Every once in a while we hear that someone has gone missing. And we feel this dread because we keep thinking how life can be unpredictable. One moment we are alive and well, living our lives like we have always lived. And then boom - we can suddenly vanish without a trace.
Often times those who go missing are found. Whether alive or dead. But there are some cases shrouded in mystery. Disappearances that continue to puzzle us over for decades, even centuries.
Here's the list of 10 famous people who once went missing and were never found again
In 1971. just the day before Thanksgiving, the American public was shocked to find out that the man under an alias of Dan Cooper, dressed in a business suit, hijacked Northwest Airlines 305.
With nothing but a briefcase bomb in his hands, D.B. Cooper as he later became known, approached the flight counter and demanded from the pilots to pass on a message to the authorities. He asked for the parachute and $200,000 ransom.
Upon receiving both the money and the parachute at the Seattle Airport, he released all the passengers and continued the flight with 2 pilots and 1 flight attendant.
Just 45 minutes into the flight he strapped the money around his chest, put on a parachute and then jumped off the plane into oblivion.
A military search party of 1,000 men wasn't enough to find this elusive thief.
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John Cabot was a very successful explorer. He is best known for being the first European to reach the shores of North America since the Vikings.
His successful voyages quickly turned him into a living legend. Cabot took one of such trips in a search for valuable dies that could be harvested. After finding what he was looking for on Cape Bonavista in Newfoundland, he was welcomed home a hero for claiming a new land for England.
But when he set sails to have yet another trip in May 1498 it turned out to be his last. A storm forced one ship to return but the four remaining ships sailed on and were never heard from again.
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Roald Amundsen was Norwegian explorer best known for his explorations of both the North and the South Pole. For that, he is considered one of the most successful if not the most successful explorer of the 20th century.
He went to history as a hero as he set out with a small party aboard the plane to search for members of a crashed airship. It was on this mission that Amundsen and his crew vanished without a trace.
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Oscar Zeta Acosta was an accomplished author, dedicated Chicano activist and successful attorney. And although he didn't become the sheriff of Los Angeles county he still managed to receive 100,000 votes in the process.
While traveling in Sinaloa, Mexico, Costa allegedly phoned his son just before disappearing and his location has never been determined.
According to some sources, he was an amfetamine addict, which may just very well be the cause of his disappearance.
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Jim Gray, an award-winning computer scientist, is best known for his contributions in the field of database and transaction processing.
On January 28th, 2007 Jim Gray set sail aboard his yacht to scatter his mother's ashes near Farallon Islands off San Francisco. But California emergency location beacons were never activated and no trace of him or his 40-foot yacht was ever found.
Img src: computerworld.com
Henry Hudson was one of the greatest English explorers during the Age of Exploration. He is the namesake for the Hudson River and Hudson Bay. And his everlasting wish was to find Northwest Passage to China. But he was two times unsuccessful.
After a small break, he wanted to pursue his quest but his crew disagreed and rebelled.
The crew eventually set Hudson adrift on an open boat along with his son and seven crew members. Since then he was never seen or heard again.
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Harold Holt, the 17th Australian Prime Minister went missing while swimming at Cheviot Beach near Port Victoria. along with his neighbor and supposed lover.
All of the sudden he decided to go for a swim all by himself. But shortly after this, he went missing in the waves. Holt hasn't been found despite one of the largest search parties in Australia's history.
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With a checkered past that included convictions for fraud, jury tampering, and bribery, it came as no surprise for many that Jimmy Hoffa made some enemies.
Hoffa was eventually elected president of the IBT but his illegal dealings led to an intense investigation from Robert F Kennedy and he was eventually sentenced to a total of 13 years in prison.
Office sentence was commuted by Richard Nixon after less than 5 years served. He enjoyed nearly 4 years of freedom before disappearing from an affluent Detroit suburb on July 30th, 1975.
Apparently, he was scheduled to meet two organized crime bosses. Hoffa was legally declared dead 7 years after his disappearance and speculations of his faith continue to this day.
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Andrew Carnegie Whitfield was the nephew of American steel magnate Andrew Carnegie. He was a Princeton graduate and a successful business executive that enjoyed a hobby as an aviator in his tailor club airplane.
He took off from a Roosevelt airfield on Long Island and was scheduled to land 20 minutes later in Brentwood, New York. But he was never heard of again and the plane was never located
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In 1932 Amelia Earhart became the first civilian to receive the Flying Cross award. This was due to the fact that she was the first woman ever to fly across the Atlantic.
She grew up flying planes with her father but it was this event that propelled the pilot not only to stardom but also her eventual disappearance. Earhart vanished on July 2nd, 1937 while piloting and was never seen again.
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