Throughout the years, there have been many disappearances. They lack rational explanations. This has led to the development of many theories. These theories attempt to solve mysterious disappearances of great explorers into unknown places. Tales have been built about people who vanished into emptiness without a single clue left behind. There are no signs, warnings, or answers to such occurrences. Unsaid disappearances have captivated humanity throughout history. They still intrigue us today as they add another fold to the macabre tapestry of human history. Most such stories still shroud mystery. However, the theory associated with these vanishings evolves over time. It suggests some secrets may always remain buried.

Lost Colony of Roanoke

The disappearance of the Roanoke Colony is probably the most famous in all of American history. It vanished under mysterious circumstances in the late 16th century. In 1587, a group of English colonists landed on Roanoke Island off North Carolina. They were led by John White. Their mission was to establish a new colony. White sailed back to England for supplies but returned three years later in 1590 to find the colony utterly deserted.

Houses were found abandoned. There were no signs of struggle or violence. The only clue was the word “Croatoan” carved into a post, referring to the local Native American tribe. Speculation as to what actually happened varies. Some theories suggest that the settlers married into the Croatoan tribe. Other assumptions involve being brutally killed by hostile indigenous groups. There are even suppositions on alien abductions. Many expeditions have gone to the island over successive years. However, they haven’t found anything concrete as evidence of what happened. This mystery makes the disappearance of Roanoke’s settlers even more intriguing.

The Disappearance of Amelia Earhart

One of the most spectacular disappearances of the 20th century belonged to Amelia Earhart, the famous US aviator who disappeared over the attempted world flight in 1937. This morning, 2 July 1937 flying over the Pacific en route from Lae in New Guinea to Howland Island, the radio contact with Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan was lost-and the pair was never heard of again.

The many missions undertaken to find her and her plane and Noonan never found them. Several theories have cropped up over time describing the disappearance of Earhart. Whereas some people believe that due to fuel scarcity, Earhart and Noonan fell into the ocean, others believe that they fell on some uninhabited island and lived for some time and finally died due to inclement weather. A more farfetched hypothesis suggests she was captured by the Japanese. They supposedly took her as a spy in the Second World War. Once more, there is very little if any evidence for this. Of the thousands of investigations into her disappearance, and many, many searches, Amelia Earhart’s disappearance remains one of aviation’s greatest unsolved mysteries.

 The Mary Celeste

In 1872, the merchant ship Mary Celeste was found adrift in middle-Atlantic Azores Islands under full sail yet carrying no one onboard. The ship that had left from New York en route to Genoa was relatively well-found intact with its cargo comprising barrels of alcohol and food among other supplies. Missing was just the crew and the lifeboat together with a few personal effects.

The crew of the Mary Celeste vanished into thin air. This included Captain Benjamin Briggs, his wife, and their young daughter. No evidence of foul play could be found neither was any record in the ship’s log that something was wrong. Several theories have been advanced explaining the disappearance of this crew on this particular vessel, with explanations running from mutiny and piracy to a sea monster encounter. More have said that the crew likely abandoned the ship believing an explosion would result from fumes of the alcohol cargo. However, none was proven, and disappearance of Mary Celeste’s crew is inducted as the most puzzling maritime mystery ever.

The Disappearance of Lord Lucan

In 1974, British peer Lord Lucan became the centre of a British mystery when he disappeared after the savage murder of his nanny, Sandra Rivett. Lord Lucan’s wife Veronica was also the victim of a vicious attack – but survived. Never found after Lucan’s flight from the murder – and many – believe that this peer fled the country or was also murdered.

As a result of that, there came a horde of speculations that he had escaped to a country like South Africa or Australia and even to a country as far away from the United Kingdom as India. Yet others presumed that he died out of an abortive attempt at escaping. Scores of alleged sightings of Lord Lucan were there for many years, but none was proved. In 1999, Lord Lucan was declared dead, although his body was never traced; thus the mystery stays on in this disappearance.

The Franklin Expedition

In the year 1845, there was a fitting out of an English naval expedition under the command of Sir John Franklin with two ships, the HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror, to chart the last unexplored part of the Arctic. The said expedition got caught up in ice off the coast of Canada and Franklin and his crew were never seen again.

Of the world’s most notorious puzzles related to exploration, probably none is greater than the loss of Franklin’s Expedition. Many rescue missions to discover the missing vessels went on for many ensuing years, in fact until 2014 wreckage parts from the Erebus appeared on the waters off the coast of King William Island, more than 160 years hence. As a matter of fact, starting from this day, some more years ahead, it was the fate of Franklin and his crew that reached to this day.

Theories range from freezing to death, to dying of starvation and scurvy, a breakdown in discipline right down to cannibalism. Skeletal remains were found on King William Island in 2009 and some researchers felt this proved extreme measures were being undertaken in their desperate fight for life. But exactly what happened to Franklin’s expedition remains today a secret.

The Disappearance of Flight 370

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 disappeared on March 8, 2014, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people aboard. Less than an hour after taking off, air-traffic controllers lost contact with the aircraft; since then-never mind how many search efforts were made-the wreckage of the aircraft has not been located until 2015, when a wing flaperon washed up on the shores of Réunion Island in the Indian Ocean.

One of the most mysterious disappearances within the annals of aviation-the disappearance of Flight 370-was followed by very long searches over millions of square miles of ocean, producing only small bits of wreckage, the location of the main wreckage never found. From single mechanical failure to hijacking, it ran the gambit; even the idea that to disappear could be an act in and of itself-by one of its crew or passengers intentionally. Some even said it might have flown off course into the ocean, though that is not what must have happened but is unknown really. That explanation has kept the families, investigators, and the public searching.

The Disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa

Among the most famous disappearances in the annals of the American experience must be that of James “Jimmy” Hoffa, one of the most important union leaders the world has known, who on July 30, 1975, disappeared. He was last seen outside the restaurant Machus Red Fox in Bloomfield Township, Michigan, where he had arranged for a meeting with two mobsters. He was never heard again.

His disappearance was never solved, and the highly publicized investigation that chased several theories once speculated his end to be everything from a Mafia murder and burial in some secret grave site to cremation and the scattering of remains. For several years, investigators pursued leads, dug up land, and examined the various other possible hiding places, yet the remains of Hoffa were never found. In 1982, Hoffa was declared legally dead, but his disappearance is considered one of the biggest unsolved cases in the history of crime.

 The Disappearance of the Sodder Children

On Christmas Eve of 1945, the home of the Sodder family of Fayetteville, West Virginia, caught on fire. The fire left nothing but ash of the house, but by the time firefighters were able to arrive, there was no sign of the five children whom police had been told were in the house at the time of the blaze. Their parents George and Jennie Sodder insisted their children could not have died in that fire and somehow outside persons must have kidnapped the kids before the fire started.

Well after many years past numerous theories regarding what had occurred with the Sodder children were suggested; they ran from kidnapped kidnappers to someone deliberating setting fire. After that, for some time-a number of strange phone calls being given, and people also went up to visit, so a little suspicion came about, concerning any possible foul play in connection with that house. However, all these efforts by the family did not trace the whereabouts, and hence all the mystery was not resolved till today.

 Mystery of the Disappearance

History is filled with all kinds of reports of the disappearance of people in weird and eerie ways. Whereas a few of these got explanations, some still linger in the thoughts of those people who want answers to such incidences. As a matter of fact, the numerous theories circulating in such incidences present people with more questions than answers. It’s about time the world started thinking that perhaps some of those realities are unreachable to us in every respect of life. And with each disappearance, it becomes part of that bottomless mysteries list, adding itself within. The bottom line is maybe some of history’s most brutal secrets will remain there and would never be deciphered.