4 True Scary Missing Person Stories

[Music] there is a place up in vermont known as green mountain national forest it takes up around 50 of bennington county surrounding the glastonbury mountains at its center and between the years of 1943 and 1950 several mysterious disappearances took place in its deep dark forests the disappearances became so prolific that the area took on a new name among frightened locals the bennington triangle due to some similarities with disappearances around the caribbean island of bermuda since that time the disappearances became an entrance part of local folklore and to this day the area's occupants warn against wandering alone in the green mountain national forest before the 18th century the glastonbury area was mostly uninhabited by european settlers the governor of new hampshire chartered the town in 1761 and by 1791 just six families called the tiny community home yet today merely eight residents remain within the ruins of glastonbury's ghost town it enjoyed something of a boom in about 1870 when it became a logging town and as many as 300 timber workers moved into glastonbury to harvest the surrounding forests but over logging of the mountain decimated the trees and eventually led to the town's economic decline perhaps the logging damage to the habitats of the local wildlife led to the native americans believing that the new industry had disturbed and angered the spirits of the forest or maybe the glastonbury curse was something entirely more menacing however it is tough to discern just how much of what people say about the bennington triangle is actually true details surrounding the various vanishings have varied over the years even down to the particulars of those that actually went missing but what is clear is that for aeons before european settlers ever occupied the area the local native american people used the area as a burial ground for their dead believing that the spirits of their ancestors inhabited the forests and would curse anyone who strayed too far into the dark and isolated woods they stayed well away from the area but the same could not be said for those that traveled from across the atlantic one particularly eerie piece of folklore from the abenaki tribe tells of a rock that ate the souls of all that passed near which to them explained why the woods were so devoid of the typical sounds of nature such as bird songs or the buzzing of insects and why many attested to such frightening sensations while hunting near the woods however there may well be some actual science behind such claims as geologists say the area has an unusually large amount of sinkholes due to subterranean water erosion but regardless the list of those declared missing after venturing into the forest is long indeed and these are just a few of them in 1943 a man named carl herrick and his cousin henry were taking part in the hunting trip just 10 miles northeast of glastonbury town the story goes that at one point during the trip carl walked off into the woods to relieve himself yet after some time carl still hadn't returned to the spot that they were resting at so henry called out through the woods to him only to receive no reply for hours and hours his cousin searched for him but carl was nowhere to be found over the following days a search party scoured the woods for any sign of carl herrick and eventually a body was found that was believed to be his but his remains showed bizarre signs of having been crushed by some ungodly force so badly that carl's ribs had punctured his lung but there were no signs of anything that could have possibly inflicted such wounds henry is reported to have said that the search party found that there were large bear prints around the corpse but a bear would not have squeezed a man like that nor would it have left fresh meat to spoil like that being the occasional scavenger animals that they are something must have severely spooked that bear if it left a corpse alone like that just two years later in 1945 the midi rivers incident occurred midi was a very experienced and hearty outdoorsman and very few people knew the forest around green mountain better than he did one day midi was heading up a hunting party in a place known as hell's hollow when he happened to stray a little too far ahead soon it dawned on his fellow hunters that midi was no longer with them but none of the hunters showed any initial concern after all midi was probably the most skilled hunter and tracker that any of them had ever known it had to just be a matter of time before he found them again yet no one ever saw or heard from him ever again after a long and intensive search of the surrounding woods the only trace of many rivers was an empty rifle cartridge that matched up with the kind that he was known to use there was no blood or shredded clothing left behind no evidence of an animal attack whatsoever and his corpse was never found but perhaps the most well-known of all the bennington triangle disappearances is the case of paula weldon she was a sophomore student at the nearby bennington university and on the 1st of december 1946 18 year old paula headed out into the woods on a short hike intended to relieve the stress of her studies paula was wearing a light red jacket not ideal for a lengthy hike in cold weather so so it is safe to say that she had not intended to be out for a particularly long time she was last sighted by a couple out for a walk on a stretch of land known as long trail they witnessed paula turn a corner but when they reached the same spot she had inexplicably vanished from sight and it would be hard to miss such a bright red jacket among the dark foliage the following day when her classmates noticed her unusual absence they informed the local police who commenced a thorough search of the long trail the search party was a thousand strong at times even included a number of light aircraft enlisted by the fbi but still not a trace apollo was ever found paula was by far the most famous case but the most tragic was that of eight-year-old paul jefferson paul's mother was employed by the local garbage dump and on the 12th of october 1950 paul accompanied his mother to work since he was off school for the holiday they didn't intend to stay long at all so paul's mother told him to stay put in the truck while she popped into the dumps office to complete a few pieces of paperwork but when she got back to the truck paul was gone much like paula weldon paul was wearing a brightly colored rain jacket that would be almost impossible to miss on the backdrop of the surrounding woods but when another huge search was mounted which this time included sniffer dogs from the local police force nothing was found it was as if paul had vanished into thin air but analysis of local habanaki folklore found a disturbing tidbit of information regarding the wearing of bright colors in the forest apparently it is extremely bad luck to wear anything but dark shades while visiting native american burial grounds as it offends the spirits of the dead a truly terrifying detail to consider in the same month october of 1950 a young woman named freda langer and her family were on a camping trip near the somerset reservoir deep within the bennington triangle frida and her cousin herbert set off on a hike around the area but less than a mile into their little adventure frida took a tumble and landed in the stream but given that they weren't all that far from their campsite frida turned back to get a change of clothes while herbert waited at the site of her accident for her return after an hour or so of waiting herbert walked back to the camp outraged that his cousin would leave him waiting so long but when he asked after her he discovered she'd never made it back to camp her disappearance was completely unexplainable and many puzzled over how a girl could possibly vanish over the course of such a short journey and by this time the number of inexplicable vanishings meant that the woods had garnered quite the reputation as being mysteriously but undeniably dangerous it also seemed like the power of the bennington triangle is not just confined to the woods james tedford a veteran of world war ii was returning to his residence at a va hospital in bennington in 1949 after a visit to some of his family in nearby saint albans his journey was via a greyhound bus that held no more than 14 other passengers but somehow when the bus arrived in bennington tedford wasn't on board yet strangely not only was his luggage still in the bus rack but personal items belonging to tedford including a jacket and his ticket were sitting in his seat in his place the other passengers were later questioned by police when he was reported missing not a single one reported seeing him disembark at any point on the journey in fact they had seen him sitting in his seat at every single scheduled stop just not the one he was due to get off at bennington since tedford's disappearance was yet another in a series of mysterious vanishings in the bennington area police were eager to get to the bottom of the case as quickly as possible but logically speaking they could only settle on one solid conclusion that tedford had never boarded the bus in the first place but this stood in stark contrast to the fact that not only was his luggage on board but he had been sighted by many of his fellow passengers like many of the other disappearances in bennington triangle tedford's case remains totally unsolved to this day but there must be practical tangible explanations for such vanishings even if they seem fairly outlandish one theory centers around the intense unpredictable weather patterns that the new england area suffers from professional hikers and mountaineers alike insist that the disappearances are down to nothing more than poor weather since wind patterns in the area can be incredibly erratic even those familiar with the area could lose their footing in perilous situations or suffer from serious disorientation in some cases however although this might account for one or two of the missing persons it certainly does not account for all of them many visitors to the area have also reported seeing cougars in the green mountain national forest these big cats can stalk hunters for long distances while waiting for an opportune moment to strike lone hikers are by far the most at risk especially during the winter when the mountain lion's natural prey is scarce which also happens to be when the majority of disappearances have occurred because they can weigh more than 200 pounds a powerful cougar can subdue and kill someone very quickly but a mountain lion would most certainly leave behind traces of their kills be it bones or shredded clothing and in most of the bennington disappearances not a single piece of evidence of the unfortunate souls has been found however another theory one rooted in mental illness is much more feasible one story tells of a bizarre character by the name of mcdowell moving to bennington in 1892 looking for work at a local sawmill the man was a solitary quiet soul brimming with male content and was viewed with suspicion and fear by the other workers then after a few months of floating from job to job he got into an argument with a foreman and smashed the man over the head with a hammer before slaying another that came to the foreman's defense the man was ranting and raving as local lawmen cornered him in one of the town's taverns and once he was in custody he was confined to an insane asylum for the foreseeable future but the man was wild violent and cunning and it didn't take long for him to escape the asylum and escape into the mountains to hide among their many caves and caverns some say the horrendous environment of the asylum the callous abuse of the orderlies and doctors had turned him well and truly feral and every so often the man would descend from the mountains to terrorize the residents of the town wearing only a long black coat with a pistol in his hand mcdowell may have been able to prey upon the town's residence during the early 1900s but by the middle of the century he will have been a much older man and may not have even survived the wilderness for such a considerable length of time perhaps it'll never be entirely certain what is to blame for the bizarre disappearances in the bennington triangle but be it the weather wild animals or a deranged serial killer the area is without a doubt one of the most inexplicably dangerous places in the entirety of the united states for those who were unlucky enough to find themselves alone among the trees there it is truly chilling to think that these disappearances might never be solved that the fates of those poor souls might be forever kept a secret hidden among the dark trees of the green mountain national forests in late june of 2014 a 28 year old german man by the name of lars midtank took a vacation to the bulgarian seaside resort of golden sands popular with tourists from all over europe golden sands is a major resort town on the northern bulgarian black sea coast adjacent to a national park of the same name in the municipality of varna located just over 15 kilometers north of downtown varna it is virtually connected to the city by a continuous swath of resorts and villa communities on the 6th of july lars and his group of friends found themselves in a disagreement with another group of young german men in a local bar lars and his companions were fans of the german football team verde brain while the opposing group were bayern munich supporters there was a rather high profile rivalry between the two football clubs and the playful disagreement soon descended into a violent confrontation when one member of each group began pushing and shoving each other the fight between the two of them quickly became a full-on bar brawl between the two groups chairs and bottles were thrown pool cues were used as weapons and in the fray mittank suffered a ruptured eardrum from a particularly vicious strike midtank was forced to visit the local doctor to have his head examined it was discovered that the injury was a particularly nasty one one that came with a rather high risk of internal infection so the doctor prescribed a course of the antibiotic cepheroxime and advised lars not to fly for the next couple of weeks as it would risk seriously exacerbating the injury and cause a grievous amount of pain he would also require another examination at the bulgarian hospital in the coming weeks in order to ensure the wound was properly on the mend this severely interfered with lars and his friends travel plans but lars was not reckless enough to actually disobey the doctor's orders and so arrangements were made for him to fly back to germany at a later date than was originally intended lars's friends insisted that they would stay with him if he needed them to but he assured them that he would be perfectly fine on his own besides a forced holiday extension wasn't the worst fate a young man could wish to endure and so lars stayed in bulgaria while his friends drove to the airport and flew back to germany he took a taxi back to the hotel color varna making reservations that would cover his recuperation period then tried to spend the next few days relaxing and healing from his particularly nasty wound but just a day after his friends left him behind in bulgaria lars began to act very oddly indeed his bizarre and erratic behavior was captured by the hotel's closed-circuit television security cameras he ran around the hotel looking over his shoulder accusing staff and guests alike of plotting against him a few of those encounters almost turned violent and on more than one occasion the hotel staff threatened to call the police finally once lars's behavior had become unbearable the hotel staff asked him to gather his belongings and leave as such violent outbursts were strictly against hotel policy and could no longer be tolerated but before he checked out of the hotel lars made a call to his mother back in germany she later stated that he seemed extremely upset and told her in hushed tones that four german men possibly the same as friend group fought with in the bar that day were coming to kill him he told her that he had made a significant withdrawal of cash to live off of and that she should cancel his credit cards when she asked why lars told her that the men could use them to track his movements where he got such an idea is a mystery but he seemed very very insistent that this was the case we know that on the 8th of july lars midtank traveled to varna airport in an attempt to travel back home to germany against the doctor's wishes he attempted to purchase a ticket on a flight back home but after looking around the airport and apparently seeing something became so flustered and frightened that he abandoned the attempt altogether lars then sought out a medical services area of the airport although it is clear that he did not ask for any medical attention and would not tell those inside why he wished to remain there they later confirmed that he seemed jumpy and paranoid as if though he was hiding from someone that was hunting him about 45 minutes after originally taking shelter in the medical services area the airport's cctv cameras captured some kind of construction worker making their way over to the medical area this seems to have triggered lars into rushing out of the airport having abandoned his backpack and luggage altogether more cctv footage shows lars running across a two-lane highway dodging speeding vehicles as he does so before reaching a large fence lars scaled the fence with frightening strength and speed then sprints full pelt across a meadow before disappearing into a field of sunflowers with a set of deep woods beyond them police investigated the incident thoroughly but found no evidence that lars was being followed by anyone they even contacted the group lars's friends had fought with but they all had alibis that confirmed that they were nowhere near the airport on the day of lars disappearance many theories about what happened are all over the internet some theories believe that he was being used as a drug mule some believe that he suffered a psychotic episode only two things are completely certain regarding this behavior an unexplainable incident the first is that lars did not suffer from any form of mental illness the second is that lars was never seen again anywhere or by anyone [Music] susan walsh was an investigative journalist who conducted the majority of her work in new york city born susan young on february 18th of 1960 she took the name walsh after she married mark walsh brother of the eagles singer and guitarist joe walsh despite her relative success in the field of journalism susan walsh had something of a troubled upbringing while attending william patterson university in her home state of new jersey walsh often worked as a stripper or erotic dancer in order to help pay the hefty tuition fees required to continue her studies but there are some who say that she only worked in such seedier lines of work in order to fund her habit of illegal drugs and alcohol and those who knew her were only too familiar with her penchant for the party lifestyle however by the time she graduated in 1984 walsh insisted she was clean and sober ready to kick start her professional life as a journalist and perhaps it was her affinity with the darker more sordid side of life that made susan walsh such an effective investigator into her chosen subjects but it seems that it was such an effectiveness that led her to uncover something shouldn't and may well have contributed to her untimely disappearance whilst working for the greenwich village-based alternative publication the village voice susan walsh heard an extremely disturbing rumor through the journalist grapevine according to trusted sources new york hospitalists were suffering from an unusual and frightening phenomenon human blood used to replace that which its patients had lost through accidental or violent encounters was somehow going missing susan's boss and mentor at the village voice a man named james ridgway had suggested she investigate the strange thefts as it would make for a spine tingling story indeed but after she spent weeks cross-referencing tips on the phone with various contacts from all over the east village she went back to bridgeway with an explanation that seemed as ridiculous as it was unbelievable susan walsh claimed that vampires were to blame for the stealing of the hospital's blood walsh claimed that a small coven of vampires first contend to drink each other's blood in dark occult rituals that took place in cramped dingy apartments after sundown had taken to stealing it in bulk from the city's hospitals ridgeway read walsh's initial report with one major concern given its fantastical conclusion he was deeply suspicious that walsh had slipped back into her old pattern of addiction and abuse he could think of no other reason why she could have come up with such a bizarre theory when there were many other much more rational explanations it ran like a bad horror movie he later said i was hoping for a credible scoop but i was only disappointed she got totally absorbed with the vampire thing the theories the energy flows the article she wrote wasn't very astute he asked susan walsh to rewrite the article and to reconsider her theories regarding vampirism but she was insistent that she was on to something and promised to better explain her theories in a later article she would present a ridgeway for his perusal this is what she found at the time that susan walsh disappeared new york city had the largest dracula fan club in the world numbering it over 5000 members they had a vampire museum a 22 year old vampire research center and even an after midnight cable talk show for those with a fascination for the fanged bloodsuckers said to stalk the streets of new york after dark vampire themed nightclubs and even a vampire inspired music scene may have given the subject a surface area of whimsical innocence but walsh found that the deeper she dug into the city's underground vampire scene the more dark and disturbing it became a journalist's contact of hers had put her in touch with a woman who owned a shop in the east village a place that sold glazed skulls old clothes occult books capes and coffin-shaped jewels walsh said she descended a staircase in an abandoned basement theater a place where incense hung heavy in the air and the decor was an invariable jet black there she met a woman who claimed she was the witch of the east village and who sold all manner of products to the vampire cult that lurked among the shadow underbelly of new york city she stalked their pewter blood vials and tiny ceremonial knives used for breaking the skin of those they wished to feed on walsh was told that she was wasting her time looking for the vampire cult during the daytime and that although they were obviously not genuine immortal morphing into a bat kind of vampires they were just as dangerous as their fictional counterparts walsh said that she was gripped with a queasy anxiety as he was told that this underground vampire cult did indeed kill people to get their blood fix and that they had contacts at various hospitals around the city that could acquire fresh blood for them for a price of course after all in new york city it's frighteningly easy to simply up and disappear walsh later told her boss of how the witch of the east village had put her in touch with a young man claiming to have intimate connections with a vampire cult he was from california and claimed to have a fang making business that was frequently patronized by members of the cult he also said he ran a vampire networking service that put curious people in touch with the cult but only after they were thoroughly vetted he told wash that they were fashion vampires those that simply masqueraded in gothic clothing while listening to dark music but that there were also real vampires and transcending into one was a long and difficult process when she asked the young man about the culture of blood drinking that was prevalent among the cult she was told that he indeed tried it on a few occasions drinking a few ounces each time he explained in deadly seriousness that it was an overwhelming sensation almost like taking ecstasy and a deeply sensual experience he claimed it was like a very special kind of wine when you sip and that you can taste a person's lifestyle in their blood as well as things like how old they were or what ethnicity they belong to he also explained that the vampire cult was very serious and professional how they were tested for hiv every month or so and that the new york cult had connections with other such organizations in philadelphia boston san francisco san diego and los angeles their members included the catholic priest two pastors lawyers one of the top executives in citibank republican politicians as well as people who simply had a fetish for blood he also confirmed that the cult did indeed have a contact working in a medical facility who tested bags of blood for infectious diseases before delivering them to the cult for large sums of cash the young man went on to explain how the vampire cult would meet at some secretive location every few weeks to conduct a feeding ritual and not always in some dark subterranean hideaway one week they might meet in the private dining space of an italian restaurant owned by someone sympathetic to their inclinations or someone who would keep quiet for the right price there was also a strict hierarchy among the cult members that kept discipline and secrecy intact there were the transcended vampires the de facto leaders of the cult who in turn marshaled minions who would organize and facilitate the feasts finally there was what's known as the herd those who consented to be fed upon who might also find themselves climbing the ranks of the cult in the hopes of one day becoming a fully fledged vampire it was very similar to the bdsm community he explained in the sense that there are dominance and the submissives who serve them it all seemed relatively innocent to susan walsh at first but the young man went on to tell tales of a much darker scene that existed or he had witnessed considerably more disturbing things he told susan that he had once attended what was known as a sanctuary feed where he saw a young woman who had been rendered unconscious and strapped to a table with a series of tubes running out of her arms and legs those that attended the gathering could feed off of her at will and the young man said that he had no idea what became of the girl but it was too much for him and that he'd left the event before it had finished it was over the winter of 1995 1996 that susan walsh was researching the vampire piece for the village voice around this time friends and colleagues noticed that the pager she carried with her started going off a lot more not just once or twice a day with messages from her boss at the voice and other publications she wrote for but every couple of minutes on some occasions walsh had always been popular with men and had made a considerable amount of money during her stripping days even after she divorced her husband mark he couldn't bring himself to move away from her and actually moved into the apartment below where she lived in new jersey as a way of staying close to her but whoever it was that was tailing her during that winter had set her on edge like nothing else had she actually told some close friends that she was extremely worried about the situation and on more than one occasion referred to him as her stalker and was even too scared to reveal his actual identity even though it was obvious that she knew who it was walsh was even forced to visit the doctor over an apparent stomach ulcer brought on by the stress of her ordeal al sullivan the editor of the william patterson university newspaper that walsh wrote for back in her college days was interviewed after her disappearance he mentioned that walsh showed a lot of promise how she was always looking for a bigger story and digging deep into things that she was investigating but he also mentioned how walsh's charisma sometimes proved addictive to those that knew her people don't stop falling in love with her he explained people get addicted to her her boyfriends won't leave her alone she once told me that she was being stalked by an ex-lover that was in the cia on july 14 1996 susan walsh's pager rang halfway through an interview she was conducting on a new project she was investigating oh that must be my stalker she apparently joked but two days later she was declared missing the vampire cult angle might seem ridiculous to some but upon their initial investigation the police department in nutley new jersey the place she disappeared announced that they were indeed considering so-called vampire cults as the cause of her disappearance but the causes of susan's disappearance might well be rooted in the new project she had taken up one that was also an investigation of new york's cd underbelly by 1996 susan had become increasingly jaded with the stripping and erotic dancing she had once used to supplement her income and finance her education being on stage in front of so many people being so intimately exposed caused her to self-medicate with drugs and alcohol then after a while the lusty gazes of her customers began to lose their appeal entirely i lie on the dressing room stools staring up at the ceiling she once wrote of her time as a dancer running images through my mind me taking a blade to a swollen member and slicing it up like a cucumber for a salad she began to see this work as exploitative cruel and manipulative and this set her on a crusade to expose human trafficking rings that provided new york's many peep shows and strip joints with their performers and so during mid-1996 susan's research led her to a series of strip clubs that were apparently being run by the russian mafia she used her deep-rooted connections in the community she used to work in to organize secret meetings with many of the girls who worked in such places she subsequently discovered that they were indeed being trafficked from the former soviet union into the united states where they were forced to pay off their debts to those they had aided their migration by working as strippers and worse ladies of the night in the chaos that had followed the fall of russian communism many young women had sought to flee the poverty of their homelands in favor of western europe or the united states and the russian mafia was only too glad to aid them as well as exploiting them for profit the article that susan put together on the subject was as revealing as it was skewering and received a great deal of critical acclaim from all over the literary world suddenly her name was well known all over the western world as being one of the freshest most exciting investigative journalists around a documentary team from germany traveled all the way to new york to seek her consultation and to interview her for a film they were making about russian immigrants becoming go-go dancers at the time of her disappearance she was about to start work for the bbc on a similar program who were also interested in the subject but the dangers of investigating such things are very very tangible susan walsh apparently had numerous encounters with people who claimed to be the agents or managers of the dancers she was interviewing telling her the dire consequences would await her if she didn't cease publishing what she had learned from her investigations anyone who has watched the sopranos knows that strip clubs in new jersey which happen to have more than any other state in the union are usually under mob control at whatever faction that controls each club can vary from area to area some under italian control and some under russian dancers under the control of such clubs are occasionally used as bait and deals which can make them even more vulnerable to violence and abuse than usual walsh once interviewed a club manager referred to only as marty who said some girls you don't see anymore it's because these girls found something out or were let in on it or maybe overheard a conversation about something that was going down then if that girl wants to turn around and get out they'll get rid of her or whatever walsh had clearly involved herself with men who were not afraid to resort to murder to solve their problems it was also rumored that her deep involvement in the investigation of vampire cults had also caused her to become romantically involved with someone who was convinced that they were themselves a vampire but who exactly caused her untimely disappearance isn't clear whatsoever all we know is that on july 16th 1996 walsh left her son in the care of his father before leaving the nutley apartment complex she called home with the intention of running errands to make a telephone call from a pay phone house across the street from her she was dressed in all black when she walked out into a scorching hot tuesday morning it was the last time she was seen alive there was such little evidence as to who might have taken her that nutley police department declared the case closed just six weeks later but it also is highly suspicious that when asked by police if they might conduct forensic tests in her apartment her ex-husband mark flat out refused apparently this was on the advice of his lawyer who insisted that such a search would make him suspect number one given that logically speaking her hair and fingerprints would be all over his home but still what could he possibly have to hide regardless it is absolutely terrifying that a well-known world-like person could simply up and disappear outside of her own apartment block and that no evidence and no body would ever be found on november 24th 1971 the day before thanksgiving a gentleman in his mid 40s walked up to the northwest orient airlines counter at portland international airport in oregon he was a quiet unassuming man in dark sunglasses carrying a black briefcase and wearing a black business suit with a white shirt as he used cash to purchase a one-way ticket to nearby seattle he told the clerk behind the counter that his name was dan cooper shortly after cooper boarded the waiting boeing 727 and took a seat in the rear of the passenger cabin before ordering a bourbon and soda the sparsely occupied aircraft took off on schedule at 2 50 pm that afternoon for the short 30 minute flight into washington once the flight had reached altitude flight attendant florence shafter began to walk up and down the aisle taking drink orders from the passengers when she reached the row where dan cooper was sat and asked him for his order he simply handed her a note miss schaffner opened it up and gassed when she saw what was written written with a felt tip pen and neat printed capital letters were just four words i have a bomb cooper then invited florence schaffner to take a seat next to him only it wasn't so much an invitation as an order according to later statements cooper then showed the terrified flight attendant exactly what was in his briefcase she saw eight large cylinders linked to a small circular battery unit with red insulation wire shaftner had never seen an explosive device before but the one she saw that afternoon was very very convincing cooper then leaned into her ear before whispering his demands two hundred thousand dollars in negotiable american currency four parachutes and a fuel truck standing by in seattle one that was ready to refuel the aircraft once it had landed shaftner promptly walked down the aircraft's aisle to the cockpit relayed cooper's demands to the pilot and assuring him she had seen the explosive device he was threatening them with captain william scott the aircraft's pilot quickly contacted seattle airport informing them of the grave situation on board not wishing to cause a panic the pilot passed a message over the intercom to the passengers on board telling them that their arrival at seattle airport would be slightly delayed due to minor technical difficulties on its arrival in seattle airspace the aircraft entered a holding pattern circling the area to ensure that local authorities had time to fully assemble the money and parachutes that cooper had demanded meanwhile the president of the airline in question actually relented to cooper's demands personally authorizing the withdrawal of the full two hundred thousand dollars from company accounts and passing along the instructions that all company employees were to fully comply with a hijacker to preserve human life a remarkable aspect of the hijacking was cooper's behavior during the whole ordeal many aircraft hijackings during that period were hallmarked by the cruelty and political extremism of the perpetrators such as the german communist red army faction but flight attendant florence schaffner later described cooper as being well spoken calm and polite going so far as paying for his drinks and offering to provide food for the flight attendants when the plane landed in seattle at no point did cooper relate any kind of political motive for the hijacking and in fact did not communicate any motives for his actions whatsoever we can only assume that cooper was a criminal who merely sought personal gain but one that showed an unusual amount of compassion and empathy for those involved in the hijacking at 5 24 pm fbi agents on the ground at seattle airport who had gathered cooper's money from a few different local banks relayed a message to the pilot that the aircraft was cleared to land once it landed cooper instructed the pilot to taxi the plane to a well-lit area of the runway before telling the flight attendants to shut all of the window shades on board to ensure the fbi snipers would be unable to get a clear shot on him this is one of the first clues we get to just how much thought and planning cooper had put into the whole operation shortly afterward northwest orient airlines ops manager approached the aircraft in civilian clothing delivering a set of backpacks that were stuffed with cash to one of the flight attendants via the plane's rear staircase once cooper was happy that the delivery was sufficient he told all passengers and a handful of the flight crew to disembark leaving only a skeleton crew to fly him out of there it was during the refueling of the aircraft that cooper informed them of their new course they would be flying southwest towards mexico city but cooper didn't only give them a new direction he seemed to have an intimate knowledge of the aircraft's functionality instructing them exactly how he wished the pilot to fly the plane such as the speed and altitude he wanted them to fly at even down to the angle at which he wanted the wing flaps to be deployed he also instructed the pilot to ensure that the cabin remain unpressurized telling him to leave the rear doors of the aircraft open when the plane took off an official from the federal aviation administration requested a face-to-face meeting with cooper informing him that takeoff would be extremely unsafe given some of the conditions he had requested it was a bluff he was counting on cooper knowing next to nothing about aviation but cooper knew far more than anyone had predicted and argued in return that he would only lower the stairs once the plane was in the air as previously mentioned it seemed cooper had planned and researched the operation in extreme forensic detail in the months or possibly years leading up to the incident and came armed with a frightening amount of knowledge surrounding civilian aviation there was however one thing that cooper apparently did not have knowledge of he seemed to have expected the aircraft to be able to make one solid flight down to mexico city when in fact it only had a maximum range of about one thousand miles the co-pilot informed cooper that they would have to make a refueling stop at reno airport down in nevada cooper agreed but seemed bizarrely unconcerned by such a detail about two hours after they had originally landed the hijacked aircraft prepared to take off again with just five people on board four crew members and the hijacker himself however at this stage the plane was being tailed by two f-106 fighter aircrafts that had scrambled from the nearby mccord air force base one above and one below the hijacked plane so that cooper would be unable to see them after the plane took off cooper ordered the entire flight crew into the cockpit leaving him alone in the cabin one was later noted to have said that they had seen cooper tying something around his waist before he began to lower to the rear staircase at approximately 1 15 pm the aircraft's rear staircase was still lowered when the pilot landed the plane in reno airport a large number of waiting fbi agents sheriff's deputies state troopers and local reno pd began to surround the jet and quickly boarded to take cooper into custody before he had a chance to get airborne again and escape to mexico but as they completed a thorough search of the aircraft they discovered that cooper was nowhere to be found all that remained of the man was his black clip-on tie his tie clip and two of the four parachutes as requested as part of his demands the only possible conclusion be drawn was that somewhere between seattle and reno cooper had jumped out of the plane what followed was arguably the most extensive and intensive search and recovery operation in us history a series of composite sketches was developed with local police and fbi agents immediately seeking to question around 800 possible suspects however all 20 or so of these were quickly eliminated from the investigation one of these suspects was an oregon man by the name of db cooper who had a relatively small criminal history he too was rolled out of the investigation as just one of the theories was that it was highly unlikely that the hijacker would have used his actual birth name to pull off such a daring heist but thanks to the details of his questioning being released by reporters the name db cooper stuck in public consciousness given that cooper was thought to have jumped out of the aircraft just 20 minutes or so after takeoff police centered their search on a certain area of washington specifically the land around the lewis river in the southwest of the state fbi agents and sheriff deputies from nearby counties searched large areas of the mountainous wilderness surrounding the lewis river on foot and by helicopter door-to-door searches of local farmhouses were also carried out while search parties ran patrol boats along the river and in surrounding lakes but no trace of cooper nor any of the equipment he thought to have jumped out of the aircraft with was ever located fbi then attempted to locate a trace of cooper by releasing a list of serial numbers that were printed on the money they had given him but this did little more than confuse the situation 1972 two men used counterfeit twenty dollar bills printed with cooper serial numbers to con thirty thousand dollars from a newsweek reporter in exchange for an interview with a man that falsely claimed was the hijacker for all intents and purposes the man who called himself dan cooper had successfully completed his criminal operation before he disappeared into thin air no evidence of cooper was discovered until february of 1980 when a family vacationing in the columbia river made a miraculous discovery as they raked over a sandy riverbank to build a campfire they uncovered three packets worth of the random cash that was delivered to cooper on the tarmac of seattle airport the bills had suffered serious water damage over the years and were heavily deteriorated but were soon identified as the genuine article by fbi agents however none of the other bills had ever turned up anywhere in the world despite their serial numbers still being available online for public inspection but who exactly was dan cooper it might seem obvious but his fictional situation was most likely extremely desperate why would a man take such an enormous risk otherwise but whether or not this was to pay medical bills debts or for something more material can only be speculated on one of the flight attendants told fbi interviewers that cooper had been able to recognize the city of tacoma from the air and also noticed that mccord air force base was less than half hours drive from seattle airport something that few civilians would have been aware of at that time this has given rise to the idea that cooper was an air force veteran or at least had a background in aviation a theory supported by cooper's apparently expert knowledge of the nature of aircraft he was aware of flying techniques engine placement aircraft specifications as well as local terrain he may have also specifically selected the 727 model of aircraft thanks to a recent innovation that allowed all three fuel tanks to be refilled at once cooper also knew that the rear staircase could be lowered during flight a fact that was never disclosed to civilian flight crews since there was no situation on a passenger flight that would make it necessary he also seemed aware that its operation by a single switch in the rear of the cabin could not be overridden from the cockpit some of this knowledge was only known by cia para military units so could cooper have been former cia or perhaps a rogue agent one particularly interesting point is that dan cooper is a name shared by a popular belgian comic book hero who enlisted in the royal canadian air force dan cooper took part in numerous heroic adventures including parachuting yet the dan cooper comics were never translated into english nor were they imported over to the united states so there's been much speculation that the hijacker may have encountered them during a tour of duty in europe during world war ii the comics were not sold in the us but since some copies were translated into french they were sold in canada cooper could have well have been a canadian citizen given that he jumped out of the plane in washington his escape plan could have been over the border to his native country with the whole mexico reference being a diversionary tactic in line with this theory much has been made of his specific demand for negotiable american currency a phrase which some was determined as unlikely to be used by a u.s citizen despite the fact that no dead body had ever been found the fbi has long speculated that cooper did not survive his jump parachuting into the stormy washington wilderness without the right equipment in such terrible conditions it's unlikely he even got his chute open and even if cooper was lucky enough to land safely survival in the mountainous terrain at that onset of winter would have been all but impossible without an accomplice waiting at an agreed upon drop zone this would have required a perfectly timed jump which would have required cooperation from the flight crew and there is no evidence that cooper requested or received any such help from the crew or that he had any clear idea where he was when he jumped out of the plane it was also revealed that one of the parachutes they had provided to cooper had been a dummy an unusable unit with an inoperative rip cord intended solely as a teaching aid although it had clear markings identifying it to any experienced skydiver is non-functional however the fbi stressed that inclusion of the dummy reserve parachute one of four obtained in haste from a seattle skydiving school was accidental and not a deliberate attempt to kill cooper the search for db cooper officially ended on the 8th of july 2016. it was on this date that the fbi announced that it was ending all active investigations telling the public they needed to focus its investigative resources and manpower elsewhere local fbi field offices have stated they will continue to accept any legitimate physical evidence related specifically to the parachutes or the ransom money that may emerge in the future the 60 volume case file compiled over the 45-year course of the investigation will be preserved for historical purposes at fbi headquarters in washington d.c on the fbi website there is currently a 28-part packet full of evidence gathered over the years and all the evidence is open to the public to read so keep your eyes and ears open for a man with a little too much in the way of aircraft knowledge who is a little too much money for a retiree there's every chance that db cooper might still be out there and it might be a listener of this very channel that finally solves the mystery of the greatest airline heist of all time hey friends thanks for listening click that notification bell to be alerted of all future narrations if you got a story be sure to submit them to my subreddit our let's read official and give and receive feedback from the community and maybe even hear your story featured on the next video and join my discord to interact with me and other listeners directly and if you want to support me even more grab early access to all future narrations for just one dollar a month on patreon and maybe even pick up some let's read merch on spreadshirt and check out the let's read podcast where you can hear all these stories in long compilation form and save huge on data located anywhere you listen to podcasts links in the bio thanks much friends and i'll see you again soon

Channel: Lets Read!

Views: 130,200

Rating: 4.9090347 out of 5

Keywords: Missing Person Stories, Missing Person, Missing People, true scary stories, scary stories, scary true stories, horror stories, true horror stories, true stories, scary horror stories, reddit scary true stories, ASMR, asmr sleep, true scary stories from reddit, true horror stories from reddit, lets not meet, stories from reddit, reddit, lets read, true creepy stories, creepy stories, true scary stories reddit lets not meet, true scary stories reddit

Id: G6ykW24Gig4

Length: 50min 41sec (3041 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 10 2020