People disappear all the time. Most of the missing persons cases involve foul play and sometimes people decide to start a new life somewhere else. But there are some strange instances of humans simply vanishing that nobody has been able to figure them out, even to this day.
The Story of David Lang
David Lang lived on a farm in Tennessee along with his wife and two children. One September day in the year 1880, his son and daughter were playing in the yard in front of their house.
David and his wife came out of the house to greet a visiting friend who had just arrived by carriage. As David was walking across the pasture to meet his friend, he just disappeared into thin air.
This happened in full view of his family. At first they thought he had fallen down a sinkhole and they all rushed to the spot but could not find anything.
They continued searching for David through the following weeks without results. A few months after the incident, his children noticed the grass on that particular spot had shriveled and died. David was never seen or heard from again.
The Lincoln Tunnel Disappearance
In 1975, Jackson Wright and his wife Martha were driving from New Jersey to New York City. Right after passing through Lincoln Tunnel, Jackson pulled over to wipe the condensation off his windshield.
His wife went around the car to clean the rear window as well. After a few seconds, Jackson turned around and found out his wife had vanished. He had heard nothing and was visibly shook by what had happened.
They were a happily married couple and police investigators uncovered no evidence of foul play. Martha never came back home.
The Three Lighthouse Keepers
In December 1900, three men vanished from their post on the Flannan Isles lighthouse off the coast of Scotland. The islands were rugged and mostly deserted, especially that time of the year.
There was no boat on the island so the men could not have left by sea. Nothing was missing from the lighthouse, not even survival equipment the three men would have needed in order to survive outside.
Despite extensive searches, neither the men nor their bodies were ever found. The official explanation was that a rogue wave had hit the lighthouse but there was no evidence of that.
The Disappearance of an Entire Battalion
Millions of people perished during World War I. Between the bombings, shootings and chemical weapon attacks it was hard to find traces of those missing. But for an entire battalion to vanish without a trace and with no enemies around, something truly weird must have happened.
During the 1915 Gallipoli campaign, a New Zealand field company watched as a battalion of the Royal Norfolk Regiment marched up a hillside in Suvla Bay, Turkey.
A low-lying cloud shrouded the hill and as the last soldier stepped on the top of that hill, the cloud simply lifted off, revealing no trace of the battalion. No shots or explosions were heard.
After the war ended, the British government demanded that Turkey release the prisoners. However, Turkey had never captured any soldiers that day.
The MV Joyita Crew
In 1955, a merchant vessel called MV Joyita left a port in Samoa, carrying a cargo of timber and a crew of 25. Its journey to a nearby archipelago was supposed to take two days but the boat never arrived. Searches were fruitless until a month later, the boat turned up 500 miles away from Samoa, drifting aimlessly.
MV Joyita
It was partially flooded and had tilted on one side and its crew had vanished. The ship’s logbook and lifeboats were also missing. The rescuers found it very strange that the radio was working but no distress signal had been sent. Although there were signs of a collision, the boat was seaworthy because the hull was not breached.
All the clocks aboard the ship had stopped at 10:25 p.m. The ship was repaired and in the following years, the ship ran aground three more times.
The Entire Village That Vanished
Unfortunately, individuals regularly disappear and accidents at sea sometimes tend to happen. But nothing is stranger than the disappearance of the inhabitants of an entire village.
In November 1930, a fur trapper named Joe Labelle made his way to an Eskimo village near Lake Anjikuni in Northern Canada. He had made the journey several times before and was familiar with the residents. However, when he got there, he was greeted by a deserted settlement.
All of the huts were empty, the storehouses were untouched and there was no trace of the 2,000 men, women and children. Joe alerted the authorities and the investigation revealed some disturbing evidence.
There were no footprints left by the residents and no sign of an attack. The Eskimos’ food and provisions were found untouched while their sled dogs were found starved to death, buried under 12 feet of snow.
However, the most disturbing aspect the investigation uncovered was that their ancestral graves had been emptied.