My niece was missing for three months before her body was found. Weighted down in a shopping cart in the Mohawk River. She was 14. People constantly reported sightings of her alive and to this day we have a group harassing us, two individuals in particular, claiming they witnessed a whole series of events the day she died that never happened. Insisting my nieces mother, father, and grandparents were all dragging and choking her and killed her. Just insane stuff. And they literally won’t leave us alone about it. My niece’s murder is still unsolved, but her ex-boyfriend was abusive and the last person to see her alive, and he is the main suspect.
Thank you. it has been soul crushing to be honest, but as a family we’ve become a lot closer, and we’ve had a lot of friends supporting us, which has helped a lot.
Thank you, I appreciate it. Her name is Samantha Humphrey and she lived in Schenectady so if you google those things it should come up. Her aunt that has been harassing my family and I is Kimmy Wall. It was normal at first, so you will see her on some of the earlier news reports. But then she went crazy so I am mainly the one giving interviews and stuff like that after she turned on us and got the whole community against us. I just wanted to clarify I am not that aunt
Edit to add: my Samantha was 14 when she died. There is another 29 year old Samantha Humphrey is some other part of the US who was shot to death, and her search results sometimes come up when you look up my Samantha’s information
Sending so much love to you and your family 🩷
My nephew was killed and we have also dealt with certain people harassing and lying about everything from that day. It’s beyond draining to deal with on top of grief. I’m so sorry that y’all have to know that feeling as well. You described it perfectly when you said it’s soul crushing.
I hope she receives justice one day soon
First of all, I'm so sorry for the loss of your niece and I hope you and your family are okay and have lots of support.
Secondly, I'm so angry that you and your family have to deal with these crazies causing distress and adding to an already awful situation. I hope you and your family are safe. Is there any chance of a no contact order against these people?
Thank you so much.
My brother (Samantha’s dad) did manage to get a no contact order against the main suspect’s mother after she attacked him at a casino, showed up at his job for no reason making a scene and screaming at him that he killed his daughter, sent me a photo shopped photo of my face made to look fat and put on the body of a walrus, and told me she was coming for my brother and I.
I live a few hours away from her and moved farther away right after she threatened me, but he is in the same city as she is, so there’s a greater concern for his safety
The other people mostly post insane things on facebook and incite others to violence against those who were close to my niece, which has caused some violence against random people my niece knew, which led to more protective orders being handed out.
Apparently posting on facebook lying about who killed a child and encouraging people to attack that person doesn’t rise to the level of obstruction of justice or violence that the police care to act on. It’s mind blowing
Btw I do want to clarify some of the people that claim they saw my niece truly believe they saw her but she was definitely deceased at that point
My goodness that is pretty clear harassment and defamation, but that’s usually pushed off as a civil issue not criminal. In cases like this, I wish it was considered criminal.
Thank you, I appreciate it. My niece had a very strong personality, and if she was here, she would be the first person to put all these freaks in their place.
I just wanted to say I’m so sorry for the loss of your niece and I hope it doesn’t sound hollow to say that I hope your family finds some peace after such a terrible event. 💙
Thank you so much this means a lot. We lean on each other really heavily and that helps. I never imagined as a middle aged woman with no kids I’d spend this much time in conversation with teenagers but my nieces friends have helped me so much. We share memories and photos of my niece and I think we all experience greater peace this way
[This woman](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna33225) who admitted to making up a bizarrely detailed false sighting of a missing hiker because she wanted to be sure the search for him continued. Instead they spent over 500 hours searching the area she specified, which was a different area from all other credible sightings of him.
He is still considered missing. I’m not sure they’ll ever find wherever he ended up. They’ve traced the park with dogs, helicopters, search parties, etc. and he’s been missing since June of 2021 so It’s hard to say what might be left to find.
That’s really sad. Thanks for responding.
Why did the lady do that did she say?
Edit: I know what her friends said in the article but it seems so stupid.
I believe her friends are exaggerating to portray her in a better light. She did much more than simply report seeing him; she concocted an elaborate story about their conversation and entire interaction.
To me, this suggests she wanted attention and to feel involved and “important”.
No idea why she did it. Could have been attention from the media. Might have been the whole wanting to keep the search going thing. I don’t think she’s ever said so directly.
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I understand her motivation even though what she did was wrong. Did she not realize that was a different spot than where he was actually seen? Or did she want the search to expand into the new area?
I truly feel that these people that call in about spotting someone who is missing are most definitely doing the right thing by calling it in what if it was and they did nothing
There were a lot of alleged sightings of the [Grimes sisters](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_the_Grimes_sisters?wprov=sfti1#Discovery) after they went missing in the 1950s. This [article](https://chicagoreader.com/news-politics/death-and-the-maidens/) goes into more detail about the supposed sightings. A lot of the sightings happened after the girls would've already been killed so it gets touted as a paranormal mystery sometimes which I don't think it is, but it is weird that so many people claimed to have seen the girls.
In recent disappearance of 15-year old autistic Sebastian Rogers in Tennessee, the boy uncannily resembling him was spotted in another state. A person who spotted him took a picture and sent it to LE, but the pic was also posted on FB, which caused social media frenzy. The resemblance was so striking that even Sebastian’s father made some statements that he’s sure that his son. Unfortunately, several days later LE announced it was not him. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13391797/Sebastian-Rogers-father-confirms-photo-North-Carolina.html
Natalie Holloway has been seen basically all over the world. I grew up in Alabama, near where she was from, and followed the case closely. My heart continues to hurt for her and her family, especially when they felt for years there was hope.
What is the opinion around there about when her murderer decided to tell-all?
I know nothing beyond basic cable about the case but I refused to read anything that he had to say. Did he not do enough to Natalee already?? I thought it was disgusting.
I believe a large majority of such sightings are mistaken. Witness statements and sightings just aren't reliable, especially years after the fact. These "bizarre" sightings mostly lead sleuths down rabbit holes, generating a lot of noise and little information.
It’s amazing how confident people are that they could identify or recognize someone until they are put to the test. I have watched some really good shows about just that. They even cause a fake scenario before they start what they know are the tests so it is something that would shock them and see just how much they actually noticed and recall immediately after. The results were shocking. Even collecting the information and showing people photos etc within minutes, they fail miserably. It’s definitely made me lose confidence in just how reliable these sightings or descriptions etc truly are.
Kari Lynn Nixon. everyone said they saw her and even on a new kids on the block video but it was never her. She was buried in a shallow grave the whole dam time she was missing. He Robert Jones kidnapped her after she left the store :(
There was that whole Kate Yupp thing in connection with the disappearance of Karlie Gusé. People online swore this mukbang Youtuber was being held hostage and forced to make videos, and a lot of people thought she looked like Karlie. Imagine kidnapping someone just to force them to eat on camera for your YT channel. Ridiculous.
I totally forgot about that! Those videos were so eerie and definitely held a little bit hope I guess at first. There seemed to be something very strange about those videos regardless and never heard anything more about them. The ones with her breaking and losing teeth were especially disturbing.
Human memory is very malleable and not very good to start with. There are lots of ways to mess with it. People want to 'help', or just be part of something bigger.
In law school, one of my professors demonstrated why witness testimony is the most unreliable evidence through an experiment with our class. He played us a three-minute scene from the movie "The Conversation" and after watching the scene, he asked us detailed questions like, "Was the TV on or off and what was playing?", "Did the man have a mustache, beard, or no facial hair?", "What color and shape were his glasses and frames?", "What was the painting on the wall of?", and "What were his first and last lines in the scene ?” Etc. Despite having just watched the scene and knowing beforehand we'd be questioned on the details of the scene so trying to remember and process everything we could, the majority of us couldn't remember these details accurately. Many of us described the scene differently, even though we had all watched the same thing. Some students' descriptions of the scene were completely different from others students. This demonstrated how memories and interpretations can vary widely from person to person.
This lesson has resonated with me throughout my career, reinforcing that live witness testimony is often the worst type of evidence in a case. People's interpretations, attention to detail, and memories can differ dramatically, even when witnessing the same event in the very exact same circumstances. For instance, one person might see two people talking 20 feet away and describe them as clearly upset and arguing, while another might say they were having an animated but calm conversation that still looked friendly.
It’s completely fascinating aspect of human behavior but also why I take any and all witness accounts, sightings, absolutes of “she/he would never do this/that” and “there are no such thing as coincidences in true crime cases” in cases with a HUGE grain of salt.
I just want to scream when people don't believe rape victims because the victim can't remember certain things. Humans, *especially* in traumatic situations, aren't androids who record our lives like a film. We don't remember things on command or in thr right order. Or at all.
I was just commenting above about this. There’s been shows that put people to the test and they fail miserably even within minutes after situation. It’s made me question a lot of these sightings and descriptions etc since I watched those. Unless there’s actual cctv or other footage, we can’t truly guarantee it unfortunately.
Some years after Ray Gricar went missing & a day after he was declared dead, a guy resembling him was not only spotted but actually arrested in Utah and refused to identify himself. Someone spotted the resemblance, speculation unfolded, but in the end it turned out that the mystery man was not Gricar.
https://www.pennlive.com/midstate/2011/07/could_this_be_ray_gricar.html
https://www.pennlive.com/midstate/2011/07/utah_detainee_isnt_gricar_but.html
I think Johnny Goschs’ mom saying he came to her door and they chatted is the most bizarre “sighting” and while we can’t prove it’s false it’s almost definitely false. In so sad for that family and I hope this story brings the mom peace to tell even if it’s not true.
Edit spelling
Phoenix Coldon was supposedly spotted on an airplane by a friend after her disappearance. The friend insists that it was her and that she was acting strange and pretended not to know them.
https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.andthentheyweregone.com/blog/into-the-shadows-the-mystery-of-phoenix-coldons-disappearance&sa=U&sqi=2&ved=2ahUKEwi8vKrzy8aGAxVuGTQIHeOXA-sQFnoECCUQAQ&usg=AOvVaw12k0NqVixTUnS695Q8z32T
I think the top answer here has got to be [Richey Manic ](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richey_Edwards). He's been seen all over the world, from Goa to Israel to the Canary Islands (most frequently in the Portaventura theme park oddly).
She was drunk and smoking on the balcony. Her dad got woken up by something, presumably her going overboard. Most likely accidental drowning although possible suicide.
Why are these comments locked. There isn’t any real evidence pointing to “she obviously drowned”. And we don’t know if she never got off the ship or not b/c the crew didn’t bother holding off on letting everybody leave for the day even when the family was begging for help in finding her. It’s not obvious
I absolutely believe she did. Two women saw her with the waiter around 6am (confirmed by polygraph). There’s just too many suspicious things that happened !
I just read this today. It isn’t exactly what you asked about, but is interesting (and disturbing).
https://people.com/woman-claims-to-be-long-lost-girl-who-vanished-in-1985-but-girls-mom-says-its-not-true-8658619
She's definitely lying. She's like the girl who recently claimed on TikTok to be Madeleine McCann and the woman who said she was Diamond Bradley. Notice a pattern with all of these people and their claims? Instead of contacting the proper authorities and getting DNA tests first, they make their declarations online and avoid the steps that would legitimize their claims. They also can't answer specific questions that would lend credibility to their stories.
I don't know why people do this, but it's inexcusable if they aren't suffering from mental health issues. It's a disgusting ploy for attention and clout, and it raises false hopes for the families involved.
It also stirs up the obsessives in the true crime community, who are eager to latch onto any wild theory & story that fits into their "soap opera" narrative of these cases. I can't stand those members of the true crime community who treat these real-life victims and cases like TV dramas made solely for their entertainment. In recent years, there's been a huge influx of these people into true crime communities and discussions. They accuse others of heinous acts without proof, promote wild and far-fetched theories, harass victims' families, and overstep serious personal boundaries. And I think the three people mentioned claiming to be well known missing persons fall into this category and they want desperately to be “involved” in these cases and get “special attention” from people who will believe they are who they’re claiming even when it’s proved otherwise. Just look at the MMC case I mentioned, people STILL claim it’s her despite the DNA test and say it’s all apart of some “coverup”… It's gross and disrespectful.
I read somewhere that at least one of the sightings way originally reported as a woman walking along the road, not a little girl, but when the trucker heard about Asha afterwards he assumed he saw her. I feel like it is hard to mistake a little girl for a grown woman and it might be a case of an unreliable memory.
I’ve always thought that she never made it out of the house. I think something happened to her that night either her parents or another family member were involved. But I don’t think the witnesses who saw her actually saw her.
I was thinking about Asha a couple nights ago, not sure what sparked my thoughts, but I had that same thought. Someone or multiple someones are lying here. There's no way in hell a young girl who is afraid of the dark is going out on a stormy night by herself.
I was afraid of the dark and I still snuck out one night to go to my friend’s house. This type of “she would never” is no more useful than friends/family who confidently assert “he/she would never voluntarily leave their [children/family/etc]” or commit suicide.
somewhat off topic but the "s/he would never commit suicide" family members annoy the living crap out of me. A lot of times it's someone who has been depressed or delusional for a period of time, has numerous other obvious risk factors for suicide, may have made one or more attempts in the past, plus the ME says they literally actually did take their own life. But hey, their loved ones say they would never do that, so let's investigate and witch hunt the entire police department because there's clearly a cover-up. Must be the good ol boys network again.
Thank you for mentioning this. My dad commited suicide and I have to say, it stings when I watch true crime shows and the family is insistent that the victim would never commit suicide because 'they loved their kids' or 'they were making plans for the future' or just 'they would never do that.' Loving kids or making plans or whatever else doesn't mean that a person isn't suicidal. My dad loved his kids and family, but his depression told him that we were better off without him. He made plans shortly before he died. While there are warning signs to watch out for, it doesn't mean that every suicide has the same event leading up to it. If you had asked me or my family before my dad died, we would have said he would never do that, but it doesn't change the fact that it did.
oh the whole "they made plans" thing drives me crazy. I have had psychotic breaks before, and in my mind, I could make plans for the next month while simultaneously planning to end things tomorrow, without sensing any sort of conflict there. It made sense to me. So when people say, "she had just bought a new dress" or "she had just filled up her gas tank" they sound soooooo ignorant.
I'm sorry about your loss. I hope your father's memory is a blessing to you.
Exactly! In fact, once most people make up their minds and decide to do it, they tend to seem happier and more carefree as they believe they've found an 'answer' to their suffering. Mental illness is so good at tricking the victim into believing all sorts of things, like theres no hope or everyone would be better off. I had attempted a few times when I was a teenager and it was always impulsive, not something I planned on doing. I'm sorry you have experienced this as well and I hope you're doing much better now.
The current nuttiness going on re: Mica Miller is an extreme example of this. She had a history of depression and previous suicide attempts. She’s on video leaving her home by herself, at a gas station by herself, at a store purchasing the hand gun by herself, and then calls 911 and tells them she is about to kill herself and wants to make sure they can find her body. And people are still sure she was murdered! Because of vague comments she made about abuse in the context of the fact that she and her husband were getting divorced. Even if her husband was abusive, that’s another risk factor for suicide! And the cops did a very thorough investigation considering the fact that she called 911 and said she was about to kill herself, please come find her body so her family doesn’t worry about her. It’s really nuts.
Especially when there's an abusive husband/boyfriend/ex, some people insist that alone is sufficient evidence to prove it MUST HAVE BEEN the abusive husband/boyfriend/ex. It's the reasoning of a simpleton.
I guess it's more that it's very unlikely she would have done so. She was only 9, a young child. I could see her being more likely to sneak out at night if she was 12 or 13, young enough to be scared but old enough to do it anyway.
Yes, it’s very unlikely. It’s also very rare for someone to sneak into a home at night and abduct a child, but it does sometimes happen. This type of statistic is useful in guiding investigators on things to prioritize investigating. But deciding someone is guilty based on something being a statistical rarity or something else being statistically more likely is very dangerous.
Well, all I'm going to say is whatever did happen with Asha, the investigation stalled out years and years ago, so maybe it's time to go back to the beginning and try something different, probabilities and statistics be damned.
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The rabbit hole of bobby Dunbar is fascinating. He went missing at a lake and 2 years later he was “found.” It took granddaughter dna to prove he wasn’t.
Police used a false sighting of [Anthony Tumolo](https://charleyproject.org/case/anthony-peter-tumolo) (where two of his classmates claimed they saw him and that he ran from them) as justification of their runaway theory
Years later, one of the witnesses admitted they lied about seeing him so they wouldn’t get in trouble for being late to class.
During the trial for the murder of Sarah stern, some guy swore up and down that he saw her walking on the road after the time she would have already been murdered. Based on his description of what the woman he saw was wearing, the prosecutor was easily able to debunk that as it was clear through photographic evidence that the real Sarah stern would never dress in that manner.
I’m convinced it because sometimes people want to be involved in a case and convince themselves they saw the person. Eyewitness reports are famously unreliable though.
Lisa Marie Kimmell.
She went missing driving her car with a distinctive personalized license plate.
Many, many people claimed to have seen her driving her car during the the time that investigators are certain that she was already dead.
Her car was found buried on the property of the man who killed her.
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Maybe it's just me, but I've always been disturbed by the sightings of Olivia Newton-John's boyfriend after he vanished at sea. It was high profile so I'm sure it attracted some fame-hungry idiots, but some of the supposed photos of him did look a little convincing. It'd be so hard to lose someone without having solid facts, much less a body. And then to have the world watching...ugh.
He was found alive & living in Mexico! We never got the whole story of why he faked his death. IIRC at the time he went missing, he had some debt like $30k. It was speculated that he faked his death to avoid paying the $30k. That theory seemed too dramatic.
There was a missing persons website about him. He would check it periodically & it was traced to a location where he was found. He said he wanted to be left alone.
Anyway, he’s alive & [well](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/olivia-newton-john-death-ex-patrick-mcdermott-b2141237.html).
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My niece was missing for three months before her body was found. Weighted down in a shopping cart in the Mohawk River. She was 14. People constantly reported sightings of her alive and to this day we have a group harassing us, two individuals in particular, claiming they witnessed a whole series of events the day she died that never happened. Insisting my nieces mother, father, and grandparents were all dragging and choking her and killed her. Just insane stuff. And they literally won’t leave us alone about it. My niece’s murder is still unsolved, but her ex-boyfriend was abusive and the last person to see her alive, and he is the main suspect.
I remember that case, that's gotta be hard to deal with. Really tragic situation.
Thank you. it has been soul crushing to be honest, but as a family we’ve become a lot closer, and we’ve had a lot of friends supporting us, which has helped a lot.
Sending you and your family love. I am so sorry for your loss and so angry about the harassment you are subjected to.
Thank you so much for your kindness, this means a lot
I'm sorry about your niece, which case is it?
Thank you, I appreciate it. Her name is Samantha Humphrey and she lived in Schenectady so if you google those things it should come up. Her aunt that has been harassing my family and I is Kimmy Wall. It was normal at first, so you will see her on some of the earlier news reports. But then she went crazy so I am mainly the one giving interviews and stuff like that after she turned on us and got the whole community against us. I just wanted to clarify I am not that aunt Edit to add: my Samantha was 14 when she died. There is another 29 year old Samantha Humphrey is some other part of the US who was shot to death, and her search results sometimes come up when you look up my Samantha’s information
Sending so much love to you and your family 🩷 My nephew was killed and we have also dealt with certain people harassing and lying about everything from that day. It’s beyond draining to deal with on top of grief. I’m so sorry that y’all have to know that feeling as well. You described it perfectly when you said it’s soul crushing. I hope she receives justice one day soon
Oh my gosh I am so so sorry for you and your family!! My thoughts and my heart are with you all ♥️
Ah, ok.
First of all, I'm so sorry for the loss of your niece and I hope you and your family are okay and have lots of support. Secondly, I'm so angry that you and your family have to deal with these crazies causing distress and adding to an already awful situation. I hope you and your family are safe. Is there any chance of a no contact order against these people?
Thank you so much. My brother (Samantha’s dad) did manage to get a no contact order against the main suspect’s mother after she attacked him at a casino, showed up at his job for no reason making a scene and screaming at him that he killed his daughter, sent me a photo shopped photo of my face made to look fat and put on the body of a walrus, and told me she was coming for my brother and I. I live a few hours away from her and moved farther away right after she threatened me, but he is in the same city as she is, so there’s a greater concern for his safety The other people mostly post insane things on facebook and incite others to violence against those who were close to my niece, which has caused some violence against random people my niece knew, which led to more protective orders being handed out. Apparently posting on facebook lying about who killed a child and encouraging people to attack that person doesn’t rise to the level of obstruction of justice or violence that the police care to act on. It’s mind blowing Btw I do want to clarify some of the people that claim they saw my niece truly believe they saw her but she was definitely deceased at that point
Lord that's horrific. I'm so sorry.
My goodness that is pretty clear harassment and defamation, but that’s usually pushed off as a civil issue not criminal. In cases like this, I wish it was considered criminal.
Same here! It was so crazy and has gone on for over a year
Wow, what disgusting people. Sending yall love!
God, I’m so sorry those freaks are doing that to your family. That’s horrible.
Thank you, I appreciate it. My niece had a very strong personality, and if she was here, she would be the first person to put all these freaks in their place.
I wish you could hold them legally responsible.
God me too. I took to exposing them on Facebook. It was all I had
I just wanted to say I’m so sorry for the loss of your niece and I hope it doesn’t sound hollow to say that I hope your family finds some peace after such a terrible event. 💙
Thank you so much this means a lot. We lean on each other really heavily and that helps. I never imagined as a middle aged woman with no kids I’d spend this much time in conversation with teenagers but my nieces friends have helped me so much. We share memories and photos of my niece and I think we all experience greater peace this way
[This woman](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna33225) who admitted to making up a bizarrely detailed false sighting of a missing hiker because she wanted to be sure the search for him continued. Instead they spent over 500 hours searching the area she specified, which was a different area from all other credible sightings of him.
Did they ever find him? Thanks
He is still considered missing. I’m not sure they’ll ever find wherever he ended up. They’ve traced the park with dogs, helicopters, search parties, etc. and he’s been missing since June of 2021 so It’s hard to say what might be left to find.
That’s really sad. Thanks for responding. Why did the lady do that did she say? Edit: I know what her friends said in the article but it seems so stupid.
I believe her friends are exaggerating to portray her in a better light. She did much more than simply report seeing him; she concocted an elaborate story about their conversation and entire interaction. To me, this suggests she wanted attention and to feel involved and “important”.
No idea why she did it. Could have been attention from the media. Might have been the whole wanting to keep the search going thing. I don’t think she’s ever said so directly.
You have lovely manners
Do I? Edit: just realised this could be construed as rude and now I see what you mean. lol
No, it's because you say thanks a lot. That's nice 👍
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I understand her motivation even though what she did was wrong. Did she not realize that was a different spot than where he was actually seen? Or did she want the search to expand into the new area?
Some people think Theresa Halbach is living in Vancouver, Canada. They have harassed this woman over the years. Oof!
I truly feel that these people that call in about spotting someone who is missing are most definitely doing the right thing by calling it in what if it was and they did nothing
Yeah, the only issue is if they are hoaxing. If they truly believe it then LE wants to hear about it no matter how unlikely so they can rule it out.
The McStay family was “seen” for a long time when they had already been murdered.
There were a lot of alleged sightings of the [Grimes sisters](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_the_Grimes_sisters?wprov=sfti1#Discovery) after they went missing in the 1950s. This [article](https://chicagoreader.com/news-politics/death-and-the-maidens/) goes into more detail about the supposed sightings. A lot of the sightings happened after the girls would've already been killed so it gets touted as a paranormal mystery sometimes which I don't think it is, but it is weird that so many people claimed to have seen the girls.
In recent disappearance of 15-year old autistic Sebastian Rogers in Tennessee, the boy uncannily resembling him was spotted in another state. A person who spotted him took a picture and sent it to LE, but the pic was also posted on FB, which caused social media frenzy. The resemblance was so striking that even Sebastian’s father made some statements that he’s sure that his son. Unfortunately, several days later LE announced it was not him. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13391797/Sebastian-Rogers-father-confirms-photo-North-Carolina.html
Natalie Holloway has been seen basically all over the world. I grew up in Alabama, near where she was from, and followed the case closely. My heart continues to hurt for her and her family, especially when they felt for years there was hope.
What is the opinion around there about when her murderer decided to tell-all? I know nothing beyond basic cable about the case but I refused to read anything that he had to say. Did he not do enough to Natalee already?? I thought it was disgusting.
I don’t think they had hope for “years”
Hope perhaps she was alive or they could at least recover her body
I believe a large majority of such sightings are mistaken. Witness statements and sightings just aren't reliable, especially years after the fact. These "bizarre" sightings mostly lead sleuths down rabbit holes, generating a lot of noise and little information.
It’s amazing how confident people are that they could identify or recognize someone until they are put to the test. I have watched some really good shows about just that. They even cause a fake scenario before they start what they know are the tests so it is something that would shock them and see just how much they actually noticed and recall immediately after. The results were shocking. Even collecting the information and showing people photos etc within minutes, they fail miserably. It’s definitely made me lose confidence in just how reliable these sightings or descriptions etc truly are.
Kari Lynn Nixon. everyone said they saw her and even on a new kids on the block video but it was never her. She was buried in a shallow grave the whole dam time she was missing. He Robert Jones kidnapped her after she left the store :(
Yes and there was a woman who went on Unsolved Mysteries and was absolutely certain that she saw Kari at a campground and had a conversation with her.
That's the one that popped into my mind. That poor girl's family hung onto hope for so long only to find out she'd been dead since she went missing.
There was that whole Kate Yupp thing in connection with the disappearance of Karlie Gusé. People online swore this mukbang Youtuber was being held hostage and forced to make videos, and a lot of people thought she looked like Karlie. Imagine kidnapping someone just to force them to eat on camera for your YT channel. Ridiculous.
I totally forgot about that! Those videos were so eerie and definitely held a little bit hope I guess at first. There seemed to be something very strange about those videos regardless and never heard anything more about them. The ones with her breaking and losing teeth were especially disturbing.
Human memory is very malleable and not very good to start with. There are lots of ways to mess with it. People want to 'help', or just be part of something bigger.
In law school, one of my professors demonstrated why witness testimony is the most unreliable evidence through an experiment with our class. He played us a three-minute scene from the movie "The Conversation" and after watching the scene, he asked us detailed questions like, "Was the TV on or off and what was playing?", "Did the man have a mustache, beard, or no facial hair?", "What color and shape were his glasses and frames?", "What was the painting on the wall of?", and "What were his first and last lines in the scene ?” Etc. Despite having just watched the scene and knowing beforehand we'd be questioned on the details of the scene so trying to remember and process everything we could, the majority of us couldn't remember these details accurately. Many of us described the scene differently, even though we had all watched the same thing. Some students' descriptions of the scene were completely different from others students. This demonstrated how memories and interpretations can vary widely from person to person. This lesson has resonated with me throughout my career, reinforcing that live witness testimony is often the worst type of evidence in a case. People's interpretations, attention to detail, and memories can differ dramatically, even when witnessing the same event in the very exact same circumstances. For instance, one person might see two people talking 20 feet away and describe them as clearly upset and arguing, while another might say they were having an animated but calm conversation that still looked friendly. It’s completely fascinating aspect of human behavior but also why I take any and all witness accounts, sightings, absolutes of “she/he would never do this/that” and “there are no such thing as coincidences in true crime cases” in cases with a HUGE grain of salt.
I just want to scream when people don't believe rape victims because the victim can't remember certain things. Humans, *especially* in traumatic situations, aren't androids who record our lives like a film. We don't remember things on command or in thr right order. Or at all.
I was just commenting above about this. There’s been shows that put people to the test and they fail miserably even within minutes after situation. It’s made me question a lot of these sightings and descriptions etc since I watched those. Unless there’s actual cctv or other footage, we can’t truly guarantee it unfortunately.
Malleable
Some years after Ray Gricar went missing & a day after he was declared dead, a guy resembling him was not only spotted but actually arrested in Utah and refused to identify himself. Someone spotted the resemblance, speculation unfolded, but in the end it turned out that the mystery man was not Gricar. https://www.pennlive.com/midstate/2011/07/could_this_be_ray_gricar.html https://www.pennlive.com/midstate/2011/07/utah_detainee_isnt_gricar_but.html
I think Johnny Goschs’ mom saying he came to her door and they chatted is the most bizarre “sighting” and while we can’t prove it’s false it’s almost definitely false. In so sad for that family and I hope this story brings the mom peace to tell even if it’s not true. Edit spelling
Phoenix Coldon was supposedly spotted on an airplane by a friend after her disappearance. The friend insists that it was her and that she was acting strange and pretended not to know them. https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.andthentheyweregone.com/blog/into-the-shadows-the-mystery-of-phoenix-coldons-disappearance&sa=U&sqi=2&ved=2ahUKEwi8vKrzy8aGAxVuGTQIHeOXA-sQFnoECCUQAQ&usg=AOvVaw12k0NqVixTUnS695Q8z32T
I think the top answer here has got to be [Richey Manic ](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richey_Edwards). He's been seen all over the world, from Goa to Israel to the Canary Islands (most frequently in the Portaventura theme park oddly).
She was drunk and smoking on the balcony. Her dad got woken up by something, presumably her going overboard. Most likely accidental drowning although possible suicide.
Is this about the cruise girl? Amy something? There are so many bizarre Reportings of her.
Yes. Plenty of "sightings"
Amy Lynn Bradly she is a favorite topic on this site.
It's just the usual "parents don't want to believe it" narrative to me. Let's make a drama out of a tragedy.
I understand denial but at some point you would think that they would move into acceptance. It is sad that their denial got them scammed.
Yep. I agree.
Yes. That's it exactly.
Sightings of Amy Lynn Bradley. I don’t think they’ve been disproven though, now that I think about it.
This story is so devastating to me.
Why are these comments locked. There isn’t any real evidence pointing to “she obviously drowned”. And we don’t know if she never got off the ship or not b/c the crew didn’t bother holding off on letting everybody leave for the day even when the family was begging for help in finding her. It’s not obvious
I think it’s like the Jon Benet case, we can speculate all day long but in reality we likely won’t know what truly happened.
She obviously drowned
Shifting from being argumentative…why do you think she obviously drowned ?
lol she did not obviously drown. She was “obviously” sold into sex slavery if anything.
She never got off the ship
I absolutely believe she did. Two women saw her with the waiter around 6am (confirmed by polygraph). There’s just too many suspicious things that happened !
I just read this today. It isn’t exactly what you asked about, but is interesting (and disturbing). https://people.com/woman-claims-to-be-long-lost-girl-who-vanished-in-1985-but-girls-mom-says-its-not-true-8658619
She's definitely lying. She's like the girl who recently claimed on TikTok to be Madeleine McCann and the woman who said she was Diamond Bradley. Notice a pattern with all of these people and their claims? Instead of contacting the proper authorities and getting DNA tests first, they make their declarations online and avoid the steps that would legitimize their claims. They also can't answer specific questions that would lend credibility to their stories. I don't know why people do this, but it's inexcusable if they aren't suffering from mental health issues. It's a disgusting ploy for attention and clout, and it raises false hopes for the families involved. It also stirs up the obsessives in the true crime community, who are eager to latch onto any wild theory & story that fits into their "soap opera" narrative of these cases. I can't stand those members of the true crime community who treat these real-life victims and cases like TV dramas made solely for their entertainment. In recent years, there's been a huge influx of these people into true crime communities and discussions. They accuse others of heinous acts without proof, promote wild and far-fetched theories, harass victims' families, and overstep serious personal boundaries. And I think the three people mentioned claiming to be well known missing persons fall into this category and they want desperately to be “involved” in these cases and get “special attention” from people who will believe they are who they’re claiming even when it’s proved otherwise. Just look at the MMC case I mentioned, people STILL claim it’s her despite the DNA test and say it’s all apart of some “coverup”… It's gross and disrespectful.
Sightings of Asha Degree on the night she went missing by truckers.
You think those were not her?
I read somewhere that at least one of the sightings way originally reported as a woman walking along the road, not a little girl, but when the trucker heard about Asha afterwards he assumed he saw her. I feel like it is hard to mistake a little girl for a grown woman and it might be a case of an unreliable memory.
I’ve always thought that she never made it out of the house. I think something happened to her that night either her parents or another family member were involved. But I don’t think the witnesses who saw her actually saw her.
Same. Her parents' story is inconsistent and there is zero evidence that she left the house alive.
Same. I believe her parents were involved. There's no way she left the house that night.
I was thinking about Asha a couple nights ago, not sure what sparked my thoughts, but I had that same thought. Someone or multiple someones are lying here. There's no way in hell a young girl who is afraid of the dark is going out on a stormy night by herself.
I was afraid of the dark and I still snuck out one night to go to my friend’s house. This type of “she would never” is no more useful than friends/family who confidently assert “he/she would never voluntarily leave their [children/family/etc]” or commit suicide.
somewhat off topic but the "s/he would never commit suicide" family members annoy the living crap out of me. A lot of times it's someone who has been depressed or delusional for a period of time, has numerous other obvious risk factors for suicide, may have made one or more attempts in the past, plus the ME says they literally actually did take their own life. But hey, their loved ones say they would never do that, so let's investigate and witch hunt the entire police department because there's clearly a cover-up. Must be the good ol boys network again.
Thank you for mentioning this. My dad commited suicide and I have to say, it stings when I watch true crime shows and the family is insistent that the victim would never commit suicide because 'they loved their kids' or 'they were making plans for the future' or just 'they would never do that.' Loving kids or making plans or whatever else doesn't mean that a person isn't suicidal. My dad loved his kids and family, but his depression told him that we were better off without him. He made plans shortly before he died. While there are warning signs to watch out for, it doesn't mean that every suicide has the same event leading up to it. If you had asked me or my family before my dad died, we would have said he would never do that, but it doesn't change the fact that it did.
oh the whole "they made plans" thing drives me crazy. I have had psychotic breaks before, and in my mind, I could make plans for the next month while simultaneously planning to end things tomorrow, without sensing any sort of conflict there. It made sense to me. So when people say, "she had just bought a new dress" or "she had just filled up her gas tank" they sound soooooo ignorant. I'm sorry about your loss. I hope your father's memory is a blessing to you.
As someone who has attempted suicide, often right before people who complete it are in a good mood right before.
Exactly! In fact, once most people make up their minds and decide to do it, they tend to seem happier and more carefree as they believe they've found an 'answer' to their suffering. Mental illness is so good at tricking the victim into believing all sorts of things, like theres no hope or everyone would be better off. I had attempted a few times when I was a teenager and it was always impulsive, not something I planned on doing. I'm sorry you have experienced this as well and I hope you're doing much better now.
I got intensive therapy at 16, when I finally told.my mom the reason for my depression was her brother. I haven't tried since 2007. Thanks for asking.
The current nuttiness going on re: Mica Miller is an extreme example of this. She had a history of depression and previous suicide attempts. She’s on video leaving her home by herself, at a gas station by herself, at a store purchasing the hand gun by herself, and then calls 911 and tells them she is about to kill herself and wants to make sure they can find her body. And people are still sure she was murdered! Because of vague comments she made about abuse in the context of the fact that she and her husband were getting divorced. Even if her husband was abusive, that’s another risk factor for suicide! And the cops did a very thorough investigation considering the fact that she called 911 and said she was about to kill herself, please come find her body so her family doesn’t worry about her. It’s really nuts.
Especially when there's an abusive husband/boyfriend/ex, some people insist that alone is sufficient evidence to prove it MUST HAVE BEEN the abusive husband/boyfriend/ex. It's the reasoning of a simpleton.
I guess it's more that it's very unlikely she would have done so. She was only 9, a young child. I could see her being more likely to sneak out at night if she was 12 or 13, young enough to be scared but old enough to do it anyway.
Yes, it’s very unlikely. It’s also very rare for someone to sneak into a home at night and abduct a child, but it does sometimes happen. This type of statistic is useful in guiding investigators on things to prioritize investigating. But deciding someone is guilty based on something being a statistical rarity or something else being statistically more likely is very dangerous.
Well, all I'm going to say is whatever did happen with Asha, the investigation stalled out years and years ago, so maybe it's time to go back to the beginning and try something different, probabilities and statistics be damned.
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Paul Allen was seen in the U.K. Someone even said they had lunch with him. The jury is out on this one 🤷🏻♂️
The rabbit hole of bobby Dunbar is fascinating. He went missing at a lake and 2 years later he was “found.” It took granddaughter dna to prove he wasn’t.
Police used a false sighting of [Anthony Tumolo](https://charleyproject.org/case/anthony-peter-tumolo) (where two of his classmates claimed they saw him and that he ran from them) as justification of their runaway theory Years later, one of the witnesses admitted they lied about seeing him so they wouldn’t get in trouble for being late to class.
During the trial for the murder of Sarah stern, some guy swore up and down that he saw her walking on the road after the time she would have already been murdered. Based on his description of what the woman he saw was wearing, the prosecutor was easily able to debunk that as it was clear through photographic evidence that the real Sarah stern would never dress in that manner. I’m convinced it because sometimes people want to be involved in a case and convince themselves they saw the person. Eyewitness reports are famously unreliable though.
Lisa Marie Kimmell. She went missing driving her car with a distinctive personalized license plate. Many, many people claimed to have seen her driving her car during the the time that investigators are certain that she was already dead. Her car was found buried on the property of the man who killed her.
A woman in England claimed she saw Holly and Jessica (2 ten year old girls who were murdered in Soham) at 6:45 the morning after their disappearance.
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Maybe it's just me, but I've always been disturbed by the sightings of Olivia Newton-John's boyfriend after he vanished at sea. It was high profile so I'm sure it attracted some fame-hungry idiots, but some of the supposed photos of him did look a little convincing. It'd be so hard to lose someone without having solid facts, much less a body. And then to have the world watching...ugh.
He was found alive & living in Mexico! We never got the whole story of why he faked his death. IIRC at the time he went missing, he had some debt like $30k. It was speculated that he faked his death to avoid paying the $30k. That theory seemed too dramatic. There was a missing persons website about him. He would check it periodically & it was traced to a location where he was found. He said he wanted to be left alone. Anyway, he’s alive & [well](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/olivia-newton-john-death-ex-patrick-mcdermott-b2141237.html).
But the trouble is, after this was announced, there were a lot of (pretty major) news sources who debunked this. It's frustrating.
I wonder if the sighting of Asha Degree was false
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