Some disappearances simply fascinate and become unsolved mysteries. Here are five of the strangest disappearances you might have ever heard of.
Disappeared from over the Pacific Ocean, attempting to fly around the globe. After exhaustive search operations were conducted following her last flight, no evidence of her fate or the wreck of her plane has ever been found. Some theories speak of a crash landing at sea, while others suggest she was captured by Japanese troops.
That year, a man using the alias Dan Cooper really caused quite a stir. He used a clever ruse to hijack a Boeing 727, extort $200,000 from the airline, and parachute away from the aircraft somewhere over the Pacific Northwest. No one has seen or heard from him since; most of the ransom has never been recovered. His true identity and fate remain one of those mysteries that has yet to be solved.
An entire colony of English citizens disappeared from Roanoke Island - now part of North Carolina - without leaving any trace. When the governor, John White, returned after getting supplies in England, the settlement was devoid. The only thing that could be found were the carvings "CROATOAN" on a post of the fence and "CRO" on a tree. The question of what happened to the approximately 100 colonists still rank as one of the oldest unsolved mysteries in American history.
From the parking area of a restaurant located in Bloomfield Township in the state of Michigan disappeared this powerful and controversial leader of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union. There have been a variety of investigations and theories, some of those even rumored to include organized crime elements, but there has even been a legal ruling declaring Hoffa dead in the year 1982.
Five of the nine Sodder children mysteriously disappeared after a fire that burned their Fayetteville home in West Virginia on Christmas Eve. While the other four children and their parents escaped, no remains were ever found of the missing five, and the circumstances surrounding the fire and disappearance of the children remain highly suspicious.