Mystery Unexplained Missing Persons Cases

[craffles]

Wondering if the Springfield three mentioned on page one could be a case of witness protection? The two girls could have seen something and then been permanently relocated with the mother after they told her and assumed new identities.

Some of the missing persons cases would have to fall into this area surely

 

[Moonwatcher]

Wondering if the Springfield three mentioned on page one could be a case of witness protection? The two girls could have seen something and then been permanently relocated with the mother after they told her and assumed new identities.

Some of the missing persons cases would have to fall into this area surely

Never thought of people in witness protection being 'missing persons' as far as the rest of the community is concerned before.

 

[craffles]

Never thought of people in witness protection being 'missing persons' as far as the rest of the community is concerned.

I would imagine they would need to play it out that way otherwise what would their family and friends say?

 

[emuboy]

I would imagine they would need to play it out that way otherwise what would their family and friends say?

There are many theories around the Springfield Three, and witness protection does have some merit. However, like every theory in this case there is always something else that appears to rule it out. I'm not sure how witness protection works exactly, but if the three women had seen something that potentially put their lives in danger, it would have to be so big for them to have to go into hiding so quickly and allow a world-famous mystery to develop. Who would they be giving evidence against? And in over 30 years since then, there have been reviews of the now cold case by the FBI and Missouri State Police, all of which cost money and use police resources. Would they do this if the Springfield Three were living under new names in a village in France, a luxury hotel in Dubai from which they never ventured out, or in a small Tasmanian town?

 

[emuboy]

I am the same age as the killers of James Bulger. That one still hurts to think about.

The photo of the two boys who killed James Bulger - Thompson and Venables - never fails to send chills down my spine over 30 years later. Another odd thing is that while Thompson under his new identity has vanished into obscurity and stayed out of trouble, Venables in his new identity has not been able to stay out of trouble with the law and has been sent to prison multiple times for numerous offences, some extremely serious.

I always feel sad when this case and the Jon-Benet Ramsay case are brought up and you see old photos of the child victims, thinking about the lives they were robbed of by evil killers and the suffering their families went through. It's like the well-known 2002 picture of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in their Manchester United shirts, the chilling thing about this image is that it was taken just hours before the two friends were murdered by evil killer Ian Huntley.

Another well-known photograph of a child born in 1990 - the same year as James Bulger and Jon Benet Ramsey - also chills me, but for different reason. It shows a pretty little blonde girl aged about six, wearing her best dress, a bow in her long blonde hair and smiling for the camera. This little girl was named Lucy Letby, the apple of her parent's eyes had a happy home life, would do well at school and grow up to fulfil her dream of becoming a nurse. She also became one the UK's worst serial killers of children, murdering and attempting to murder a number of sick and premature babies (as Letby herself was as an infant) in her care at a neo-natal unit in a hospital in Chester where she was employed.

What is strange about the Lucy Letby case is that she was a much-loved only child from a stable home. Only child serial killers are very rare, as are female serial killers who act alone and serial killers who target infants. Letby didn't have an evil husband or boyfriend and was the Myra Hindly to his Ian Brady or the Karla Homolka to his Paul Bernardo. The stable happy family life is also very rare for serial killers, most of them have traumatic events in their formative years. If Letby had come from an impoverished family where abuse, alcohol and drugs were common factors and she spent an unhappy childhood being shuffled between her parents, other equally dysfunctional relatives, foster homes and group homes for troubled children, but through it all was intelligent enough to study and get the grades she needed to become a nurse, her criminal ways would make more sense. Even murderers who kill only once like Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme - obsessive teenage girls who murdered Parker's mother in Christchurch New Zealand in 1954 - had traumatic childhoods with Pauline Parker stricken by and partially crippled by polio, and Juliet Hulme suffering debilitating TB and also bomb shock after growing up in the UK during the Second World War.

But with Lucy Letby, absolutely nothing came out from her childhood that might have suggested a trigger for what she would do as an adult. This is what makes that childhood photo of Lucy circa 1996 - a literal picture of innocence - so chilling.

 

[BlueE]

The photo of the two boys who killed James Bulger - Thompson and Venables - never fails to send chills down my spine over 30 years later. Another odd thing is that while Thompson under his new identity has vanished into obscurity and stayed out of trouble, Venables in his new identity has not been able to stay out of trouble with the law and has been sent to prison multiple times for numerous offences, some extremely serious.

Don't be too sure about that.

Anyone living in Perth with connections to media or the prison system 17 years ago might have a different view.

World wide surpression orders exist, so don't ask, don't tell.

 

[ioppolo]

Don't be too sure about that.

Anyone living in Perth with connections to media or the prison system 17 years ago might have a different view.

World wide surpression orders exist, so don't ask, don't tell.

Livingston shopping centre?

 

[craffles]

There are many theories around the Springfield Three, and witness protection does have some merit. However, like every theory in this case there is always something else that appears to rule it out. I'm not sure how witness protection works exactly, but if the three women had seen something that potentially put their lives in danger, it would have to be so big for them to have to go into hiding so quickly and allow a world-famous mystery to develop. Who would they be giving evidence against? And in over 30 years since then, there have been reviews of the now cold case by the FBI and Missouri State Police, all of which cost money and use police resources. Would they do this if the Springfield Three were living under new names in a village in France, a luxury hotel in Dubai from which they never ventured out, or in a small Tasmanian town?

You’re probably right, they would just let it die out until it didn’t get any traction but stranger things have happened. If it’s not relevant in this case, it’s one to consider for other missing persons at least.

 

[faible]

Livingston shopping centre?

Dante Arthurs - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

It was alleged that Arthurs was in fact Robert Thompson, who at the age of 10 years was convicted of Bulger's murder, given a new identity and then transported to Australia. Information was revealed publicly by the Western Australian and Australian Federal Police that Arthurs was not Thompson and the rumour gathered no more momentum.[9][10][11][12] On 29 June 2006, the British High Commission in Canberra issued a media release stating "There is no connection between the man arrested in Western Australia and the individuals involved in the James Bulger case."

 

[emuboy]

The USS Cyclops, which vanished without trace in March 1918 between Barbados and Baltimore along with its 306 passengers and crew is one of the Bermuda Triangle's greatest mysteries, and astonishingly more than a century on remains the US Navy's deadliest maritime incident not involving direct conflict. No trace of the lost ship or those aboard has ever been found.

The Cyclops was one vessel in a class of four Proteus Class colliers, and two of her sister ships - the USS Proteus and the USS Nerius - like the Cyclops would vanish without trace, both within weeks of each other in November & December 1941 and both in the vicinity of the Carribean sea. Neither ship has ever been found.

The fate of the fourth ship in the class - the USS Jupiter - is the only one known, but it had an unhappy ending, sank by Japan in the Pacific Ocean in 1942.

 

[emuboy]

The Maura Murray case from 2004 - often cited as the first high profile missing persons case of the social media age - was a strange one. Maura Murray, then aged 21 and a college student studying nursing definitely seemed to be a young woman with problems in her life, and on the 9th of February 2004 emailed college lecturers and her boss at her part time job that there had been a death in her family and would need to be away for a week. In fact there was no death in either side of her family, and after buying alcohol and withdrawing an amount of cash, Maura set off driving through rural New Hampshire in heavy snow. She was in a single vehicle car accident due to the poor driving conditions, the second car accident she had been involved in within a week, and refused help from witnesses, saying she had called AAA and would wait with the damaged car. One man called the police, but when they arrived Maura was gone and searches of the woods failed to yield any clues.

In this case there was no shortage of plausible theories - suicide, disorientation after the accident and subsequent death by exposure in the freezing forests, voluntary disappearance or abduction followed by homicide - but none could be substantiated despite a huge search and appeals for information. Maura Murray was never seen or heard of again, and more than 16 years later no closer to being solved than the cold day she vanished.

It's now been 20 years since Maura Murray vanished into the snow that cold night in February 2004, and still no closer to the case being solved. The most likely explanation - that Maura wandered off into the forest either deliberately or through shock after the car accident and succumbed to the elements - is strange given her body was not found in the snow during extensive searching, and no remains or any of her clothes have been found in all the years since.

 

[kaijuwarrior]

It's now been 20 years since Maura Murray vanished into the snow that cold night in February 2004, and still no closer to the case being solved. The most likely explanation - that Maura wandered off into the forest either deliberately or through shock after the car accident and succumbed to the elements - is strange given her body was not found in the snow during extensive searching, and no remains or any of her clothes have been found in all the years since.

How spooky is this?
I literally have just read about this case and then came to this thread after a year or so and there it is.
No coincidence. It's her from the other side telling us she's ok.