This is a list of solved missing person cases of people who went missing in unknown locations or unknown circumstances that were eventually explained by their reappearance or the recovery of their bodies, the conviction of the perpetrator(s) responsible for their disappearances, or a confession to their killings. This list includes disappearances before 1950. There are separate lists covering disappearances between 1950 and 1969, List of solved missing person cases: 1970s, List of solved missing person cases: 1980s, List of solved missing person cases: 1990s and then since 2000.
Before 1800 DatePerson(s)Age Country of disappearanceCircumstancesOutcomeTime spent missing or unconfirmed1578Andronikos Kantakouzenos25Ottoman Empire (modern-day Turkey)Andronikos Kantakouzenos was an Ottoman Greek entrepreneur and political figure who was persecuted by the Ottoman Empire for anti-Ottoman rhetoric. He fled to Istanbul, where he was briefly detained as a galley slave before he was released. He then went on to rebuild his business and involve himself in Wallachian and Moldavian politics before his disappearance and likely execution in 1601.Radu Ștefan Vergatti, "Mihai Viteazul și Andronic Cantacuzino", in Alamanah Bisericesc (Episcopia Giurgiului), 2013, pp. 229–240.Found aliveUnknown1606John Knight21UnknownJohn Knight was a British explorer who disappeared after his ship needed repairs. Knight had gone over a hill most likely near Nain, Labrador, on June 23 or 24, 1606. Some time after that it was confirmed that he had been killed by local residents, but these people were never identified and no one was charged with his murder.Laughton, John Knox (1892). "Knight, John (d.1606)". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 31. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 254–255. Knight's body was never located after that.MurderedNever found1630sTurhan SultanUnknownUnknownRussian, Ukrainian or Circassian girl kidnapped and later sold as a slave by the Tatars to the Ottoman Imperial Harem, later becoming a wife of Sultan Ibrahim.Thys-Şenocak, Lucienne (2006) Ottoman Women Builders: The Architectural Patronage of Hadice Turhan Sultan. Ashgate. As a result, she became a prominent figure during the Sultanate of Women.Found aliveUnknown1658Udriște Năsturel59–63Wallachia (modern-day Romania)Wallachian scholar, poet and statesman known for bringing on a cultural revival in the nation. He and several other consorts were later kidnapped and murdered, allegedly because they disagreed with a fellow boyar's plans for an anti-Ottoman uprising.Horst Fassel, "Valentin Franck V. Franckenstein și barocul românesc", in Steaua, Vol. XXVIII, Issue 1, January 1977, p. 32; Gabriel Țepelea, Credință și speranță. Pagini de publicistică radiofonică: 1943–2004, p. 34. Bucharest: Romanian Radio Broadcasting Company, 2006. MurderedUnknown1660William Harrison70EnglandWilliam Harrison disappeared on August 16, 1660, from the town of Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire, and was thought to have been murdered. He resurfaced two years later and said that he had been kidnapped.Found alive2 years1700sAdriaan de BruinUnknownUnknownAfrican boy enslaved to be servant to Dutch politician Adriaan van Bredehoff, best known for posing together with his master for a portrait by Nikolaas Verkolje, which today is on exhibit in the Westfries Museum.Found alive30 years1703Abram Petrovich Gannibal7–8UnknownEthiopian son of a prince who was captured by Ottomans and later sold as a slave to the Russian Empire. However, Tsar Peter the Great took a liking to him for his intelligence and military potential, and thus, Abram was made his godson. Gannibal went on to have an illustrious career as a nobleman and military engineer until his death in 1781.Marsden, Phillip. "From Slave to Slav." theguardian.com, October 21, 2005. Retrieved June 6, 2016.Found alive1 year1704Stephen Williams9Thirteen Colonies (modern-day United States)American boy who was kidnapped during a raid by French soldier and their Native American accomplices on February 29, 1704. He was held captive in Canada, where Jesuits attempted to convert him to Catholicism. He was released following a prisoner exchange and returned to Massachusetts, where he later became a Congregational minister.Demos, John. The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story From Early America. (New York: Alfred Knopf 1994), p. 35.Found alive1 year1721Marie-Angélique Memmie Le Blanc9FranceMarie-Angélique Memmie Le Blanc, later known as the “Wild Girl of Champagne” or the “Wild Child of Songy,” disappeared after running away and in lived in the forests of France for approximately ten years, from about age nine to nineteen, before being captured by villagers near Songy in Champagne in September 1731.Julia V. Douthwaite, The Wild Girl, Natural Man, and the Monster: Dangerous Experiments in the Age of Enlightenment (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2002), pp. 29–53. Found alive10 years1723Philip Ashton21Thirteen Colonies (modern-day United States)American castaway who lived on the uninhabited Roatán island for 16 months,Edward E. Leslie, "Desperate Journeys, Abandoned Souls", 1988, pp. 107–8 where he went into hiding to avoid trouble with pirates.Found aliveMore than 1 year1725Jacobus Capitein8Dutch Gold Coast (modern-day Ghana)Ghanaian boy who was enslaved and later brought to the Netherlands, where he ostensibly was to live as a servant to a Jacobus van Goch, a trader with the Dutch West India Company. Instead, Van Goch allowed Capitein to study theology and became a Christian minister and the first African to be ordained by the Dutch Reformed Church, who later spread the written word to his native Ghana.Feinberg, H.M., "Saga of a Slave: Jacobus Capitein of Holland and Elmina". African Studies Review. September 2003Found alive3 years1727The girl of IssauxUnknownFranceA French feral child who was discovered 8 years later, after disappearing into the wilderness.Found aliveUncertain1732Rachel Chiesley, Lady Grange53ScotlandThe wife of Jacobite lawyer James Erskine, Lord Grange, Chiesley was kidnapped by her husband for allegedly writing anti-Hanoverian letters. She was detained in multiple locationsSobieski Stuart, John and Charles Edward (1847) Tales of the Century: or Sketches of the romance of history between the years 1746 and 1846. Edinburgh. across Scotland, and despite a rescue attempt by her lawyer Thomas Hope, she died in captivity.Died in captivity13 years1753Elizabeth Canning19EnglandEnglish maidservant who claimed to have been kidnapped and held hostage in a hayloft. Three people were later convicted of the alleged kidnapping, but later pardoned following an investigation by the Lord Mayor of London, Crisp Gascoyne.Wellington, Barrett Rich (1940), The mystery of Elizabeth Canning as found in the testimony of the Old Bailey trials and other records, J. R. Peck Canning was sentenced to one month imprisonment for perjury, but whether she was truly abducted remains a mystery to this day.Found alive1 month1767Little Ephraim Robin JohnModern-day NigeriaNigerian slave-trader-turned-slave Efiks from Calabar, who were sold as slaves to British traders after being captured on a slave trade expedition themselves. They were sold to various buyers around the world as their intelligence, literacy and knowledge of the slave trade were considered valuable assets due to their experience in the same. In the 1790s, they successfully petitioned the British courts to be released and returned to Calabar, where they spread Christianity.Found aliveMore than 30 yearsAncona Robin JohnModern-day Nigeria1773Victor of AveyronUnknownFranceA French feral child who was found around the age of 9 after being missing for the previous two years.Found aliveUncertain1799Gulielma "Elma" Sands UnknownUnited States of AmericaGulielma Sands disappeared in Manhattan of December 22, 1799 in the evening time. The next year on January 2 her body was found in the newly created Manhattan Well.Murdered11 days
1800s