I've been wondering where I should post this, so I hope I posted this in the right spot.
If it's not, I'm very sorry.

I have an interest in "cold" cases and cases where people go missing.
Why?

Because, my great-great grandfather and two guards he was traveling with in the late 1800's-early 1900's went missing on the Rio Grande border between Texas and Mexico.
All I know, is that he was from Pennslyvania, and he was going to Mexico with payroll (He did this every couple of months, I believe) for men who worked in his silver mines.
The guards had worked with him for over 30+ years and were very loyal. My great-great grandmother (his wife) spent all of her money, trying to find him, or what happened to him.
She hired private detectives, and Texas Rangers and they did not find the money, any trace of it, or the bodies of the men. They could find nothing.

I just wanted to tell my story, and if anyone has any other stories that are similar, please share them.

Thanks!

Thousands and thousands of people go missing every year in the world. Some with no clues to their dissapearance. Google parapsychology timeslip phenomenon ... you may not believe it, but .. well all I will say is that theres a lot of truth to this even though I still cannot logically comprehend it.

Thank you for the story.Most likely they were attacked by Apaches or mexican bandits or even some gang . They probably ambushed them
and shot them dead,then stole the money. The horses where probably taken by the theives,,,stripped of saddles and later sold.
I doubt the graves or grave was marked . If they were in an area with any caves the bodies could have been put into one,or maybe just covered with rocks.
Whoever did it didn't want the bodies discovered.It's also possible that they aroused someone's interest,and they were tailed by their killer or killers.
I doubt their remains will ever be found.

Thanks for the replys.
I doubt the case will ever be solved, like so many others.

My wife has a tale. Her Aunt dissapeared several decades ago without trace. Police have an inkling she was made part of a dams foundation. No way to find out now though, it would require millions of dollars to get to the suspected location.

Several fascinating cases of mysterious disappearances have stuck in my mind since I first encountered them many years ago.

Firstly, the case of Dorothy Forstein. I have been unable to find much information at all about this case on the internet, so I will endeavour to recall what I can from memory. The story is that (I believe in the 1950s), Dorothy Forstein, the wife of respected Judge Jules Forstein, was badly beaten by a stranger whilst returning home from a shopping trip, although there was no apparent attempt at robbery. Naturally, the family tightened their security. Several months later, whilst Jules was out of town, the young daughter of the family awoke in the night to find lights burning in the house. Curious, she went to her mother's room to investigate, and found her mother lying face down on the floor in her red silk pyjamas, with a strange man standing over her. The man ruffled the girl's hair and advised her to go back to bed, before picking up her mother and assuring her that Dorothy had "been sick but would soon be better". The girl returned to her room, and in the morning all trace of her mother was gone. Investigating police discovered that none of Dorothy's possessions had been touched; her purse and keys were in the house; the front door was locked and there was no sign of forced entry. Jules Forstein was discreetly investigated and cleared as a suspect. The mysterious stranger had left no trace of his presence, and Dorothy Forstein was never seen again. The most poignant epigraph I recall from the book recounted Dorothy's last words to her husband as he left the family home, "Be sure to miss me...".

So much mystery surrounds this case - firstly, who was the mysterious intruder? Was there a link between the disappearance and Dorothy's brutal beating? How could anyone carry a woman in her pyjamas out of her family home and escape unobserved? What happened to Dorothy Forstein?

Lady B thats a big big big place to lose a body or 3. Yours sounds pretty simple. They were ambushed, money taken, bodies hidden. Sorry for you loss.

Thanks for the replies.




Wow! That is interesting!

There are several stories here also about missing persons: http://www.prairieghosts.com/crime.html

There are several interesting stories there!

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Wow! I mean, just by her last comment to her husband alone makes me wonder whether or not she herself was involved in her own disappearance. But, then again, that could just be cooincidence. Reminds me of Amy Semple MacPherson. Many say she resurfaced over a period of absence, but I have trouble believing that. I mean, why would she just up and leave the Angelus Temple in Los Angeles? Something that she built up from the ground herself? Makes no sense to me. Just to go frollicking off with a man? Just doesn't fit.

I disappeared once. I left William & Mary law in February 2001. I left my books, motorcycle, car, cd's - everything. I took a bus and traveled between Chicago, New York, Atlanta, Baltimore, and Washington DC for two months - until my money ran out. Then I spent a year homeless in Washington, DC. Spent my days in libraries catching up on all of the knowledge that Corporate America tried to suppress in my mind. It was a truly great experience. I "lost" my identification and read books, journals, and wrote quite a bit as well. I highly recommend going underground (or spending six months to a year each five year interval) to clear one's head, and catch up on "truth." In fact this was the first time I had the opportunity to read the bible cover-to-cover - quite an interesting read - pestilence, violence, genocide, etc. with a little bit of hope thrown in the mix.

People go missing for various reasons. I think Cassidy and Sundance went missing in the 19th Century as well. I think they ended up in Argentina running a ranch or something. In fact, I came to Mongolia to work in the "big city" for no more than five years - and then to "go missing" in the countryside. I figured I could telecommute via the internet and become a rancher myself. -Not a bad idea...

To Lady Boleyn, maybe great-great-grandpa went to Mexico. It must have been an alluring place. The current President of Mexico is himself descended from an American (from Chicago, I think) who went down to old Mexico to become a rancher. Kinda cool - in my view.

Mel Gibson's dad went missing (with Mel and brothers) in the 1960's. They left Pennsylvania for Australia. (Mel's Dad was concerned that the boys would have to fight in Vietnam.) Many other American boys went missing in the late 1960's and early 1970's for the same reason. But they disappeared into Canada and the Northwest Territories.

When I was a teenager, I was in the church choir at the First Methodist Church in Fontana, California. Our wonderful choir director was a spinster of around 35 years old. She went on vacation somewhere in the Midwest, and returned with a boyfriend. Ken Kitchen was his name. Lois married him, and they were deliriously happy. Seems like just 6 months or so elapsed. He was in San Bernardino having their Volkswagen fixed at Van Wyk VW on a Friday afternoon. He called Lois and told her that the car was just about ready, he would pick up some groceries on the way home and would see her in an hour or so. He never returned home. The VW dealer said he paid for the repairs and drove off, never to be seen again.

It so happens that very weekend there was a horrible crime in Lake Arrowhead. A family of 6 was found dead in their rented cabin. They had been shot, hacked up and left for dead. None survived. Did Ken fall prey to the murderer as well? Was he abducted and forced to drive the murderer up the mountain to commit his henis crime? Was Ken the Murderer? It was mentioned in the San Bernardino Sun, months later, that Ken, having disappeared the weekend of the murders, could very well been involved. Speculation was that he was somehow a victim himself and/or was the perpetrator of the evil deed. His VW was never located.

My heart went out to Lois Kitchen. Never did she speak of him again, but I can imagine the torture she was put through. She has since passed away herself.

I disappered once for a long time. For personal reasons. South America is a wonderful place to disappear in. No one ask to many questions.

Sometimes starlight takes them away...visitors....before they would have died.....



A Better Place......(Video)

You might be right. You never know.

http://www.doenetwork.org/

I agree, ValkyrieVoice, that there does seem to be some indication that Dorothy Forstein herself was involved in her mysterious disappearance. At any rate, it seems fairly obvious that she knew her attacker; as the lack of evidence of a break-in suggests that she allowed the stranger into her home. On a sad note, I recall reading that her parting words to her husband were something of a common term of endearment - she often advised her husband to 'miss her' when he left town on business. Of course, her prophetic words were to have a terrible and tragic resonance after her disappearance. I'm afraid that I am not terribly familiar with the Aimee Semple McPherson case, although I have heard of it. Do elaborate.

I enjoyed visiting the 'Prairie Ghosts' site - many thanks for the link. It highlighted yet another case of mysterious disappearance - The Bloody Benders of Kansas. This notorious family owned and operated an inn in rural Kansas, in which they robbed and brutally murdered travellers for what they kept in their carpet bags. The story goes that beautiful daughter Kate entertained guests while they ate, whilst father or brother Bender sneaked up behind the unwitting victim and split his or her skull with a hatchet. On discovery of their murderous habits, the entire Bender family fled onto the Prairie, never to be seen again, although women travelling in pairs were routinely suspected of being the female Benders.

As an interesting aside, I read a fascinating and very puzzling piece on the family in a book on unsolved crime. It recounts an incident several years later, in which the residents of a tiny Kansas village found one of their neighbours, a man called Joe Monahan, dead in his mountain shack. Joe had come to the town only a few years before and made a meagre living from the few chickens he owned; generally keeping to himself and mixing with the village folk only on matters of trade around a camp-fire. When his body was discovered and brought down to the village for interment, the mortician made a staggering discovery - little Joe Monahan had been a woman! The village men ransacked his/her house in hope of finding some clue to the sad little figure's identity - and discovered only one thing: a yellowed, worn newspaper clipping on the disappearance of Kate Bender and her family. Could Monahan have been an alter ego assumed by the villainous Kate in order to elude authorities? And if so, what became of the rest of her wicked family?

Interestingly, I have been able to find next to nothing on the mysterious 'Joe Monahan' - which simply fuels my desire to find the tatty old book in which I encountered the story!

I do love a good mystery. That sounds interesting.

That is an interesting story!
Thanxs so much for sharing.

Never head of the Dorothy Forstein case.Jay Robert Nash has a book entitled,Among the Missing,and several other books.
Amiee Semple Mcpherson was originally born in Canada,and her parents if I recall,were members of the Salvation Army.
She was a lady preacher and wound up out in California where she founded the Angelus Temple.During I think 1926 or 27,she was with a co-worker from the Temple.They had gone down to the beach.Amiee sent her friend to buy some cold drinks.When the friend returned,she was gone.The friend thought she was just out swimming,but when she didn't come back
the authorities were notifiyed.There was a big hunt for her.She finally turned up in Agua Caliente,Mexico,on the border with Douglas,Arizona.She was taken to the hospital and all marveled about her escape from some supposed kidnappers. However,people started to get suspicous,and she went on trial in LA. Wintesses put her in Carmel,Ca. in the company of
the Angelus Temple's radio operator,who was a married man.There have been several books written about her and the trial.She died i think in the 1940s or later.

I think the crime you are referring to is the Keddie Resort,in which a family was brutually slaughtered and the cabin it happend in is believed to be haunted.

My l

Sorry for the erroneous post above, but I don't believe it was my fault. As soon as I typed the "l" above I received a "There has been a error" message and the brief fragment I had keyboarded posted. I didn't realized this until after I'd re-keyboarded and posted the entire message.

My late and dear friend Lou Tabakow, for decades the doyen of organized Science Fiction fandom in the Midwestern United States, more than once told me of how his Mother's brother-in-law vanished from the large Orthodox Jewish community in Montreal, Canada, in 1920.

The uncle had been sitting with his wife in their living room when they both heard the wind knock over the trash cans outdoors. He walked outside in his shirtsleeves to set them aright.

He was never seen again.

I was able to point out to Lou that there had an epidemic number of unexplained disappearances reported from Montreal that very year.

OOPS! Sorry, I was trying to tell Old Time Radio, that scenario was absolutely chilling. The unbelievable finality of someone walking out the door and never returning and the "What Ifs" truely boggle the mind.

These cases are the ones that intrigues me. Amazing how many people walk out their doors to never been seen again... many theories regarding where these people go.. So many, it's almost unbelievable.. and worldwide.

Qué?

there have been about 5 or 10 folks who have vanished around my area of va the last 10 years.