AskReddit

20 Former “Missing Persons” Share Exactly What Happened To Them

11.

I rejected what my family was and from 19 to 21 went missing. I had a 1970 impala and worked in a different town for under the table money. When I wasn’t working I was exploring states and areas with the car. When I returned a lot of people heard I had died in a car wreck in North Carolina. Come to find out it was a person with my first name and attributes. My grandmother was heartbroken but nobody went up to confirm if it was me. – vadermaybelater

12.

I went missing for a couple of hours only when I was 3 or 4 years old. (I do not quite remember since I was so young.) I lived in a small town where everyone knew each other, so I was allowed to go play outside alone and could go as far as the end of the street without any trouble. There were a lot of children my age on my street, but I did not know all of them yet.

I had gone to play with a friend, and we decided to go play with my friend’s neighbor’s daughter. I didn’t know her, but my friend did, so it was alright. I was always happy to make new friends!

The three of us ended up in the girl’s basement since it had been transformed into a playground and was paradise for kids. We had been playing for a little while when my friend had to leave. I stayed and continued to play with my new friend.

There was loud music on, and her parents were in the basement with us to watch over us. We continued to play for a while. The dad then went upstairs to get some water, and someone knocked at the door.

I had been missing for some hours, and, when my parents had gone to get me at my friend’s house and had found out I wasn’t with him anymore, they had started to look for me. My friend had told them where I was, but since we were all downstairs and did not hear when they knocked at the door, it had led my parents to believe that nobody was home anymore.

When I stepped outside, all the neighbours were out looking for me, along with the police. – f-tk-pt

13.

My brother went hunting this Spring. He had planned out a 16 mile hike that would loop around back to his truck. However, it turns out that at mile 15 there was a bridge that had been washed out. He had to hike all the way back. Normally he would have service but he had grabbed the wrong portable charger and his phone died. When we hadn’t heard from him at 10:00 ok we started getting nervous. We called the cops and went to his truck. The cops wouldn’t let us search for him because they wanted the scent to be clean for the search and rescue dogs. 30 miles later at 4AM he got back to us waiting at his truck. – The12thman94

14.

Between the ages of 13-16 my mom would kick me out of the house, then call the cops and report me missing. This happened so many times that I became a “regular” at the station. – burntpudding

15.

Ran away from home when I was 15… I was living with a shitty family friend and after sleeping with both of her 37+-year-old boyfriends, I decided that was totally fucked up and I wanted to go live with my mom.

So I left and walked 10 miles until a stranger picked me up for hitchhiking and drove me the rest of the way. I slept on a park bench and then walked to my old high school to talk to the guidance counselor I had connected with. I was only reported missing for about 12 hours but it was still a horrible situation. – krrcjr121612

16.

I hid under a chair from my mom at the airport. About 20 minutes later an announcement came over the loudspeaker with my description and full name. I was like six or seven so I thought I’d be a fun game to hid from the people looking for me. The reason I hid in the first place was that she made me go with her into the woman’s bathroom. I got uncomfortable and gaped that shit. When she found me it was not hugs and “I was so scared.” Nah she lost her shit. – homelessHouse

17.

I was missing for about six hours when I was 11 with two of my friends. Basically, we were in the city seeing a movie with a group. The group decided to split up because we wanted to do different things. We agreed to meet back at the cinema around 2 PM. The other half did not show up, so my friends and I went for a swim and chilled out. Then it started to get late. By this time we were worried and scared. It was dark and we had no money or way to contact our parents. So we went to the police station. Turns out this entire time the police were looking for us.

The other group apparently went to meet us, but when we didn’t show up they freaked out and one of them called their dad. Instead of looking for us, the dad made his daughter tell my parents I was lost. Then the police were called and they were searching for us. My parents had no idea I was even in the city and thought I was just at a friend’s house.

It turns out there was a known serial predator and they believed we had been taken by him. Our pictures were going to be on the news and an Amber Alert was sent out. Once we were found the first thing I said to my mum was, “Next time I go missing make sure you pick a better picture. I look ugly in this one.” – whorifyiing

18.

At the time I was 14, was hunting with uncle and he left to go to another camp on a four-wheeler to get something and come back, decided to walk to said camp and got lost for about 2 months, lost a lot of weight and lived off bugs mushrooms and berries, I eventually stumbled upon some other hunters and they conctaced police to bring me back to my family. – Confused_boi444

19.

My friend was “missing” for a couple of hours in college. He was a freshman but went out to a bar that was next to a big park. His mom tracked his location and saw he was in some park that she had never heard of before. My friend wasn’t answering any calls or texts because his phone died so his mom filed a missing persons report with our campus police who found him asleep in his dorm a few hours later. – stripegiraffe

20.

I was in Australia backpacking 12 years ago. We were in Brisbane and decide to go to Nimbin for a couple of days for my birthday to hang around and smoke weed for a week.

Well, in Nimbin at that time, there was no internet or reliable phone service, so when my parents tried to call me, they couldn’t reach me. And we forgot to tell them we were going there.

After a couple of days of no contact, we went back to Brisbane, went to an internet cafe, and logged unto a shitshow of emails from the foreign department, police, the German consulate, and of course our parents. They freaked the fuck out, my GF’s mother nearly booked flights to come to Australia, my parents hacked our accounts to ask the people they knew we were hanging around with where we are (well, they were with us, so also no contact).

I didn’t understand why they were so worked up, but now that my GF is pregnant with our first child and I’m already stressing out over the next 20 years I kind of get it.

Moral of the story: If you go no-contact for a week to smoke weed all day, tell someone in advance! – Flachpfeife

These stories should certainly give you pause next time you reach for that milk carton. Though not all missing persons cases are equal, most are equally terrifying nonetheless!

You may or may not also enjoy these high quality links:

Stacey Ritzen

Stacey is an amateur cat hoarder who lives in West Philadelphia. No really, your Fresh Prince joke is super original please let me hear it.