4 Ordinary People Who Disappeared With Zero Explanation

Timmothy was last seen at 10 a.m. on May 13, standing with Amy while she was checking out of a hotel resort. Amy next appeared on surveillance cam at 7:25 p.m. at a grocery store -- alone. She then checked into a motel in Rockford, Wisconsin, where she died by suicide. In both her suicide note and a letter she sent to her mother, Amy apologized and said that Timmothy was "safe with people who loved him," and that "You will never find him."

Here's the thing, though. In all the years that've passed since Timmothy's disappearance, no one has ever come forward to say that they found a boy wandering the woods or sitting on their doorstep in a wicker basket. A police examination of Amy's car found what they called "a concerning amount" of traces of Timmothy's blood, but family members believe that was likely from a nosebleed he had suffered earlier.

Then, earlier this year, the case was revitalized when a 23-year-old man came forward and claimed not only that he was Timmothy, but also that he'd just escaped from years-long captivity in Ohio. However, a DNA test confirmed that the guy was just some random lying asshole who had recently been released from prison for burglary.

First, the why. If Andrew ran away, he did a terrible job of it. Before he boarded his train, he cleaned out his bank account to the sum of 200 pounds ... but left 100 sitting in his bedroom. His family had relatives in London ... but he never contacted them. He took a satchel with him ... but didn't pack any clothes or goods, except for his PSP. The most damning piece of evidence is that he only bought a one-way ticket, and refused to buy a return ticket despite being told it would cost less than 1 pound more. How do you make sense of him cheaping out here, when he also didn't take every scrap of money and clothing that he could? He didn't even take the charger for his PSP -- which for a die-hard gamer is like leaving home without your internal organs.

The most popular theory is that Andrew traveled to London to watch a couple of shows from 30 Seconds to Mars, HIM, and SiKTh -- because at that age, it's required that you have terrible taste in music. On that same day, there was also a sighting of a teenager resembling Andrew eating at a Pizza Hut on Oxford Street -- because at that age, it's required that you have terrible taste in food.

How does someone disappear in one of the most surveilled cities in the world, you might wonder? It's relatively easy when the police don't bother to review the footage until a month after someone vanishes. That's how long it took investigators to get the footage of Andrew leaving King's Cross. By that time, his trail was ice-cold.

There's been one "credible" sighting of Andrew since his disappearance. In 2017, someone contacted his parents claiming they'd recently been talking to someone called "AndyRoo," who was e-begging on a forum for 200 pounds to make rent. When someone offered to wire him the money, "AndyRoo" responded that he didn't have a bank account because he'd run away from home when he was 14. Why? He'd "just felt like it."

The tip intrigued Andrew's parents, in part because his nickname had been "Roo." When they (and the police) asked the website for information on "AndyRoo," however, the site admitted they'd recently suffered a massive data loss while migrating systems and couldn't help. Was this a shitty troll or a legitimate lead? It's hard to say, which makes it on par with pretty much every other piece of evidence to do with this case.

The next morning, a still-on-edge Lars got a taxi to the airport to catch his flight home. But before he could fly, he had to be cleared for takeoff by the airport's doctor. According to the doctor, throughout the routine check-up, Lars was "nervous and erratic" and "didn't trust the medication he'd been given for his ear pain." When a worker from a construction crew remodeling the terminal entered the check-up room, Lars' nerves gave out and he said, "I don't want to die here. I have to get out of here."

He bolted from the room, sprinted across the terminal, and escaped into the parking lot. He was so terrified that he scaled an eight-foot wire fence and disappeared into some woodland bordering the airport. And it's not like he could buy himself another way out of the country or call for help, because he left his cellphone, wallet, and passport at the airport, along with all his clothes. Lars was never seen again.

It wouldn't be controversial to say that Lars reacted badly to the medication he was prescribed. It's possible he was suffering from "antibiotic delirium," a rare side effect of some antibiotics (including the type he was given) whereby patients experience temporary paranoia, hallucinations, and delusions, which he obviously had in spades.

In the aftermath of his disappearance, Lars' photograph and the video of him fleeing the airport were plastered across the country, in the hopes that someone would recognize him as that skittish hitchhiker they picked up. But no dice. Police also extensively searched the woods he fled into, whose conditions are hellish during the summer, to no avail. Lars' mother even hired a private investigator to canvas the locals and make sure the police had explored every avenue, with equally nonexistent luck.

You can find more from Adam on Twitter! He also has a newsletter about depressing history facts. (It's not as sad it sounds, promise.)

For more, check out Why Cats Are The Worst Type Of Missing Pet:

Also, we'd love to know more about you and your interesting lives, dear readers. If you spend your days doing cool stuff, drop us a line at iDoCoolStuff at Cracked dot com, and maybe we can share your story with the entire internet.

Follow us on Facebook. And we'll follow you everywhere.