13 Famous People Who Just Up And Disappeared One Day (And Are Now Presumed Dead)

Yahoo

18-05-2025

Warning: this post includes mentions of addiction, depression, and suicide.
1.Richey Edwards was the intense, brilliant lyricist for the Manic Street Preachers, penning most of the lyrics of their iconic 1994 album The Holy Bible. Just before a U.S. promo tour, the 27-year-old vanished.
WHAT HAPPENED: Just one day before he was scheduled to fly to the U.S., on Feb. 1, 1995, the 27-year-old Edwards went missing. He was reportedly seen by fans and a cab driver in the following days, but his car was eventually found near the Severn Bridge, a known suicide site. At the time, Edwards was struggling with depression, self-harm, anorexia, and alcoholism. Still, no body was ever found. In 2008, over a decade later, his family had him legally presumed dead, but as their lawyer explained, it was more a move to get his affairs in order, saying, "That's not the same as an acceptance that he is dead."
WHY IT'S SO MYSTERIOUS: In the years since, people have claimed to spot the musician all over the world — Goa, the Canary Islands — always under a new name, always just out of reach. Some point to his fascination with disappearing as a concept. Before he vanished, he reportedly gave the book Novel with Cocaine to a friend and asked them to read the introduction, where the author wrote about vanishing from society. A 2019 book on Edwards entitled Withdrawn Traces, written with the cooperation of his sister Rachel Edwards, echoes this, saying that he'd shown interest in the idea of faking one's death in the years before he was last seen.
As Rachel told GQ, 'We know no more now than we did 25 years ago.'
2.Lord Richard John Bingham, aka Lord Lucan, was a charming, wealthy, and scandal-ridden British aristocrat. A professional gambler and regular at London's poshest clubs, Lucan was known for living lavishly, despite a crumbling marriage and big-time money problems (he was a gambler, remember).
WHAT HAPPENED: On the night of November 7, 1974, Lucan's children's nanny, 29-year-old Sandra Rivett, was bludgeoned to death in the family home. That same night Lucan's estranged wife Veronica stumbled into a pub, covered in blood. She said she too had been attacked and identified her husband as the assailant. Lucan fled the scene, abandoned his car near a port, and was never seen again.
WHY IT'S SO MYSTERIOUS: Is this a tale as old as time, of a rich guy escaping accountability for his wrongdoing thanks to big bucks and friends in high places? Maybe. Theories abound. Some believe his aristocratic friends helped him escape to Africa or South America. Over the years, there have been dozens of alleged sightings — in New Zealand, Australia, and even India — but none confirmed. Others, however, say he died by suicide...perhaps by jumping into the water near the port?
He was declared legally dead in 1999, but rumors have persisted that he lived under a new identity for decades. Wildly, just last year, Sandra's son Neil and an investigator tracked down a 90-year-old man in Australia they believe to be Lucan living in secret, but have yet to convince local authorities. Whatever the truth, Lord Lucan remains Britain's most famous fugitive.
3.Barbara Newhall Follett came from a family of very bright people (her sister, for example, was the first woman graduate student at Princeton), but she was the brightest of them all. She wrote poetry at age 4 and in 1927, and at just 12, she published her first book, The House Without Windows, to critical acclaim (The Saturday Review of Literature called the book 'almost unbearably beautiful'). Her next novel came out two years later to more critical acclaim. But fame faded, her father (and champion) left the family, and her life slowly unraveled.
WHAT HAPPENED: In 1939, at age 25, after a fight with her husband (whom she suspected of an affair), Barbara walked out of their apartment with the equivalent of just under $700 in today's dollars. She left no note. No trace. Her husband didn't report her missing for two weeks. She was never seen again.
WHY IT'S SO MYSTERIOUS: Some believe Barbara died by suicide. Others think she was murdered — possibly by her husband, who acted strangely and avoided questioning. Of course, a pretty young woman walking alone at night with a decent chunk of change in her pocket was at risk from other threats, too.
For years, her mother tried to reopen the case but got nowhere. She also was very suspicious of Barbara's husband, and wrote to him, "All of this silence on your part looks as if you had something to hide concerning Barbara's disappearance ... You cannot believe that I shall sit idle during my last few years and not make whatever effort I can to find out whether Bar is alive or dead, whether, perhaps, she is in some institution suffering from amnesia or nervous breakdown."
In 2019, writer Daniel Mills published his theory that police did find Barbara's body in 1946, but misidentified it as someone else. If he's right, and Barbara did indeed die by suicide, then a life that began with such incredible promise ended in a deeply sad way.
4.Michael Rockefeller was American royalty. The 23-year-old son of New York Governor and future Vice President of the United States Nelson Rockefeller (who would die while having sex, as described in this post), was an art collector, anthropologist, and heir to one of the richest families in U.S. history. To his credit, he often turned his back on a life of luxury to seek out adventure.
WHAT HAPPENED: In 1961, Michael and a colleague were on an expedition in Papua New Guinea to collect Indigenous art when their pontoon boat capsized, stranding them miles from shore in a catamaran. After drifting a while, Michael tired of waiting to be rescued and reportedly said, "I think I can make it," then paddled off toward land using empty gas cans as flotation. His colleague watched him until he disappeared on the horizon. He was never seen again.
WHY IT'S SO MYSTERIOUS: Despite a two-week search for Rockefeller involving ships, airplanes, helicopters, and thousands of locals scouring the coasts and swamps, no trace of the heir was found. At first, it was assumed he drowned, was eaten by a shark or 15-foot crocodile, or died from exposure (after all, he was 14 miles from shore when he set out for it). But New Guinea's coastal tribes had a complex history with outsiders, including brutal colonial violence. Rumors quickly spread that Michael had made it to shore… only to be killed and cannibalized by members of the Asmat tribe, with his bones being turned into weapons and fishing gear.
Over the decades, several documentaries and books — including Savage Harvest — have explored this theory. One even claims Michael assimilated into tribal life and lived in secret. But despite deep dives by journalists and even the Rockefeller family (using their deep pockets to try to get to the bottom of what happened), no definitive proof has ever emerged.
5.Dorothy Arnold was everything you'd expect from a New York socialite: elegant, well-educated, extravagantly rich, and constantly in the public eye. She dreamed of being a writer, but kept her failed publishing attempts a secret from her disapproving parents. And then — one day — she was just...gone.
WHAT HAPPENED: On Dec. 12, 1910, the 25-year-old left her family's Upper East Side home to buy a new evening gown. She stopped by a bookstore and bought a copy of the short-story collection Engaged Girl Sketches, then chatted briefly with a friend on Fifth Avenue. That was around 2 p.m. And then…nothing. She vanished in broad daylight, on one of Manhattan's busiest streets, never to be seen again. Her family waited a full day before going to the police — not because they weren't worried, but because they were embarrassed. Her father even hired Pinkerton detectives to look for her in secret, worried that a public scandal could hurt her reputation. But weeks passed. Then months. No body, no note, no confirmed sightings.
WHY IT'S SO MYSTERIOUS: Over the years, countless theories emerged. Some believed Dorothy died by suicide over her failed writing career or an unrequited love (could the book she bought about engagements be a clue?). Others suggested she died during a botched abortion, and her body had been quietly disposed of. A few speculated she was murdered in Central Park or kidnapped right off the street.
One popular theory? She faked her own death and fled (perhaps to Europe) to start over. She had, after all, bristled against her parents' protectiveness (her father, for example, had refused to let her get an apartment of her own). But despite alleged sightings of her everywhere from Philadelphia to Texas (later discredited), and at least two women who claimed to be Dorothy (all proven to be impostors), there simply was no proof of this.
Her heartbroken mother died in 1928, still hoping for answers, while her father, who dismissed the idea that his daughter would ever "disgrace" the family by sneaking off without a trace, passed away a few years later. In one of his final interviews, he declared, "After all these years, I am convinced that Dorothy is dead."
6.Jim Sullivan was a folk-rock musician in the style of Gram Parsons or Nick Drake who appeared in the classic film Easy Rider. His 1969 debut album U.F.O. was filled with lyrics about desert roads, aliens, and leaving Earth behind — the kind of stuff that didn't exactly scream "chart-topper," lol — but it built a cult following years later.
Above, Jim appears in the 1968 film The Pickup.
WHAT HAPPENED: In March 1975, Sullivan left L.A. to drive to Nashville in hopes of kickstarting his music career. En route, he checked into a motel in Santa Rosa, New Mexico, then bought a bottle of vodka and drove out of town. He was spotted 26 miles away at a ranch...and then never again. His car was later found abandoned with his wallet, ID, guitar, and belongings still inside.
WHY IT'S SO MYSTERIOUS: Locals said he seemed disoriented in the days before he vanished. Theories ranged from dehydration or a mental health crisis to foul play (perhaps by the mafia). But no remains were ever found, and no one reported seeing him after that day.
The surreal part is how closely Sullivan's real-life disappearance mirrors the themes of his music. His album U.F.O. opens with a track about a man who drives into the desert and disappears. The eerie coincidence made fans wonder: was Jim trying to vanish? Did he have a breakdown? Or — as some like to joke — was he actually abducted by aliens (hey, it's as good a guess as any)?
Nearly 50 years later, there are still zero clues about what happened. His old friend Al Dobbs told the New York Times, 'I think he stumbled into something or someone that was unforgiving. It's kind of poetic to picture him still walking out there somewhere. But something happened.'
7.Connie Converse was writing and recording deeply personal songs in the '50s — way, way before the singer-songwriter era made that cool. Her voice was intimate and her lyrics literary, but her life became increasingly complicated as the years rolled by.
WHAT HAPPENED: After years of struggling to find an audience, Connie left New York in the early '60s, moved in with family, and fell into a depression. In August 1974, she wrote letters to friends and family saying she needed to "make a new life," packed up her Volkswagen Beetle, and drove away. She was 50. No one has heard from her since.
WHY IT'S SO MYSTERIOUS: In the decades since, a new generation fell in love with her melancholy brilliance. But what happened to her remains unknown. The letters she left behind could be interpreted as suicide notes, but they also mentioned returning to New York and her music career. And, if they were suicide notes, why was her body never found? Or her car, for that matter?
Ten years later, her brother contacted a private investigator about searching for her, but decided to let it be; if she wanted to start a new life, that was her right. Here's hoping that is what happened, and there's not a darker explanation.
8.Percy Fawcett was the real-life inspiration for Indiana Jones — a British explorer obsessed with the uncharted Amazon and the belief that a lost ancient civilization was hidden within it. He called it the City of "Z."
WHAT HAPPENED: In 1925, the 57-year-old Fawcett set out into the Brazilian jungle with his 21-year-old son Jack and Jack's best friend Raleigh with big plans to finally locate the city he'd spent decades theorizing about. 'We shall return,' Fawcett told reporters ahead of the trip, 'and we shall bring back what we seek.' However, after sending a final message via courier from a remote outpost, the entire party vanished. No confirmed trace of any of them was ever found.
WHY IT'S SO MYSTERIOUS: Over 100 would-be rescuers and adventurers followed in Fawcett's footsteps in the years that followed. Some vanished themselves. Others were killed by tribes in the region. A few came back convinced Fawcett had died, or with wild stories of seeing him alive and living among Indigenous people, but none of these accounts could be verified.
So what DID happen? Well, let's be real for a second — dying was easy in the jungle. Between piranha-infested waters, dangerous jaguars, and the risk of malaria, parasitic infection, and starvation, there were all kinds of potential tragic ends for the group. Some believe hostile tribes killed him. That's possible. In 2005, Kalapalo Indians claimed that their oral history passed down that Fawcett made the mistake of crossing into the land of the warlike tribe, the Kalapalos. And then there are the diehards who still believe he found the mythical city... and stayed there. You know what? Let's go with that happy explanation, especially because it sounds the most like the ending of an Indiana Jones adventure.
9.Amelia Earhart was already a global icon when, in 1937, she set out to become the first woman to fly around the world. Smart, daring, and fiercely independent, she was the face of American aviation — and one of the most famous people in the world. But she's on this list, so you already know the trip didn't end well.
WHAT HAPPENED: On July 2, 1937, somewhere over the Pacific Ocean near Howland Island, contact with Earhart's plane was lost. She and navigator Fred Noonan were never seen again. Despite one of the largest and most expensive search efforts ever launched at the time, neither wreckage nor bodies were recovered.
WHY IT'S SO MYSTERIOUS: There are, of course, lots of theories about what happened. Some say she ran out of fuel and crashed into the sea. Others believe she crash-landed on a nearby island and died as a castaway. Then there's the theory that she was captured and killed by the Japanese after accidentally flying into territory they controlled.
The thing is, no matter how hard people try, no one ever seems able to crack the mystery (recently, an ocean exploration company claimed to have found her plane underwater...it turned out to be a rock formation, lol). This year, there will supposedly be an expedition to Nikumaroro Island, based on a theory that Earhart's plane landed on the island's reef and later sank. The team plans to investigate an underwater anomaly, dubbed the "Taraia Object," which may be the missing aircraft. Hmm. I'll believe it when I see it.
10.Harold Holt was Prime Minister of Australia and a close ally of United States President Lyndon B. Johnson when he went for a swim and vanished into the ocean.
WHAT HAPPENED: On December 17, 1967, Holt went for a swim at Cheviot Beach near Portsea, Victoria. It wasn't a great idea — the conditions were rough and the currents strong. Holt swam out to sea and then disappeared from view...forever. The government launched one of the largest search operations in Australian history, but no body ever washed ashore; nothing turned up.
WHY IT'S SO MYSTERIOUS: Sure, it's most likely he drowned. But Holt said he knew the swimming spot like the back of his hand (in fact, the above photo is of him in the water at the same spot where he disappeared), so conspiracy theories quickly piled up. Some believe he faked his death to run off with a lover. Others claimed he was a Chinese spy who was picked up by a submarine (don't bet your life savings on that one being true).
More grounded theories point to the rough conditions and strong currents...and the fact that Holt had a history of heart issues. But still — how does the leader of a country vanish during a casual swim with zero trace?
11.Glenn Miller was one of the world's biggest stars, famous as the bandleader whose swing music defined a generation. But when World War II began, he enlisted as a captain in the U.S. Army Air Forces and led the Army Air Forces Band with a mission to boost morale. "This was a lot of hard work, a lot of hard times, a lot of bad, dangerous traveling," according to NPR's Noah Adams. It worked, though, and Miller was promoted to General just a few months before he was last seen.
WHAT HAPPENED: On December 15, 1944, Miller boarded a small aircraft in England headed for Paris, where his band was scheduled to perform. Somewhere over the English Channel, the plane vanished. No mayday call. No crash site. No bodies. Just gone.
WHY IT'S SO MYSTERIOUS: In truth, this one is probably the least mysterious disappearance on the list, as bad weather most likely brought down the plane. But no wreckage was ever found, and wartime secrecy muddied the records. One of the most famous people in the world did indeed...vanish.
Rumors flew in the aftermath: some said the plane was hit by friendly fire, while others spread a very far-fetched conspiracy theory that he died in a Paris brothel and the plane story was a cover-up. (That one has zero evidence, but it's out there.)
Officially, Glenn Miller was lost in a wartime accident, and we can only guess at exactly how he met his demise. Sadly, his fans learned of his tragic fate on Christmas Day, 1944.
12.Ambrose Bierce was one of America's greatest writers, a journalist and author who survived the Civil War and wrote the classic The Devil's Dictionary, which defines "peace" as "a period of cheating between two periods of fighting."
WHAT HAPPENED: In 1913, at age 71, Bierce joined Pancho Villa's rebel army in Mexico as a war correspondent. He wrote a few letters from the front — one ending with the line "To be a gringo in Mexico — ah, that is euthanasia!" — and then stopped writing. Completely. There were no confirmed sightings, no remains, and no definitive reports of his fate.
WHY IT'S SO MYSTERIOUS: An official investigation by U.S. consular officials was conducted, but it only confused things further. Some say he was killed during battle (most likely the siege of Ojinaga in January 1914). Others think Villa's men executed him. And some believe he was never in Mexico at all — that his letters from Mexico were subterfuge to allow him to secretly die by suicide at the Grand Canyon. The truth will likely never be known.
13.Oscar Zeta Acosta was a larger-than-life figure: a Chicano activist, lawyer, novelist, and the real-life inspiration for Dr. Gonzo in Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (played by Benicio Del Toro in the movie). A firebrand in every sense, this dude was always in the middle of something intense.
Above, Denver artist Adolfo Romero paints a mural of Oscar Zeta Acosta in 2018.
WHAT HAPPENED: In 1974, Acosta — who had become increasingly erratic and involved with drugs — traveled to Mexico where he called his son and told him he was "about to board a boat full of white snow." That was the last anyone ever heard from him.
WHY IT'S SO MYSTERIOUS: What does "about to board a boat full of white snow" mean? Cocaine? His buddy Hunter S. Thompson seemed to think it was something like that, saying Acosta probably "ate too much peyote and walked off a cliff." Later, though, he investigated his friend's disappearance and speculated he might have been killed by drug dealers or was the target of a political assassination. But no one really knows. Some think he faked his death to escape his mounting legal troubles and public burnout.
His son Marco said, "The body was never found, but we surmise that, probably, knowing the people he was involved with, he ended up mouthing off, getting into a fight, and getting killed."
Maybe it is as simple as his son says. But like all of these stories, there just isn't a definitive answer as to what the heck happened.