David Paulides, a former policeman, had compiled enough data to notice that these isolated missing person cases were beginning to form clusters around certain mountainous regions. These clusters were of some of the most eerie cases he had uncovered in which missing people –children mostly– vanished into oblivion. Sometimes the only clues left by the unfortunate souls were just their clothing, neatly piled.
This bizarre phenomenon has an even more bizarre beginning. According to Mr. Paulides, his painstakingly and meticulous research didn’t come from an abrupt curiosity. He was visited one night by a government employee who had very interesting information to give up. Mr. Paulides came to find out that some of the missing people disappeared under unexplainable circumstances. Children climbing mountain ranges in short time or those children who crossed rapid-moving rivers that were found alive and had no recollection of how they’d arrived on the other side.
Worldwide there are literally hundreds of thousands of missing persons and many more disappear every day. One only has to search Google Images for “Missing People” to appreciate the scale of the problem. Many of these missing people are found but a significant proportion disappears forever. Where they went or what happened to them is a mystery in its own right but still not as strange as Vanishing People. These are individuals that for no apparent reason simply vanish in front of witnesses who are at a complete loss to explain what happened. It is worth noting, as with many other mysteries, that some of these cases have turned out to be hoaxes. In general, there are a couple consistencies in the most well known cases that are worth mentioning.All the people involved were (or appeared to be) content with their lives. All of them were engaged in a normal activity such as running a race or walking through a field when they simply vanished. There are hundreds of well documented cases of people disappearing in mysterious circumstances but actually very few where they simply vanished in full view of other people. We’ve listed this as a phenomenon because of its pervasive theme in stories, films and cultural beliefs. As an example, the films Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Illusionist and the X-files all refer to this occurrence. The belief in the possibility of this as a phenomena has been reinforced by the acts of stage magicians that really do appear to be able to make others disappear
