This square image is mostly brown, yellow, and red. At the center of the brown square is a yellow-tinged photo of many dark brown human silhouettes in varying degrees of transparency, all looking away from the viewer toward the horizon. Over the top of this picture the words “Unidentified,” “Unsolved,” and “Missing” are superimposed at different angles. In the bottom right corner, it says, “Remember the forgotten cases.” Design by Jan S. Gephardt. Silhouettes photo by “rawpixel” of 123rf.

People who Disappeared

July 30, 2025 WeirdnessManager

We’ve all heard stories about people who disappeared. It’s standard fare in much of the true crime genre and in mystery fiction. And, as we saw in the Texas Hill Country along the Guadalupe River quite recently as I write this, it’s something that happens in real life.

Have you ever known anyone who disappeared? This person is part of your life, and then all of a sudden they’re not there anymore. You don’t know why or what happened to them. Do you personally know how that feels? Thank goodness, it is an unusual thing. But a disappearance nearly always leaves a huge hole in the lives of those left behind.

This blog post was inspired by many things, including a recent personal event and a theme with which I’m engaging in my novels. Humans want explanations. Unsolved mysteries bother people – especially the people they most closely affect. People who disappeared are among life’s most unsettling mysteries.

Recent and Longer-Ago Cases

I recently opened a Facebook post from a distraught grandmother who is among my network of acquaintances. “Every night I go to bed praying, ‘Please send our precious girl home tonight,’” she wrote. “Every morning I wake up praying, ‘Please bring our sweet girl home today.’ All day long I pray, ‘Please keep our angel safe, protected, and bring her home now.’”

Of course this 14-year-old girl and her family immediately went on my prayer list! I am delighted to report that she has since been found and is safe. But this family’s anguish is not unique. Indeed, it is as old as humanity. Did Ötzi the Ice Man leave behind a family who wondered what happened to him? It’s likely, because living in groups is a universal human strategy for survival.

My family had a jolting experience early in our married life while our kids were small. A dear friend with whom we’d shared many experiences suddenly disappeared. He traveled frequently for his work, so we didn’t expect to see him daily. It seemed quite ordinary when he left that one day. But then he never came back. We checked with his work – his family lived far away and we didn’t know them. His boss said he was on leave, but wouldn’t say more. That was at least 30 years ago. We still don’t know what happened. It left us feeling hollow and empty, and I know it bothered our kids. Still does.

This photo shows two search and rescue workers in black and red wetsuits and three other uniformed officers standing on a gravel bar on the Guadelupe River, looking at the barely-visible lower side panel and protruding tires of a mostly-buried white pickup truck. Photo by Mimi Joeckle, via “Meteorologist Dan Henry” on Facebook, July 10, 2025. — “This photo gives us an idea of the monumental task of searching for all those still missing [after the Guadelupe River flood of 7/4/25]. That is a full-size pickup truck buried under tons of debris.” – “Meteorologist Dan Henry,” July 10, 2025 on Facebook.

Where and Why do People Disappear?

Well over half a million people disappear each year in the United States. Disproportionately high numbers also disappear in India, the UK, Syria, Colombia, Mexico, and Nigeria. There are many reasons why people go missing. Often, it’s foul play. Kidnapping and forced disappearance are the most frequent reasons, and children under 6 are the most-kidnapped category of people who disappeared.

But it also could be that they had an accident, were swept away in a flood, or met some other fate caused by the forces of nature. Some areas have become infamous for disappearances, such as the Bermuda Triangle and the Alaska Triangle. Soldiers sometimes go missing in action during battles or other military operations. People can meet with all kinds of mishaps in life that make them disappear from the knowledge of their families and friends. Whatever the reason, people who disappeared leave an aching void for their loved ones.

People who Disappeared . . . on Purpose?

Even so, sometimes people disappear on purpose. Occasionally we hear of those who take spontaneous advantage of the confusion after a natural disaster to walk away from legal trouble or a personal dispute. Other times they give it a lot of thought before they do it.

An infamous case of a person who disappeared on purpose happened in 1971. A guy known to history as D. B. Cooper hijacked a passenger jet and held the passengers and crew for ransom, claiming he had a bomb. He subsequently leaped out of the plane with four parachutes and $200,000.

According to Wikipedia, he “parachuted into the night over southwestern Washington [state]” and was never heard from again (although some of the money later was found). That persistent mystery of “where is D. B. Cooper?” made the story all the more compelling for decades afterward.

This square design centers on a composite of imagery that includes an old-fashioned white-on-teal blue photocopy of a boarding pass behind a large, dark red on white image of what is believed to be the most accurate police sketch of D. B. Cooper. At lower left an inset shows a reversed-out red-on-black version of a related police sketch of Cooper in sunglasses. At the bottom it says, “D. B. Cooper, an enduring mystery. Illustration by Guardian Design; Alamy, via The Guardian.” — See Credits below.

The Unidentified are the Flip Side of People who Disappeared

While most missing persons are found, usually within 24-48 hours, not all are. Some go missing for much longer, even decades. Most people rely on law enforcement to search for missing loved ones. And police are always involved when an unidentified person turns up dead.

The United States government operates the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, or NamUS, which is designed to be a “national centralized repository and resource center for missing, unidentified, and unclaimed person cases across the United States.” It has proved to be a helpful tool, but it’s only as good as the completeness of its listings.

Not all people who disappeared are found, or at least not found and identified. Hundreds of thousands of cold cases remain on the books. I often share success stories about unidentified-person cold cases solved via investigative genetic genealogy on my author social media. As a writer of science fiction mysteries, I’m deeply interested in the technologies being developed in forensics. Some of the things smart people have figured out can seem like science fiction, even though they’re now something we actually can do.

Looking Hard, or Hardly Looking?

However it’s an open question of how diligently some searches are made, depending on the race of the people who disappeared. There are many situations when the family or tribal group doesn’t feel the police are giving their loved ones’ cases enough attention.

The NAACP has published a resolution on “Missing African American Women and Children in the United States of America.” It notes that resources are often lacking, and media coverage is frequently problematic.

And even the US Bureau of Indian Affairs acknowledges that a disproportionate numbers of indigenous persons are missing or murdered, yet resources for resolving those cases can be far too sparse.

This square image centers on an aerial photo looking straight down at a single rower in a turquoise and white boat, on a wide expanse of blue-green water. The quote, reversed out in white, reads, “’But nothing makes a room feel emptier than wanting someone in it.’ – Calla Quinn.” At the bottom it says, “Photo: Getty, via Country Living.” — See Credits below.

People who Disappeared still Haunt those Left Behind

Humans being humans, there probably always will be people who disappeared from their friends’ and families’ lives. There also probably always will be unidentified persons whose families and friends still wonder and worry about them.

As a writer, I believe such mysteries can make compelling stories. But they’re neither fun nor entertaining for real people enduring the real pain of wondering what has happened to their friend, parent, sister, brother, or child.

I believe that as a society we owe it to everyone, regardless of race, ethnicity, or gender identity, to devote the resources to helping find them. Or at least find answers about what happened to them. We owe it to the living missing, who are all too often trafficked or kidnapped or unhoused. And we owe it to the families and friends to find the connections, and bring home more of the unidentified people who disappeared.

About the Author

Jan S. Gephardt is the author of the science fiction mystery XK9 Saga. These books, which include the XK9 “Bones” Trilogy, tell stories of a pack of uplifted police dogs who live on a space station and solve crimes (among other things). Her most recent novel in the series is Bone of Contention. She’s now hard at work on the next volume, Bones for the Children. She also is the Chief Cat-Herder and Art Director for Weird Sisters Publishing, and a creator of fine art paper sculpture.

IMAGE CREDITS

Jan built the first image in this post using a photo of multiple human silhouettes by “rawpixel” of 123rf, originally for a social image post about Isdal Woman Day, observed each November 29. The second centers on a photo from the search and rescue efforts near the Guadalupe River near Kerrville, TX, taken by Mimi Joeckle and posted by “Meteorologist Dan Henry” on Facebook, July 10, 2025. The third image centers on a composite illustration created for The Guardian (UK) using images sourced from Alamy. The fourth is an illustrated quote from Country Living, which uses a photo from Getty.