8 Mysterious Disappearances of Famous People That Give Us the Chills

2018-11-15

According to some sad statistics, more than 4.5 million people have gone missing over the past 20 years. Among them, there are famous people too, even though they’re always in the spotlight. For example, the son of a millionaire went missing in the jungle of New Guinea and the first female pilot in the world just disappeared in the air above the Pacific Ocean.

The disappearance of famous people forces others to come up with a bunch of different ideas and theories explaining what happened. Bright Side wants to tell you about the strangest cases.

1. Michael Rockefeller

Michael Rockefeller, the son of the famous millionaire Nelson Rockefeller, was an ethnographer and an anthropologist. As a child, Michael loved history and anthropology. Later, he decided to become a scientist and entered Harvard University. After the end of his studies, the young specialist wanted to go on a scientific expedition to Oceania to study the lives of the local people. His father supported Michael and paid for the trip.

In the fall of 1961, Michael went on an expedition to New Guinea with a Dutch ethnographer René Wassing. Accompanied by 2 guides, the scientists traveled around the places the locals lived in and exchanged the things they had for the things of the locals. Sometime later, they had a unique collection but Michael didn’t want to stop there. The scientist went to a local Asmat tribe on a boat. The tribe was famous for eating people.

On the way to the island, the boat capsized and everyone except for Michael decided to go back: he wanted to swim to the destination. After that, he was never seen again. Many people think drowning or being eaten by crocodiles are unlikely versions. According to the most likely version, he was killed and eaten by the tribe.

2. Amelia Earhart

Amelia Earhart was an aviation pioneer and a writer. She was the first female pilot to have crossed the Atlantic Ocean in 1928. In 1937, Amelia decided to make a tour around the world with flight navigator Fred Noonan. The pilots managed to make most of the way. They still had to fly 11,000 kilometers before their final target over the Pacific.

However, after some time, the plane was lost. According to experts, the weather conditions were really bad, they were running out of gas, and the radio didn’t work well. The search for the plane lasted for more than 2 weeks but there was no result. There were a lot of wild theories about what happened to Amelia — some people even think that the Japanese kidnapped her. But a researcher from the Tennessee University thinks that the remains found in 1940 most likely belonged to the famous pilot.

3. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was a famous French writer, poet, and professional pilot. On July 31, 1944, the writer was piloting a French plane. The pilot was supposed to do an aero photoshoot near the Alps. But the plane never returned to the airport and was labeled missing.

For decades, there have been many mystic theories on what happened to the famous writer. But on September 7, 1998, the captain of the ship “Horizon” found a bracelet at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea with the name of the writer and the name of his wife. In 2000, a diver reported having seen a plane on the bottom of the sea where the bracelet had been found.

In 2008, researchers who were still hoping to find the truth contacted Horst Rippert, a German pilot who shot the writer’s plane down. According to Rippert, on July 31, 1944, he saw a plane with the French colors and decided to attack. The German pilot saw the plane go down into the sea. The former German pilot also said that he loved Saint-Exupéry’s books. And if he had known it was him, he wouldn’t have shot.

4. Richey Edwards

Richey Edwards was an English musician and the guitar player of an alternative rock band, Manic Street Preachers that was famous in the ’90s. Edwards, just like many rock musicians, suffered from depression and anorexia. On February 1, 1995, the band was supposed to fly to the U.S. for a promo tour and Richey never showed up for the flight. At 7 am, the musician left his hotel room to meet the rest of the band at the airport. But he didn’t come. The musicians started looking for Richey but found nothing.

This is a really strange case because Richey was seen several times in strange places: at a taxi stand in Newport and at a station in Severn View. The search for the musician was going on for more than 10 years. On November 23, 2009, Richey was finally declared dead.

5. Oscar “Zeta” Acosta

Oscar Zeta Acosta was an American lawyer, writer, and activist, famous for being friends with Hunter S. Thompson, who described him as his lawyer in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

In 1974, the lawyer went to Mexico which is where he ultimately went missing. In May 1974, Oscar called his son and told him he was going to get on a boat full of white snow. There was a rumor that Acosta was alive and hiding in Miami but some time later, his friend Hunter Thompson wrote an obituary. According to Thompson, Oscar had drug problems. The lawyer’s body was never found.

6. Bison Dele

Bison Dele is a famous American basketball player. For his entire life, he was acting weird and eccentric. He finished his career when he was at his best, at the age of 30. In June 2002, Dele, his girlfriend, and his brother went on a cruise in the Pacific Ocean. The athlete and his girlfriend were last seen in Tahiti on July 8, 2002. His brother returned several weeks later.

In September, his brother was arrested by the police. 2 days before that, the basketball player’s yacht was found near Tahiti with bullet holes. The FBI decided that the brother shot Bison and his girlfriend and threw the bodies into the ocean so nobody could find them. Sometime later, he committed suicide. There was no new information after his death so the investigation was stopped.

7. Sean Flynn

Sean was the only son of Hollywood actor, Errol Flynn. Unlike his successful father, Sean was never good in cinema and he was disappointed with himself. After making 10 movies, Sean decided to become a photo reporter. His photographs were regularly printed in big newspapers. On April 6, 1970, Flynn and his colleague were traveling across Cambodia on bikes. On one of the roadblocks, they were stopped by Khmer Rouges. Nobody has seen the photographer since. There was a rumor that he was seen in Mexico many years later, but there is no proof.

8. Connie Converse

Connie Converse was a singer and songwriter in the 1950s. She often performed in New York but she never became famous. In 1970, the singer was going through a difficult professional crisis which resulted in a severe depression. In August 1974, she wrote several letters to her friends and family where she said that she wanted to start a new life somewhere else.

Her relatives thought she was going to go to the lake for one day but by the time the letters were read, she had already packed her stuff and went away. All further searches for Connie didn’t bring any results.

Do you have any ideas about what happened to these famous people? Maybe some of them are still alive? Tell us in the comment section below.

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