Vanishing People- The incredible unexplained story
Is it possible a person can be here one minute and then totally disappear the next, never to be seen or heard from again? There are those who would say yes for they claim to be witnesses to just such a phenomenon. But where do these disappearing people GO? How is it they seem to defy the very laws of nature as we know them? Sometimeslogic cannot explain away an event, and we like to label it a mystery.Perhaps one day well have answers, but for now we are only shrouded in questions.
On June 29, 1968, the Purdue Aviation Corporation charter flight was carrying 23 passengers from Kankakee, Illinois to a national Lions Club convention in Dallas, Texas. It was a clear summer day without a cloud in th sky. Somewhere over Rolla, Missouri, Jerrold I. Potter excused himself to use the restroom and proceeded to make his way to the rear tail section of the plane. Mrs. Potter watched her husband walk down the aisle as he stopped to briefly chat with James Schaive, president of a Lion’s Club in Ottawa, Illinios. She then turned to watch the beautiful scenery below. She never saw her husband again, dead OR alive. After a few minutes the plane seemed to shudder for only a few seconds and as it seemed to be only passing turbulence, no one paid it much attention. But when Mr. Potter hadnt returned after what had seemed an undue length of time Mrs. Potter grew concerned.
She asked a stewardess to please check the lavatory for her husband. At about the same time, pilot Miguel Raul Cabeza noticed one of the DOOR OPEN warning lights was flashing. He asked the co-pilot Roy Bacus to investigate. Not wanting to cause concern among the passengers, Bacus calmly walked to the rear of the plane. On the way, the same stewardess Mrs. Potter had spoken with, informed Mr. Bacus a passenger may be missing. The co-pilot surveyed the rear and found that indeed the exit door near the lavatory was slightly ajar, the same door the flashing warning light had indicated. Since the DC-3 wasnt pressurized, the cracked door hadnt caused any noticeable problems.
Mr. Bacus found a chain used to keep the emergency door closed lying on the ground. He then reported his findings to the captain who speculated that when the plane was shaken, Mr. Potter had probably fallen against the door and when the safety chain broke, fallen out of the aircraft. But in a later report, it was noted that just because the chain had broken, the cumbersome emergency door handle still needed to be turned 180 degrees, and while this particular door handle was often a little harder to budge than the other hatchways, it would have been even harder to open in flight.
No one had seen Mr. Potter fall, nor did they hear a scream or even any kind of commotion. One person said, ..it was as if he just vanished. One minute he was there, the next he was gone. Did Mr.Potter commit suicide then? Friends and family firmly rule that possibility out. He was, by all accounts, a happy person with a comfortable life and good friends. So what DID happen to Jerrold I.Potter? After making the discovery of the chain, the captain requested permission to land, and did so in Springfield, Missouri.An intensely thorough search was made for Mr. Potter along the DC-3s flight path,but his body was never found, nor were any clues as to what might have
happened.
Next is an account of a man who disappeared in full view of 2 witnesses in 19th century England. It was September 3, 1873. A man named James Worson had accepted a challenge to race in record time
from the town of Leamington to the town of Coventry, a 20-mile trek. He had been basting of his foot skills and then asked to prove them, so with sporting good spirits he set about to do just that. Two
friends, Hammerson Burns and Barham Wise, followed behind in a horse-drawn gig. Burns brought alonghis camera. As the three traversed down the country road all were in high spirits. The day couldn’t have been prettier. Worson was never out of their sight and would often turn around while running to exchange some friendly words with the two riders. Running in the middle of the road, Worson suddenly appeared to stumble and pitch forward, having time enough for only one short,
piercing scream. Wise later said, It was the most ghastly sound ether of us had ever heard. But as Worson pitched forward with that terrible cry, instead of falling to the ground as he appeared to about to have done, he completely and totally vanished in mid-fall before ever striking the ground.
The road itself told the story and Wise took the pictures to prove it. There, in the soft dirt, were Worson’s footprints.They led down the middle of the road, looked as if the runner stumbled,
and there they disappeared. When the two men returned to Leamington with their incredible story, search parties were formed to scour the entire area from Leamington to Coventry, but not one shred of evidence was ever found of James Worson, nor would there ever be in the years to follow.
The bloodhounds used in the search were strangely reluctant to approach the spot where Worson disappeared. He was never seen or heard from again. At least, not in his old earthly body, for if reports are to be believed, for many years after James Worsons tragic and unbelievable
disappearance, a ghostly runner with an eerie green glow would be seen making the trek from Leamington to Coventry on black lonely nights on the empty road. What happened to James Worson remains a mystery to this day. What made him scream so terrbly, did he see something the others
did not?
Incredible as that story may be, it is also not unique, though neither is it common. A very similar event occured in America about 7 years later. It was September 23, 1880. David Lang, a
successful farmer, was walking across a field in front of his home in Gallin, Tennesse. His two children were out front playing in the yard, and his wife was also outside. She was approaching a horse-drawn buggy carrying Judge August Peck and his brother-in-law. David Lang smiled and waved to the visitors as he started walking towards them. But he never reached his destination. After taking several steps, in full view of 5 witnesses, he literally disappeared mid-stride.
His wife let out a terrible scream and ran to where he had last been seen, shortly followed by the Judge and his brother-in-law. There was absolutely no trace of David Lang. He simply vanished, never to be seen again. Massive search parties were formed and lanterns could be seen swinging all through the night. The next morning, a county surveyor arrived and searched the area Lang had last been seen, hoping to find a cave or pothole he had slipped into. But no such thing was found, and he declared the land to be firmly supported by a thick strata of limestone.
But the search continued for months. Mrs. Lang vehemently resisted any suggestion of a funeral or even a memorial service, she asked only that the townspeople continue to pray for her husbands return. On an April evening in 1881, the Langs daughter, Sarah, ran sobbing into the house saying there was a ring aroung the spot her father had disappeared. When Mrs. Lang went to investigate, Sarah said she could clearly hear her father begging for help in a tortured voice, but it soon faded away into silence. Mrs. Lang did not hear the voice, but she did find a perfect circle of dried grass some 20 feet in diameter at the same spot her husband had last been seen. This was enough for her, and packing up their belongings, Mrs. Lang and her 2 children moved away from the farmhouse for good. So what DID happen to David Lang? And to the people in the above stories as well. Why were their bodies never found, and just HOW DOES a person vanish into thin air?
Is it possible a person can be here one minute and then totally disappear the next, never to be seen or heard from again? There are those who would say yes for they claim to be witnesses to just
such a phenomenon. But where do these disappearing people GO? How is it they seem to defy the very laws of nature as we know them?Sometimes logic cannot explain away an event, and we like to label it a mystery. Perhaps one day well have answers, but for now we are only shrouded in questions.
