The history of humankind is full of mysteries that we may never solve. Many of them are connected to mysterious events that didn’t have any witnesses. Some of the most famous ones are the Dyatlov Pass incident and the history of the Lost Colony of Roanoke that became famous all around the world and formed the basis of many legends.

Today, Bright Side wants to share some mysterious and gripping stories of people who disappeared without a trace.

6. The disappearance of lighthouse watchers

The lighthouse located on the Scottish island Eilean Mor is known for the mysterious story of the disappearance of 3 adult men. It happened in 1900 when the main watcher of the lighthouse, Joseph Moore, said goodbye to his coworkers and left to the shore station of Breasclete. That’s how the first assistant of the watcher Thomas Marshall, the second assistant, James Ducat, and his assistant Donald McArthur, were left alone on the island on the 5th of December.

The lighthouse on the Eilean Mor island

10 days later, the Breasclete station got a notification from the crew of the Archtor ship. The sailors reported that there was no light on the lighthouse and that was going against all instructions. However, it was assumed that there was no serious reason so nobody went to the island to check whether everything was alright.

Joseph Moore arrived at the island on the 26th of December after a strong storm and couldn’t find anyone in the lighthouse. The doors and windows of it were locked, the raincoats of the lightkeepers were hanging inside, the lamps were fueled up, but the clocks were not moving.

The thing that was disturbing the order was a dinner table that was turned upside down. The men were not found in any of the rooms but Moore was sure that his employees couldn’t leave the lighthouse all together because, first of all, it was prohibited by the instructions and, additionally, the men were experienced and responsible people.

During the investigation process, every inch of the tiny island had been checked but no traces of Thomas Marshall, James Ducat, or Donald McArthur were found. There are many outlandish theories on this occasion: evil spirits, aliens, and even fantastically giant birds.

However, the investigation sticks to a more prosaic version: presumably, foreseeing an upcoming storm, the men went to the rocks to fix the equipment but were suddenly washed away by big waves, which were not a rare event in that area. Perhaps, it was a strong unwillingness to finish their work in the squally wind and the heavy rain that made them go against the instructions and leave the lighthouse together.

5. The Springfield Trinity

Here is another story about the disappearance of 3 people at once. It happened in Springfield on June 7, 1992. The 19-year-old friends Suzanne Streeter and Stacy McCall had just graduated from school and were having a great time at a party. At approximately 2 AM, the girls went to Suzanne’s house where her mother Sherrill was waiting for them. Nobody has seen them since then.

The first person who noticed that the girls were missing was their friend Janelle Kirby who visited the house with her boyfriend. They had plans to spend the day at the water park but Suzanne and Stacy weren’t answering their phones. According to Janelle, the door was not locked, the porch lamp was broken but the bulb itself was not. There was nobody in the house except for the Yorkshire Terrier that lived with Suzanne and her mother. The dog was very excited.

At first, Janelle and her boyfriend didn’t think that something serious had happened. They even swiped away the glass of the broken lamp from the porch, perhaps having destroyed some crucial evidence.

Suzanne and Stacy at their graduation

Finally, Mrs. McCall, who wasn’t able to contact her daughter for quite a while, began to worry. She went to the Streeters’ home where she found Stacy’s wallet and clothes. Mrs. McCall listened to the answering machine and according to her, there was a really strange message but she deleted it by mistake.

The police filed the report 16 hours after the disappearance. They didn’t find any traces of a struggle in the house. The investigation hit a dead end until 2007 when the hardened criminal Robert Craig Cox was arrested. He claimed that he knew where the 3 missing women were.

The investigators found out that in 1992, Cox was living in the same city as the missing women and may actually have important information about their disappearance. However, he also said that he will tell everything he knows about the death of his mother, a case that still hasn’t been solved.

4. The lost crew of Mary Celeste

A merchant brigantine Mary Celeste was 12 years old when Captain Benjamin Briggs took over. On November 5, 1872, the ship left the New York port in Staten Island and headed to Genoa. Besides the captain, his wife, their 2-year-old daughter, and a crew of 7 sailors were also onboard.

The ship was supposed to deliver ethanol belonging to Meissner Ackermann & Coin; however, it never reached the destination point. 4 weeks later, the ship was discovered by David Morehouse, the captain of another brigantine called Dei Gratia, who knew Briggs personally.

The ship seemed undamaged but there was no one onboard. Everything indicated the urgent evacuation of people from the ship: there was no boat and the compass was broken as someone tried to take it off the wall in a hurry. However, the reasons as to why the people had to abandon the ship are still unknown.

The jewelry was left untouched and an oilcan left by the captain’s wife on her sewing machine was not knocked over, which means it wasn’t a pirate attack nor was it a storm that caused them to leave. The cargo was almost untouched, except for 9 barrels. The last note in the ship’s daily log was made on the 24th of November and stated that the ship was approaching the Santa Maria Island.

The most plausible version of what happened was expressed by Briggs’s distant relative. He suggested that the alcohol was not packed properly and airtight, which caused it to evaporate slowly. Therefore, when an accidental spark appeared, it triggered a microexplosion in the hold. Feeling afraid of a second and more violent explosion, the captain urgently evacuated the team and tied up the safety boat to Mary Celeste by the tackle used to lift one of the sails.

However, when the wind picked up, the ship jerked forward, causing the tackle tied to the boat full of people to tear. Perhaps, the boat was later overturned by a wave and all of the passengers died.

3. Korrina Lynne Sagers Malinoski and her daughter

On November 21, 1987, the owner of a store in Summerville, South Carolina found out that his employee, Korrina Lynne Sagers Malinoski, didn’t show up for work. The man wasn’t able to reach her and he went to search for her.

On the way to Korrina’s house, he found her car. The closed car was parked near the farm where the woman’s husband worked. Having suspected something strange, the man called the police and reported the missing woman.

The police found out that the last time Korrina was seen was when she was driving on the highway at 11 AM. That’s all that they managed to learn. There were no traces of a struggle near the car and the investigation of the plantation didn’t provide any results.

There were no changes in the case until another disappearance happened on October 4, 1988. This time, it was Korrina’s 11-year-old daughter from her first marriage — Annette Sagers.

The police suggested what Annette would look like today.

The last person who saw the girl was her stepfather. At around 7 AM, she was waiting for a school bus near the farm where her mom disappeared. When the driver arrived to pick Annette up, the girl wasn’t there. The girl’s stepfather didn’t know that she had disappeared until the moment he realized that she hadn’t come back from school. When he came to the bus stop, he found a message saying, “Dad, Mom has come back. Hug the boys.” Those boys were the girl’s brothers.

It was officially established that the message really was written by Annette. This piece of paper is still the only piece of evidence in this case. Some locals think that Korrina was abducted by aliens and returned to take her daughter with her, while others think that Annette was taken by the spirit of her murdered mother.

Modern users make more pragmatic hypotheses. According to one of them, it’s the woman’s spouse who is involved in the disappearance of Korrina and Annette; however, the investigators have no way to prove this theory. The second modern theory claims that Korrina escaped with her lover and came back for her daughter after several months.

2. The disappearance of 5 children from their bedroom

On December 24, 1945, the owners of a small hotel in Virginia, George and Jennie Sodder, were at home together with their 9 kids. It was already 9 PM when their oldest daughter, Marion, gave her siblings their gifts. The toys made them extremely excited and they wanted to stay up playing instead of going to sleep. Having left the youngest kids under the supervision of the elder children, George and Jennie went to sleep. They had to take 2-year-old Sylvia with them because she was already feeling sleepy.

Jennie woke up at about 1 AM from the smell of smoke. She ran out of the bedroom and realized that their entire house was on fire. Not having a chance to get to the phone, she shook her husband awake and Marion, who was sleeping on the couch in the sitting room, and asked them to take little Sylvia out. After that, Jennie started to call out the names of her children whose bedroom was upstairs. But only 2 elder boys came downstairs. Nobody has seen the other children since then.

Their bodies were not found. The parents refused to believe that their 5 kids died in the fire and suggested that the kids could have been kidnapped by representatives of the Sicilian mafia. 7 years after the tragedy, the brokenhearted parents aired photos of their children on TV. The announcement called for anyone to have any information regarding their whereabouts to come forward.

The head of the family believes that they have reasons to suspect that their kids were kidnapped. Sometime before the tragedy, there was a man who was trying to get a job at his hotel. When the man saw the electric boards, he said that one day, they will become the reason for a fire. However, before the meeting, the owner of the hotel had already requested the professionals from an electricity company to take a look. After checking all of the wires, they concluded that they were in good condition. That’s why George didn’t pay attention to man’s words.

After that, an insurance agent came to George and offered to insure his entire family. After being refused, he promised George that all his children would die and that would be a revenge for the fact that the owner of the hotel allowed himself to speak roughly about Mussolini (George really liked to criticize the politician from time to time.)

What really happened that night at the Sodders’ house still remains a mystery.

1. The Bennington Triangle

This strange name was given to the forests located around the mountain Glastenbury in Bennington County, Vermont. Just like in the famous Bermuda Triangle, people tend to disappear there without any traces. There are at least 5 Americans who vanished in the Bennington Triangle and whose traces have never been found.

Paula Welden

No signs of the missing girl were found. However, later a suspect was found. It was one of the locals who, according to the rumors, once said that he knew where the girl had vanished. When making this statement, the suspect was drunk. But since Paula’s body has never been found, no trial was held.

According to the police, only one person has disappeared in the past 50 years in the area of the Bennington Triangle. So today, it can be called a quiet place.

No other disappearances have happened in the Bennington Triangle since then.

All these stories happened several decades ago. For some, it’s convenient to say it was mysticism, while others (the more persistent ones) keep searching for clues in the archives and are determined to solve the mysteries.

But no matter how much time passes, these stories won’t be forgotten because human nature won’t allow things that awaken such a burning curiosity in our minds to vanish into thin air.

Which of these stories mystified you the most? Do you know of any other unsolved mysterious disappearances? Share your thoughts with us in the comments!

Preview photo credit THE CHARLEY PROJECT