10 Tourists Who Mysteriously Vanished While On Vacation

6 /10 Lauren Spierer

An Indiana University student named Lauren Spierer went missing on June 3, 2011. She was last seen early in the morning, around 4:30 on that day, walking alone outside an off-campus apartment.

Authorities said Spierer disappeared after attending a party at a bar in Bloomington.

Her disappearance sparked a nationwide search, but until today, investigators can still locate her whereabouts, and many clues have led only to dead ends. She is presumed dead.

5 /10 Mary Virginia Carpenter

On June 1, 1948, Mary Virginia Carpenter was on her way to Texas State College for Women (now known as Texas Women’s University) in Denton.

She took a train first, then continued by taxi to the Brackenridge Hall. The driver saw Miss Carpenter getting out of the cab then walking over to a convertible parked outside a dorm.

Carpenter talked to two male occupants as if she knew them well. She would never be seen again. Neither of the two men was identified. Seven years after she had gone missing, Carpenter was officially declared dead.

4 /10 The Sarah Joe

Five friends set sail from Maui’s coast on February 11, 1979, for a fishing day on a small Boston Whaler called “Sarah Joe” and never returned. A few days later, a massive search took place to no avail.

A decade later, on September 10, 1988, biologist John Naughton found an abandoned wreck on a Marshal Islands coast; it was Sarah Joe.

Approximately a hundred yards from where the boat was, Naughton came across a grave and human bones, which after forensics testing, were determined to be the remains of one of the missing crews, Scott Moorman.

3 /10 Natalee Holloway

An 18-year-old American woman named Natalee Holloway mysteriously disappeared while on holiday in Aruba with 124 fellow graduates of Mountain Brook High School in Alabama and seven chaperones. 

She was scheduled to fly home on May 30, 2005, but she failed to appear. Even after massive search parties had been deployed, followed by multiple suspects’ arrests, her whereabouts remain unknown. On January 12, 2012, Natalee Holloway was officially declared dead.

2 /10 Barbara Bolick

On July 18, 2007, Barbara Bolick and Jim Ramaker went for a hike in Montana’s Bitterroot Mountains. On the walk, they made a stop at Bear Creek Overlook to have some rest and snack.

The stop happened between 11:30 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. Ramaker and Bolick have separated about 30 feet away.

Ramaker looked at the scenic view from the overlook, but when he turned around about a minute later, Bolick had gone. She was 55 years old at that time. Her whereabouts remain unknown.

1 /10 Amelia Earhart

Probably the highest-profile case of the missing person is the disappearance of Amelia Earhart. She vanished during a flight from Lae, New Guinea, to Howland Island in the Pacific Ocean.

She flew with navigator Fred Noonan on what was supposed to be the first around-the-world flight.

They disappeared over the Pacific Ocean on July 2, 1937. Earhart was declared legally dead on January 5, 1939.

Even until now, eight decades later, the mysterious disappearance still gathers much interest from investigators and the public at large.