It was a perfect day for a hike on September 25th, 1981 when Thelma Pauline Melton ventured out into the woods of the Great Smoky Mountain with two friends. Walking ahead of them at one point, Thelma sped up around a hilly bend, slipping out of sight. A few minutes later, they reached the same spot, expecting to see her, but Thelma wasn't there. Despite extensive search and rescue efforts, no trace of Thelma was found. She had simply vanished. For decades, family and friends lived with unanswered questions, haunted by the mystery of how someone could just disappear so completely, without a trace.

It was 7:32 PM on August 10th, 2018 when security warnings notified all employees at the Seattle-Tacoma airport to immediately halt activity until further instruction. At first, nobody knew that a Bombardier Q400 plane had just executed an unauthorized take off from the runway but soon, locals would notice the 76-passenger aircraft flying unusually low to the ground. Behind the yoke was 28-year-old Richard Russell, a Horizon Air service agent. After repeated attempts, air traffic control was able to reach him, and what followed would be a conversation that so many would never forget.

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In 2018, 23-year-old April Carpenter of Wabaseemoong Nation went missing after failing to arrive at her sister's home as planned. Despite the sense of urgency her family felt, authorities did not suspect foul play. The public was not alerted of her disappearance until three weeks later, when it was officially treated as a missing persons case. Soon after, her body was discovered in the Red River in Winnipeg. Seven years later, her loved ones and community still await answers, convinced that the truth about what happened to April remains untold.

It's been over four years since 26-year-old Kirsten Brueggeman was last seen on surveillance video, walking in an Eastside area of Indianapolis, Indiana. After a night with friends ended in arguments, Kirstin was alone with no indication as to where she was heading. When she didn't show up for work the next day, her parents reported her missing to the police. There has been no sign of her since, with many believing that the answer to her disappearance could be found in a video glitch containing more than an hour of lost time. 

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It was just after midnight on May 19th, 1991 when Wendy McKee stood beside the Central Expressway in Dallas, Texas to hitch a ride. When Bill Robert Cathey pulled up, he seemed harmless enough, and willing to take her anywhere she wanted. No stranger to a troubled past, when Bill revealed that he was a police officer, Wendy was hoping that she would be in and out of the county jail by the next day. All this supposed cop had on her was the assumption that she had bought drugs inside the apartment building where he had taken her. Sitting in the passenger seat, Wendy was unaware that her entire life was about to change in a way she could have never seen coming. Because this isn't an arrest. It's a capture.

Mary Kreiser has been missing since October 1987, when she failed to show up to her daughter's house for Thanksgiving dinner. After being reported to the RCMP, further investigation would discover that the 49-year-old mother of five was last seen at a Petro Canada gas station over an hour away from her home the previous month. A proud member of Bigstone Cree Nation, it was completely unlike her to be out of touch and even though the RCMP has never officially named a suspect in the case, her family has a strong feeling that they know exactly who was involved in Mary's disappearance.

When 19-year-old Phyllis Jepleting of Nakuru, Kenya failed to get in touch with family during Christmas break while away at university, they immediately knew something was wrong. As authorities worked out a timeline for her last known whereabouts, suspicion would fall upon her boyfriend, Ezra, who had been the last person to see Phyllis alive. 

48-year-old Trina Hunt would seemingly vanish from her Port Moody home on January 18th, 2021. When her husband Iian returned home from work that day, he reported the suspicious disappearance. For weeks, police rescue crews and hundreds of volunteers would search the area for the missing woman, with no sight or sign of her. Finally, the investigation would switch to a homicide case when her body was discovered in Hope, two months later. Trina's murderer still has not been brought to justice, but the details of her last known whereabouts and the strange story that Iian Hunt told authorities would have the court of public opinion already sure of who was guilty. 

Tim Bliefnick made headlines back home in Quincy, Illinois after sharing a funny answer during an appearance on Family Feud in 2020. But this wouldn't be the last time that his name and face would be on national television. Just two years later, Rebecca and Tim Bliefnick would file for divorce. By 2023, Becky Bliefneck would be murdered and Tim would become the main suspect in the case. The once innocent game show moment would become evidence in the court of public opinion, causing everyone to wonder if there was more truth to this harmless joke that now seemed haunting.

It was August 2006 when Leicester police were called to the home of Jason Moore after a 999 call reported there had been a brutal stabbing. Upon arrival, they discovered a scene reminiscent of something straight out of horror film: two men covered in blood, with one of them wearing a five-bladed glove just like the fictional antagonist, Freddy Krueger. The community would be held in suspension at such a horrifying example of imitation. How much blame does art carry when it comes to imitation in life, and when does obsession become insanity?