Bryce Laspisa did not disappear on some lonely stretch of highway when nobody knew where he was. For much of August 29, 2013, people could still locate him, speak with him, and point him toward home. The 19-year-old Sierra College student seemed close to ending his family’s worry several different times. Instead, the…
In May 2017, two hikers were following a GPS route through California’s Anza-Borrego Desert when the landscape ahead began changing. The narrow canyon opened into a broad, pale basin that neither of them expected to find there. Their navigation still showed them on course, so they kept walking. For roughly forty…
On August 2, 2024, a drone hovered over Bulwagga Bay on Lake Champlain while a small rowboat moved through the water below. Two actors were inside, filming a scene for a movie about Champ, the legendary creature said to live in the lake. Nothing about the moment seemed unusual. Nobody in the boat pointed toward the…
In February 2016, people in Forest Grove, Oregon, began waking to a noise that seemed to come from nowhere. Residents compared it to a giant flute played badly, distant steam brakes, or pressurized machinery screaming somewhere in the dark. Sometimes it lasted only seconds, while other episodes stretched on for…
One December evening in 2012, commuters traveling between Leeds and York felt their train begin slowing on open track. There was no station ahead, no platform lights outside the windows, and no obvious obstacle on the line. The train rolled into the darkness and came to a complete stop. At first, nobody had much…
On July 18, 2007, Barbara Bolick went hiking near Bear Creek Overlook in Montana’s Bitterroot Mountains. She was 55 years old, comfortable outdoors, and familiar with the area. Nothing about the trip suggested it would become one of those disappearances where the last known moment seems almost too small to hold the…
In April 2015, a YouTube channel appeared and began uploading videos that looked like digital garbage. Most lasted only a few seconds and showed nearly blank brown or black screens, tiny dots, strange colors, bursts of static, or a voice saying a single number or letter. There was no host, explanation, advertising, or…
Turn a shortwave radio through the right frequencies late at night and eventually the static can give way to a voice. There is no host, no music, and no explanation for what you are hearing. A calm mechanical voice simply begins reading groups of numbers into the darkness. Elsewhere on the dial, a buzzing tone can run…
Long before sunrise on February 26, 2016, the skies over Pentyrch were already busy. Helicopters moved through the darkness around the small Welsh village outside Cardiff. Residents heard explosions. A real military exercise was taking place, and some details of the operation would later remain undisclosed for…
Late one night in November 2018, a software engineer was driving north on Britain’s M6 through Staffordshire when a wall of greenish fog appeared across the motorway. It was thick enough to swallow the road lights ahead. He drove into it expecting to come out within seconds. Instead, the traffic disappeared. The…