5 Roads People Take and Go Missing Forever (and Even the FBI Is at a Loss)

We don’t think that many people would be amazed if you told them that there are places in the world where people often disappear. Everyone has heard about the Bermuda Triangle and the Bennington Triangle where a series of strange things has happened. But they are not the only places people disappear from.

And today, Bright Side has found similarities among several cases where people went missing and we’re ready to tell you about the roads that people disappear forever on.

In the early morning of April 14, 2011, the Nevada State police got a call from a local. He reported having seen an abandoned car on I-80 and asked the police to check and see if everything was alright.

Interstate 80 is a highway that spans from California to New Jersey.

The policeman who arrived saw that the car was parked at the 205 exit, shown here.

There was a sage bush around one of the car’s tires, but in general, the car was in perfect condition: the tank was full of gas and the engine worked.

The policeman asked the dispatcher to find out who the car belonged to. It turned out to be 82-year-old World War II veteran Patrick Carnes.

The policemen tried to contact the driver via phone but nobody picked up.

Then they decided to search the car. They found Patrick’s baggage, his wallet, and his checkbook that were all intact. So he definitely wasn’t robbed.

But 2 days later, when the abandoned Subaru was still at the 205 exit, Patrick Carnes’ sons came to the police. They said that they had gone to his house but didn’t find him there and they were really worried.

It turns out that on April 13, Patrick was visiting his family in Ohio and drove through Nevada very late in the evening. But he never called his relatives to tell them that he arrived home safely. His sons also said that Patrick’s dog Lucky was traveling with him. So he was lost too.

The old man was then reported missing.

The police searched for Patrick with helicopters, cars, and quad bikes. They used metal detectors and dogs, but they found nothing.

The only thing they managed to find out was that right before his disappearance, the old man was speeding and was stopped by a police officer. Patrick apologized and said that he was feeling insecure on the highway and that he had made a mistake by driving at night.

Patrick in the garden with his family.

He said that he was following a big truck to Elko. There, he was planning to rent a room and wait until morning to begin his journey again. But his car was found really far from the closest hotel. The truck he mentioned was on CCTV but it was never recognized or found.

No traces of Patrick were ever found even though his relatives, who worked in law enforcement, kept the investigation open for a long time.

It’s strange that Patrick wasn’t the only driver who disappeared near I-80. On September 21, 1978, Nan Dixon, who was 73 years old at the time, went missing.

Nan Dixon who went missing in 1978.

She was driving to her brother to pick up $6,000 that she had invested into his business. But she never got to his place. At first, there was no trace of her at all. And the only evidence in this case was a $4.18 check for filling up her car.

In 1982, there was a new lead. Coyote hunters found Nan’s car in the bushes, in a place that police officers had searched many times. There were fresh tracks from the car to I-80.

In the car, they found 4 empty cigarette packs, duct tape with hair, blood stains, and a suicide note that wasn’t signed. The body of the woman was never found and her family doesn’t believe she committed suicide. Her relatives spent $40,000 searching for her, but they found nothing. And 24 years later, 62-year-old Judith Casida disappeared in the same place.

The family reported Judith missing on February 14, 2006, but the woman’s car wasn’t found until March 5. It was parked near exit 205 of I-80, the same place where 5 years later, Patrick Carnes’ car will be found.

We must mention that before Judith left home, she left a note where she said that she had been feeling really depressed. But it is not known if she was having suicidal thoughts.

Despite the fact that all these people disappeared in almost the same place and in very similar ways, the police have no evidence that these cases are linked.

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a place with beautiful forests, hiking trails with various levels of difficulty, and of course, amazing mountains. 10,000 people visit the park every year. And the park is famous not only for its unique nature, but also for the several cases where people mysteriously went missing. All of these cases happened near the Appalachian Trail.

The park is located in Tennessee.

On June 13, 1969, 6-year-old Dennis Martin with his older brother, father, and grandfather went camping in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. They were going to spend Father’s Day together with just the guys. That year, it fell on June 15.

The group spent the night in a meadow and the next day, they stopped near the Appalachian Trail. The Martin family was not the only group that stopped near this place, there were other families with children too.

The children started playing with each other and decided to have some fun: they would hide in the grass and then jump out and scare the adults. When they did this, it really startled the adults but then they noticed that Dennis was gone. And still, authorities know anything about what happened to him.

Police officers made a composite portrait of what Dennis Martin might look like today.

About 1,300 people participated in the search of the boy, including FBI agents, but nobody came close to solving the mystery.

And 7 years later, Trenny Lynn Gibson also disappeared in the park.

Trenny was only 16 years old when she disappeared.

On October 8th, a bus with 40 school students and several teachers stopped at an observation deck of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The teenagers, who were around 16 years old, split into groups depending on how fast they wanted to hike.

After a short orientation, the students went to a mountain near the Appalachian Trail. The students were really excited to get going. It turns out that Trenny walked faster than her group, so soon she split from the group and it was the last time she was seen.

Again, it’s strange that her group was followed by students and there were people ahead of her as well. But nobody saw her on the way to the mountain or on the way back to the bus.

In 1981, in the same park, 58-year-old Thelma Pauline Melton went missing. She had gone camping with 2 friends.

Thelma’s friends were following her and at some point they realized that they couldn’t see her. It’s still not clear where she disappeared.

But it happened near the Appalachian Trail.

It is known that Thelma spent 20 years walking in this park with tourist groups and that she knew the park really well. What makes this case even stranger is that she was a little overweight, so she couldn’t walk fast and if she did she would always feel nauseated. Because of this it’s hard to figure out how she got separated from her friends.

It is not clear whether any of these cases are connected. These stories already have a lot of legends and theories around them. In order to figure out what happened in this park, it’s necessary to separate the facts from the conspiracy theories.

This highway is around 500 miles long, and people disappear here often. Sometimes children and teenagers go missing. Most bodies are found quickly, but what happened to some of them is still a mystery.

One of them is a 20-year-old named Tony Jones who went missing in 1982 when he was hitchhiking.

Tony was accompanied by his brother Tim but he didn’t hitchhike because he was riding a bicycle. Right before his disappearance, Tony spoke to his mother on the phone. She told him that she sent him $150 that he was supposed to split with Tim.

Nobody has seen him since then and there has been no activity in his bank account.

Tony was last seen near Flinders Highway, which is infamous among the locals because of several crimes that have happened near it.

• In 1970, the bodies of Susan and Judith Mackay were found near the highway. The girls disappeared from a school bus stop and 4 hours later they were murdered.

Susan was 7 years old and Judith was 5 when they disappeared.

• In 1975, 18-year-old Katharine Graham went missing here. Her dead body, that had multiple injuries, was found near the highway.
• In 1978, 2 school teachers from New Zealand disappeared here, 21-year-old Gordon Twaddle and 31-year-old Tim Thompson. Their bodies were found near the highway. They had been shot.
• And to this day nobody knows what happened to Anita Cunningham. She was hitchhiking with her friend Robin and they were supposed to meet Robin’s mother but they never arrived at the destination.

Anita was 18 years old when she disappeared.

Robin was found murdered, but Anita was never found. It’s still not known what happened to her.

This is another national park where people walk and disappear. And here are only several people who went missing here.

14-year-old Stacey Arras went camping with her father. They were in a group of 10 people.

Stacey wanted to go to the lake with one of the men from the group, a 77-year-old man.

But the man got too tired on their walk and sat down to rest. Stacey decided to keep going. She was last seen by the guide of the group who noticed that she was sitting on a rock looking around. Nobody has seen her since then, and people keep disappearing.

• Timothy Barnes went missing in July 1998 while walking on one of the hiking trails. The only thing we know is that he was headed north.
• That same year, David Paul Morrison (28 years old) went missing in this park.
• In 2000, near Yosemite Valley, 45-year-old Kiran Bark disappeared.

He was on his way to Curry Village, not far from the place where David Morrison went missing.

• The same year in August, Ruthanne Ruppert disappeared. This happened after the woman had visited Yosemite Falls.

8 years after Ruthanne disappeared, her backpack was found in a drainage ditch. No other things were found.

There are other people who disappeared in the park too.

• For example, in June 2011, George Pensa, who went to Yosemite Falls with a group, went missing. He was last seen at around 2 p.m.
• And in September 2016, 74-year-old Peter Jackson disappeared in the park. He rented a camp and his spot was pre-paid. His car was found near his tent but he was never found.

Because people disappear in national parks in the US, there are a lot of strange theories around these stories. For example, some people blame evil spirits or even Bigfoot.

Trail of Tears is an unofficial name that Canadian people have given to Highway 16. Since 1969, 21 girls have disappeared in this area.

The first case happened on October 15, 1969. 26-year-old Gloria Moody went missing after a party with friends. She was last seen alive late in the evening leaving a bar in Williams Lake.

Gloria’s body was found the next day after she went missing near Highway 16. She was the first victim from this infamous place. Since then, girls have been disappearing regularly and despite the effort of detectives, it is still not known what happened to some of them.

For example, the police never found out what happened to 16-year-old Shelley Anne Bascu who disappeared in 1983.

She was last seen on May 3, at 8:30, walking on Highway 16 in the direction of her house. But she never showed up, so her relatives called the police. The authorities thought that she just ran away from home.

But later, Shelley’s clothes were found on the Athabasca River bank. Her body was never found. And 6 years later, 15-year-old Delphine Nikal went missing in the same region.

On June 13, she met friends in Smithers and at 10 p.m. she called her uncle and told him she would just hitchhike home. But she never made it. She was last seen by her 2 friends who were driving on the east side of Highway 16.

Just 10 months before this tragedy, Delphine’s cousin went missing. Her name was Cecilia Anne. Her disappearance happened in Vancouver but she was last seen near Highway 16.

It didn’t stop there.

• In 1995, 19-year-old Lana Derrick disappeared here. She was last seen at a gas station near the highway.
• In 2002, Nicole Hoar went missing in the same region. She worked in Prince George and was going to hitchhike to Smithers that day. Nobody has seen her since.
• In 2005, 22-year-old Tamara Chipman never returned from a trip on this highway. She was last seen hitchhiking on Highway 16 near the Prince Rupert Industrial Park. This happened just 2 days after the authorities asked young girls not to hitchhike there.

The last disappearance happened in May of 2011. 20-year-old Madison Scott disappeared while camping. The police found out that the day before that, she was at a party with her friends near Hog’s Back Falls.

Most people who were at the party went home, but Madison stayed to camp out in a tent. 2 days later her worried parents found the tent and her car. The tent was broken and Madison’s bag was in the car. Madison was gone. Her keys and her iPhone were gone, too.

Her parents reported this to the police but despite a thorough search, she was never found. There was no evidence that someone left the camp on foot. It’s believed that an unknown driver took Madison.

Despite the similarities, the authorities don’t believe that the girls were murdered by a serial killer. Now there are banners along the highway warning local women about the dangers.

In order not to go missing when traveling alone, remember these basic tips from experienced travelers:

• Trust your instincts.
• If someone is offering you something for free, it’s probably a good idea to decline.
• Don’t tell strangers where you are staying and where you’re heading.
• Try to stay in public places.
• Don’t let other people know how much money you have on you.
• Stay sober.
• Sleep in a safe place.
• Be polite.

Which of these stories amazed you the most? Tell us in the comment section below!