in order that he be raised as a Haredi Orthodox Jew as opposed to his parents' intention to raise the child as a secular Jew. The FBI eventually located Schumacher in the United States and returned the then-eight-year-old child to Israel to live with his parents in September 1962.[50]
Terry Jo Duperrault, the 11-year-old sole survivor of a mass murder case on the ship Blue belle on November 12, 1961. Duperrault, who drifted on the ocean for three days, was rescued and testified against the ship's captain, who was the killer behind the murder of her parents and siblings on the ship; the captain committed suicide after receiving news of Duperrault's survival.[51]
Alexis was a Haitian communist novelist, poet, and activist who was captured by a Tonton Macoute paramilitary force in April 1961 shortly after arriving at Môle-Saint-Nicolas. He was last seen alive being placed onto a boat at Port-au-Prince, and is believed to have died on or about April 22 that year, as his death was later confirmed.[52]
Thomas was a biscuit factory worker who disappeared from her native Birmingham on August 18, 1961, only to be found raped and strangled a week later. Anthony Hall, who would later be convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for a similar murder in 1969, was considered a suspect from the beginning, but authorities were unable to charge him until he was identified via DNA technology in 2007. He never stood trial for Thomas's murder and died behind bars in 2011.[53]
Lucy Ann Johnson disappeared in 1961 from British Columbia, Canada, but was not reported missing by her family until 1965. In 2013, she was found alive in Yukon, Canada, having started a new family after her disappearance.[54]
Found alive
52 years
1962
Audrey Backeberg
82
United States
Audrey Backeberg, 20, disappeared from Reedsburg, Wisconsin on July 7, 1962, shortly after filing a complaint against her husband. A teen witness said she traveled with Backeberg to Indianapolis, where she was last seen. In 2025, investigators found her alive in another state and determined she had left voluntarily.
Toddler with Down syndrome whose body was found in a reservoir in Ashland, Oregon on July 11, 1963. He remained unidentified until October 2021, when his DNA was matched to a living half-brother.[55]
Victims of the so-called "Moors murderers" Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, who sexually assaulted, murdered and then buried their underage victims in shallow graves. Four of the victims' gravesites were eventually discovered, with the only exception being Bennett's, whose body still has not been found.[56][57]
On 27 March 1963, Wallace C. Halsey, founder of Christ Brotherhood (a UFO religious group) and his business associate Harry Cleveland Ross Jr. (a former mayor of Seal Beach, California) were flying a small Piper Tri-pacer aircraft from Utah to Nevada. Ross, the pilot, was the operator of the Meadowlark Airport in Huntington Beach, California, and a veteran aviator with an airline transport rating. The plane was lost and remained so for 13 years despite an extensive air search and attempts by Halsey's UFO coreligionists to locate him using the aid of extraterrestrial beings who indicated the key to the mystery involved the Egyptian pyramids and the number 14.[58] For example, one seeker claimed extraterrestrials informed him the "pyramids and the number 14 will solve the Halsey mystery."[58] At the time, Halsey was facing federal charges[59] and it was speculated by some that he had fled the country.[60] The wreckage was discovered by a lost deer hunter in rugged mountainous country on 30 October 1976 approximately 30 air miles north of St. George, Utah, some 10–15 miles off the filed flight course. The bodies and wallets of both men were found inside the fuselage, which was crumpled, but unburned.[61]
Paul Fronczak was a newborn baby who was kidnapped from the Michael Reese Hospital by a woman who was dressed as a nurse in Chicago, Illinois on April 27, 1964.[62] In 2019, he was discovered as a man named Kevin Ray Baty who was living in Michigan. This became known to the public a year later around the time that he died from cancer.
Eric was a former professional wrestler who committed suicide at age 48 by shooting himself in the mouth in a church parking lot in Cartersville, Georgia, and was reported missing after not showing up for a match. His body was found the following day. Eric is believed to have chosen to die by suicide due to both financial problems and having divorced his wife.[63]
The Crimmins children disappeared from their apartment in Kew Gardens Hills in the Queens borough of New York City on July 14, 1965. Their mother, Alice Crimmins, reported their disappearance to police the same day. Alice "Missy" Crimmins' body was discovered the same day; Edmond "Eddie" Jr.'s body was discovered five days later. Both children had been murdered.[64]
Captain Roscoe Henry Fobair's F-4C Phantom aircraft was shot down by North Vietnamese forces close to Hanoi on 24 July 1965. His remains were recovered in 2001.[65]
Victims of the Cannock Chase murders, a series of murders of young schoolgirls committed in Staffordshire, England, from 1965 to 1967. Raymond Leslie Morris was convicted of one murder and considered the prime suspect in the other two.[66]
Abandoned as a toddler in 1965, Jack Rosenthal was raised under the identity of a kidnapped child, Paul Fronczak. He discovered his true identity in 2015.[67]
Nichols last wrote to his family in March 1965 before severing contact with them, prompting them to file a missing report. Nichols worked using his real name until 1976 and before stealing the identity of a deceased boy and lived under his name until 2002 when "Joseph Newton Chandler III" committed suicide. It was only then that, when authorities tried to contact his next of kin, it was revealed that the Chandler identity was stolen, prompting speculations and investigations for his identity. It would not be until 2018 when Nichols was finally identified.[68][69][70]
Ajjamada B. Devaiah, an Indian Air Force pilot, was shot down in an aerial dogfight in 1965 over Pakistan. The Indian Air Force was unaware of what happened and declared him missing. It was revealed much later by Pakistan sources, based on a 1979 book by John Fricker, that Devayya's body was found almost intact by villagers not very far from Sargodha and buried. He was decorated posthumously in 1988.[71]
The murders of best friends and neighbours Marianne Schmidt and Christine Sharrock occurred at Wanda Beach near Cronulla in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, on 11 January 1965. The victims' partially buried bodies were discovered the next day.[72] The murders remain New South Wales' oldest unsolved homicides, and are known as the Wanda Beach Murders.[73]
One of the victims of the unidentified serial killer Miami Strangler. Gonzalez went missing for eight weeks after she was last seen at a salon in February 1966, and her decomposing body was later found in a river. The cause of her death was likely blunt force trauma, but as of today, the murderer was never found.[74]
Hedviga Golika was a Croatian woman from Zagreb, Croatia,[75] who in 1966 sat down in front of her TV with a cup of tea and died from unknown reasons. Her body was discovered 42 years later when the police entered her apartment.[76]
Warehouse worker who vanished after spending the evening of January 6, 1967, with some friends in Muswell Hill, but was reported missing after he failed to arrive home. His dismembered remains were found in two suitcases, but despite intensive investigations into his death, nobody was ever charged.[77]
Alvar Larsson was a Swedish boy who disappeared on April 16, 1967, while going for a walk.[78][79] In November 1982 a human skull was found on a small island 6 km away that was identified as belonging to Larsson.[78]
18-year-old Anne McFall disappeared in July 1967, when she was eight months pregnant. McFall's dismembered remains were unearthed at the edge of a cornfield between Much Marcle and Kempley in June 1994. Serial killer Fred West initially denied being responsible for her murder; however, following West's arrest, he confided in a visitor that he had stabbed McFall to death following an argument.[80]
19-year-old Eastern Michigan University student Mary Terese Fleszar disappeared in Ypsilanti, Michigan on July 9, 1967. Her nude, decomposed body was discovered by two 15-year-old boys on an abandoned farm in Superior Township on August 7, 1967; the body was formally identified as Fleszar's the following day via dental records. Prior to her death, Fleszar had been severely beaten; she had been stabbed dozens of times in the chest and abdomen, and many of her limbs were severed or missing. Though never convicted for this murder, John Norman Chapman is believed to be responsible.[81]
Jack McVitie, who went by "Jack the Hat", disappeared on 29 October 1967 in Stoke Newington, London, England after going to a party when he was assaulted and murdered. His body was then wrapped in an eiderdown and disposed of. It was later discovered and then taken to a place where it was never recovered.[82] Associates of the Kray twins were later charged and convicted of his murder.
Barbara Ann Hackmann Taylor disappeared on December 6, 1967, and was found dead near Georgetown, Kentucky on May 17, 1968.[83] Her unidentified body found wrapped in canvas, similar to that used for a tent, and she was dubbed "Tent Girl". The son-in-law of the man who discovered her body had an interest in the case and contacted her relatives after seeing a missing persons report. Barbara Taylor's remains were positively identified in 1998 following DNA testing.
Tutill was an English schoolboy who was kidnapped while en route from the Kingston Grammar School to his home in Brockham. His body, showing signs of rape, was found three days later near Cherkley Court. The remained unsolved until 2001, when the perpetrator's DNA was matched to Brian Lunn Field, a long-time suspect with a history of abusing little boys. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for the crime, which is currently the oldest solved cold case in the United Kingdom.[84]
A wealthy upper-middle-class family from Lathrup Village who were shot and killed inside their Lake Michigan holiday cottage on June 25, 1968. The murders were never solved, but are strongly believed to have been committed by an embezzling senior employee of one of Richard Robison Sr.'s businesses named Joseph Scolaro III. The alleged perpetrator committed suicide in 1973.[85]
Bjornson was abducted and murdered by serial killer John Dwight Canaday on the evening of 4 January 1969. Her body was discovered two months after her murder.[87]
Salee was the last of four known victims of serial killer Jerry Brudos. She was abducted from a shopping mall parking lot on 23 April 1969 and subsequently raped and strangled at Brudos' home before her body was discarded in the Willamette River.[88]
On 11 July 1969, Theodore Conrad surreptitiously robbed the bank where he was employed and then vanished. He evaded capture for over 5 decades by moving around the country for several years before he finally settled down (under an assumed name) in Lynnfield, Massachusetts, where he died on 18 May 2021[89] without ever having been caught. Several months after his death, US Marshals located his grave from a newspaper's obituary page.
Shea was a ranch hand at Spahn Ranch who was murdered by members of the Manson Family led by Charles Manson on 26 August 1969. He is believed to have been murdered due to having informed authorities of the Manson Family's criminal activities. Shea's body was recovered in December 1977; his autopsy revealed evidence of multiple incision wounds to the chest and blunt force trauma to the head.[90]
Calandriello was an Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey high school student. Calandriello disappeared on August 25, 1969. Her body was never found, although convicted murderer and suspected serial killerRobert Zarinsky confessed to her abduction and murder; he was convicted of this offense in 1975.[92]
Reet Jurvetson, a Canadian-American woman disappeared on November 14, 1969, and was found murdered on November 16, 1969, in a dense bushland off Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles, California. She had been stabbed over 150 times and her body was rolled down an embankment. Jurvetson remained unidentified for 46 years until an online mortuary photograph was recognised by her family and friends.[94]
Reyna Marroquín, a pregnant Salvadoran woman, disappeared in 1969 from Nassau County, New York. Her remains were found on September 2, 1999, in the former Jericho, New York home of Howard B. Elkins, her former boss, sealed in a drum that was stored in a crawl space. Marroquín was having an affair with Elkins and DNA test showed that Elkins was the father of the fetus. Elkins committed suicide not long after police questioning.[95][96][97]
McKay was a housewife kidnapped from her Wimbledon home on 29 December 1969. Her kidnappers had mistaken her for Anna Murdoch, then-wife of Rupert Murdoch. McKay's precise cause and date of death is unknown, although she is believed to have been kept alive by her kidnappers for at least three days. Her body was never found.[98]
Murdered
Body never found
Citations
^The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954) View title info Tue 16 May 1950 Page 3 PROF. RIDEOUT INQUEST
^The Sunday Herald (Sydney, NSW : 1949 - 1953) View title info Sun 9 Apr 1950 Page 3 Sydney Recluse Revealed As Secret Agent
^Victims of Aviation Accidents or Incidents in Canada: Cal Jones, Billy Joe Booth, Jonathan Mann, Brice Herbert Goldsborough, Bill Barilko, ISBN978-1-155-40830-9
^"2 Face Drug Charge". Salt Lake City, UT, US: Deseret News and Telegram. June 7, 1962. p. E17. Archived from the original on May 23, 2024. Retrieved May 28, 2022.
^Halsey, Larry Burgess (January 29, 2017). "When Silence Fell". FamilySearch. Archived from the original on April 12, 2023. Retrieved May 30, 2022.
